"Model City," read the street sign.
Back in 1996, after being snowed out of our southern tier grouse country again, I was determined to find a release club where I could extend the season for my young American Water Spaniel “Bean.” That’s why I found myself driving down back roads in northern Erie and Niagara counties on that particular Sunday in February.
It was only lately that I began wondering about that street sign. “Model City” is a pretty grand designation for a quarter mile of country road sporting a post office at one end and a dump at the other.
When I Googled “Model City” the other day, this website covered it nicely in a paragraph or two. But as the story unfolded, Model City became a minor historical sideshow while the Lake Ontario Ordnance Works became its unfortunate and enduring focus. After reading the entire piece, I Googled "LOOW," and found several related websites. This one provides a strong personal perspective.
It's beyond sobering to read about the toxic mess still on and beneath local ground. But like Oscar Wilde, “I am not young enough to know everything.” I suspect that local residents were proud of their contributions to the war effort against enemies they believed were devils incarnate. American families lost more than 400,000 brothers, husbands and sons in WW II. My Mom had the chance to meet and date my Dad only after her fiancee, pilot Richard S., was shot down over the Pacific in his B-25 and later killed by the Japanese.
Every family that suffered such a painful, personal loss must have felt a linkage to and urgency for the war effort that would have been difficult to trump with "environmental concerns," had that even been a popular term in the 1940s. The websites' authors seem to have trouble understanding this. I'm reminded of what Anonymous said: "When you're up to you ass in alligators, it's real hard to remember that you're there to drain the swamp."
Cold Duck readers are invited to decide for themselves.
2 comments:
This is what comes to mind and its merely a pale comparison.
A crowd of family is surrounding a beautiful new bride who is all aglow in the moment dressed in her white wedding dress. A dress that her Mom, who had passed away, wore at her own wedding. Some clueless brute just has to point out that there is a small stain on an otherwise 'perfect' garment.
Attention is drawn to the fact and the poor bride's experience is tainted.
A country rising to the occasion to defeat a monster and prevent unimaginably worse atrocities--gee wiz.
That's scary stuff, Michael!
I worked at a nuclear research facility, and I know first hand of many of the evils and shortcuts..
When will we ever learn?
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