Thank you for recognizing here, here, and here, what the front page of BoomanTribune did not.
In the current atmosphere of George Bush’s nuclear threats and an American foriegn policy that is inching us all toward nuclear Armageddon, it saddens me and angers me that the majority of Americans, including those who call themselves progressives have failed, once again, for the most part to recognize the anniversarry of two of history’s foulest war crimes. The exceptionalist murders of 200,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Except for two obscure references buried within frontpage diaries:
Booman, in this diary
We’re back to that 1940’s brand of moral clarity that allowed us to bomb the hell out of civilians to supposedly break the back of the enemy. Never mind that it didn’t work, how’s this for moral clarity?
and StevenD in this diary,
Why Nukes?
why should that war involve nuclear weapons, however? Because of simple economics and also the desire to once again intimidate potential adversaries. Much as Truman used Hiroshima and Nagasaki to send a message to Stalin, Bush will be tempted to employ nuclear weapons in Iran to send a message to other Islamic countries, and to Russia and China, that we not only have the means to use b=nukes, but that we also have the will to let the nuclear genie out of the bottle.
there’s been nothing regarding the vaporization of civilians in America’s “good war”. And Steven, I love your take on things, but the genie is already out of the bottle. We let it out 61 years ago. Harry Truman may have had the intimidation of future adversaries in mind, but George Bush has the End Times in mind.
One of the most popular fiction series making the rounds these days is the Left Behind series written by Tim LaHaye & Jerry Jenkins. Multiple millions of people are reading these books which fictionalize the end of life as we know it. It used to be that the Church could control people through the fear of eternal damnation. Today it is through fear of the future. The theology is basically this: The Bible is a code book that when rightly interpreted reveals that we are living at the end of history. History is scripted and is about to come to a catastrophic conclusion. The only hope is to accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior so that you can be “saved” from the future apocalypse. God will “snatch you up” (Rapture) right before a seven year series of horrible events that will see the rise of Antichrist and the rebuilding of the Jewish temple. There will be world war with most of humanity dying. At that point Jesus will return to restore law and order. This theology of despair “fits” our current culture of powerlessness and fear. From SARS to weapons of mass destruction to the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict, to ecological collapse, the whole world seems to be on a “no exit” slide into an end times abyss. The theology of despair is very seductive. It is shaping the spirituality of Christians which provides a strong core from which Bush draws political strength.
While people argue whether or not Norwegians are guilty of complacency, or who is an anti-semite or not, the lessons of what happens when powerful nations with moral certitude behind them decide who is an acceptable casualty and who is not, are staring us in the face……
George Bush has made it clear that all options are on the table, and we should know by now that that moron means what he says.
I tell you what, Ned Lamont might make a good Senator, but he isn’t gonna have shit to say if George follows form and squeezes off a couple of nukes on Iran or even North Korea.
I don’t mean to discount the good work that’s been done here in the past. But right now, when it looks like Bush wants to take us back to the future, a little more attention to history is in order. And a little more attention to what’s at stake for the world, not just democrats or Americans.
I’ve been thinking about Hiroshima and Nagasaki for a week now and I still feel bile rising in my throat at what was done and due to madmen running the country might very well happen again-hard to fathom what kind of sick mind like bush’s can so blithely talk about ‘all options being on the table’….the depravity runs deep in this administration.
Me too…me too.
I saw almost nothing in the media about the anniversarry. Actions, or inactions, speak louder than words. Horrors forgotten and ignored are horrors ripe for repeating.
Thanks
p.s. with a smile
:o) Can I request that you not make me into something I’m not? Superman? I got the willies bad with that one Lol!
Well the ‘superman’ just fits for me..although I really don’t mean it in a you’re so perfect kinda way…I rarely if ever really put people on any kind of pedestal..it’s more from your writing that I see you as very real compassionate human being who struggles with life’s problems yet has the heart and mind to reach out with great empathy to others..that makes you pretty super and you are a man, sooooooooo
you are indeed a super man…better than the examples of “masculinity” we have in this current misAdministration… š
Your caring for other people — family, friends, fellow bloggers — is to be commended…
It’s an odd-numbered anniversary (61), when us humans prefer to think in terms of semi-round numbers (50, 60, 70). Add to that the pressure of current events in the Middle East, and we have The Possibility That Must Not Be Named. Sort of like, if we don’t talk about it, it’ll go away.
But I wonder if somewhere in the subconcious, it affected some people — the spouse night before last had a nightmare about standing outside and seeing a mushroom cloud in the distance…
You’re so right. This was an anniversary we all should have heeded. There should have been documentaries, and specials. What a horrible moment in history, now swept under the carpet, almost as if it never happened.
Btw – did you see “Who Stole the Electric Car?” In there, they showed the ads supposedly used to promote the car. One of the ads looked like something out of Hiroshima. I read somewhere that the blast was so intense that human silouhettes were literally burned into cement in places. That’s what the ad “for” the electric car looked like. (Clearly, they were trying to scare people away from the cars. CLEARLY.) But it was sad that the only place I saw a visual reminder was in something not even remotely related to Hiroshima.
Here’s one of those silouhette’s you read about. This person was vaporized except for their shadow, that remained for years.
AS far as I’m concerned dropping nuclear weapons on Japan, destroying entire cities full of innocent civilians and decimating centuries of culture, ranks up with the worst unthinkable war crimes committed during WWII. OK. Now I said it. There was no excuse. No justification. None.
There can never be any moral justification for wiping out entire cities, or trying to wipe out entire races of people the way Hitler did. Crimes of morality are still crimes, whether recognized by weighted international laws or not.
Thanks for commenting.
never. never. never.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002950982
I was reading about George Weller, the first reporter in Nagasaki after the bombing. Most of his stories he wrote at the time were sanitized or destroyed. After his death in 2002, his son, going through his father`s archives found carbon copies of his father`s supressed work including pictures. Parts were published last year, but the rest of these documents are due out in book form this Dec. with in intro by Walter Cronkite. It is edited & explained by Weller`s son Anthony Weller.
When reading about this man`s experiences as the “First Into Nagasaki”
{the title of the book], I was stuck by the reasons Weller`s reports were supressed.
If you have a chance to look at this article, I think the link above should help you locate it.
I also would have thought, especially in these times, that more would have been posted about this historical incident, or maybe that was by design, in the msm, that is.
BTW, I hope you & your family are doing well.
I’m glad to hear that Weller’s reports are finally seeing the light of day.
This struck me the most:
It’s called the TRUTH. Something that is still missing from American consciousness. See no evil……
Btw, my family is hanging in there. Thanks for asking.
ss
thank YOU, for helping us pay witness to this crime, and to the crimes we seem hell-bent to commit.
I quail at our willful ignorance as a people, and shudder at the thought of the years to come.
Thank you for adding your voice to the chorus.
As far as I know, this country is the only one still threatening to use these weapons as a tool of war. Even preemptively. That these things are even being uttered is evidence of failure to recognize our responsibility to the world as the one’s who uncorked that bottle.
Thanks
You make a very good point.
Thank you also for the very interesting ‘End Times’ link to the article about GWB and the rise of Christian fascism. Helped to explain for me a bit more about the background reasons for American exceptionalism.
Thanks,
I’ll never understand the grace and cultural peacefullness that defines post war Japan. I think that the totality of the abomination they suffered must have struck deeper than any of us could ever know, having never had to suffer such things. But if our arrogance continues much longer we might very well be forced into that condition ourselves.
Thanks
I don’t understand it either and I’ve often wondered about it. If the situations were reversed we would still be steeped in vengeance.
I don’t know…
You could be right. Up until that point, Japan had a long history of being a warlike culture. They commited their own crimes against the Chinese and Koreans too. I just can only imagine that the unimaginable power of destruction that was unleashed on them must have profoundly seered into their souls the utter futility and waste of war.
I think you’re right. It must be like dying and coming back – you can’t possibly explain it to others.
BooMan, Can this be promoted to the fp? Thanks, SS.
You’re kidding right? ;o) It’s Lamont day, seriously.
This doesn’t need frontpaging, though I appreciate the request.
yup, why let some much-needed reflection and self-examination get in the way of enjoying a good old-fashioned horse race?
I agree, but I was serious in my comment to Boran2. The time for recognizing this on the frontpage was Saturday and Monday. This guy LaMont winning is a good thing, if even just a small step in the right (less to the right) direction.
I’m not much into PA politics but it seems to be an important indicator of just how pissed off Americans in general, and Democrats in particular, are about the Iraq war. In that case it has huge implications for the midterms and whether we can in fact begin to DO something about it instead of feeling like frightened passengers in an out of control taxi.
I mean CT politics. š
Yeah,
I’m the worlds worst back seat driver :o)
if he doesn’t win I hope the newly awakened voters in CT continue to agitate for change.
An engaged electorate is our only hope.
Thanks for this, Super. As long as governments want to wage wars, that’s how long they’ll try to keep the truth from the people.
I saw a show last night on the History channel (I think) that told about how the US confiscated a German Uboat filled with nuclear material bound for Japan during WW2 just 11 days before we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. It was to be used by Japan with a large conventional bomb and could have caused thousands of US deaths by radiation poisoning. They even suggested that this incident pushed Truman’s hand. I wonder if this incident was accurately portrayed or if it was propaganda timed to coincide with this horrible anniversary in an attempt to throw whitewash on an atrocity.
We can never allow ourselves to forget. Ever.
Do you know why there was not much attention given to the anniversary of the first atomic mass murders?
Because it pales in significance beside our current possibilities.
Those bombs were just popguns relative to the firepower that resides underground, beneath the seas and in the air at present. And no one…NO ONE…wants to be reminded of the apparent potential death sentence under which we all live.
We have elected madmen to lead us to the slaughterhouse, and we are ashamed.
So we look away and try to continue to lead a “normal” life.
The idea of the fire next time is too much to bear, so we repress the memory of the original sin.
We are afraid and we are ashamed.
As well we should be.
Later…if there IS such a thing. (It could end now. Or now. Or now or now or now or now or now… I do not know how we bear that knowledge. The horror. The shame. I do not understand how we can bear it.)
AG
People close to me wonder sometimes why I immerse myself in all the ugliness, shame, fear. They think I’m shortening my life! I do understand that for many it’s not something they can bear to see. But what we have to bear compared to what others have borne at our hands is a small price to pay for awareness. It’s my responsibility as a human to remember. It’s my responsibility to recall the past so I might, in some miniscule way, help to avoid it reaccuring in the future.
How can we bear it? My question is, have we the right to not bear it?
Thanks
I too am saddened and angered that people are not writing about all of the many things I feel they should be writing about at exactly the time I feel they should be writing about them. What disappointments.
Not sure if you’re being sarcastic here or not. My view of you is that you wouldn’t be sarcastic about something as monumental to Earth history as those events. I’m not saddened and angered that people aren’t writing what I want them to, exactly when I want them too. I’m kinda appalled that these threats to our existence and their history weren’t mentioned. I said nothing about what I want exactly, at the time I want them. If that were the case I’d be asking where the posts are about Cindy Sheehan buying 5 acres of land in Crawford and the beginning of Camp Casey III.
Or something like Sunday morning Jazz posts from frontpagers.
I want some Goddamned Pandas alright? Can you just take care of that for me?
I’m SNATCHING that one, CabinGirl š Thanks š
I’m being a bit sarcastic, but not about the bombings Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Forgive me if my reading comprehension is not what it should be, but I really didn’t read this post and come away feeling as though it was about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the potential for future use of nuclear weapons. Rather, I came away with the impression that it was about the fact the front page writers on this site didn’t write about Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the anniversaries of their destruction. You write “I’m not saddened and angered that people aren’t writing what I want them to, exactly when I want them too. I’m kinda appalled that these threats to our existence and their history weren’t mentioned.” I’m struggling a bit not to read that as circular logic. I need you to walk me along a bit further here, because right now I don’t understand.
The dropping of atomic weapons on Japan have to rank right up there at the top as some of the most life changing events in history. There is the potential for an extinction event. That’s pretty big, no? That 200,000 people were obliterated in two days is pretty big, no? We have a madman for a president right now who is not so discreetly threatening to use them again for the first time in over 60 years. That’s big, no? I could even tie it in with Lamont being an anti-war candidate, who opposes Bush’s war in Iraq and coming war with Iran, the nation he’s threatening to use nukes on. Lamont’s gotten plenty of coverage here recently, as he should. All I’m saying is that in the midst of all this support for an anti-war candidate, I think it’s pretty sad that no one could do a frontpage diary about the anniversarry of these events. Especially when Bush is waving his bunker busters all over the place. It’s pretty simple from my perspective. I don’t think it was too much to expect.
My post was about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But it was also about not losing sight of the real danger Bush and the republicans pose and what it is that everyone, including Lamont, is fighting against. I think those events are more relevent now than they ever have been in the past. It’s not about deterrants anymore. It’s about preemptive strikes with the potential to unleash a war this planet might not survive. Or at least it’s current inhabitants.
Pointing all of that out is the responsibility of the frontpagers because they are the public face of this blog, no?
Actually I don’t think so Super, I think people cover what they can, write about what they can and do the best they can, either fp or anywhere else…
Plus I think you will find that diaries in rec. list get just as much attention as do front page ones if not more. I usually don’t see the front page that much, because I check rec. list and recent comments mostly. If a comment leads me to fp then I can end up there.
Thanks for your comment Diane,
but I disagree.
I think if there were no coverage of the Lamont/ Lieberman primary today, I would be justified in criticizing the front pagers of a progressive blog for not covering events that are relevent to our causes. There is a responsibility, otherwise I doubt Booman would be as careful about who he invites to frontpage here and why they are all of such a high caliber. In that case, anyone could just write what they wanted to, all day, regardless of relevent news and events. The diaries may get more attention from you and others. And still others might gravitate to the frontpage as their main interest. But the frontpage does set the tone and stride of the overall blog. Otherwise why not eliminate it and make it all diaries, all the time? A free for all.
Good points Super. My experience is that you can write all you want about robust nuclear earth penetrators, even providing easy to understand animations, and nobody gives much of a fuck. But whatever, I’m not the guy to provide a sense of urgency. I try from time to time, but that’s not in the cards, so for the most part, I don’t even play.
I’m sure you know this, and I don’t mean to be patronizing, but nobody who visits this site needs Boo or Steve or Albert or me to tell them about what it means when a nation deploys nuclear weapons on a civilian population. If they really don’t get it, where the hell do you go with them? I tend to think you don’t bother. If you know of an alternative, tell me and I’ll be happy to give it a try.
I don’t do anniversaries and I don’t do commemorations. Not ever. Not in my personal life (where I can help it) and certainly not on blogs. This medium, in my personal estimation, is ill suited to memoriam.
If you expect that I should be able to add something to the millions of voices who have already spoken about what happened 61 years ago, then you expect more of me than you will ever get. If you expect that I will try, you will be disappointed in me. Madman and Janet had something to write about what happened 61 years ago, and I admire them for it. I’m not there. Not today. I’m not at a point in my life where I can get my head around 200,000 dead people.
A lot of us give a fuck Chris, even when so many don’t. I guess my expectations were too high. As my expectations for a lot of things I wish more of us could be doing are too high. And you’re far from alone in not being able to wrap your head around 200,000 dead innocents. My skull stretches and warps into freaky shapes all the time. But I think we have a responsibility to try to get our heads around it because a repeat is becoming more and more possible every day.
Thanks for your comments
I know a lot of us give a fuck Super. I most certainly do. Give me some material that you think will cut through the flame wars and the 4000 other things people have on their minds right now and I’ll go with it. I really will. Since I joined the Booman Tribune as a front page writer, I’ve been contacted via email just once. That was to let me know that I’m a stupid person and a bad writer who doesn’t deserve shit. That’s fine, of course, but if you think that I need to pay attention to something, the line is open. Use it.
Thank you for your comments as well.
The other day I got a rape threat via email. That if our troops pull out they, the writer, hope that all codepinkers get raped.
It was pretty ugly..
I get about two of those a week. “you dont deserve them fighting for your freedom, I hope you die”… typical email.
I’ll try to send you an email depicting my thanks for the Panda Posts š
Jesus. Forget about the pandas please, and let’s talk about legal action. I’m in the middle of a harassment situation myself and it’s left me a total wreck for the last few weeks. I’m very sorry for your troubles. Nobody is threatening to rape me, but the person has been going after me and my family in ways I could never have imagined. I can’t see my way out at the moment. Most stalkers are bright enough not to include actual threats of violence in their communication, though it seems yours is not. There are legal remedies available. Please, please, please consider taking them. I’d like to help you find representation. Please contact me if you’d like.
Thanks, I was able to pass it on to the CodePink people who handle that stuff. There’s a website that asks people to TARGET codePink people.. and “PUNISH” them as traitors. They take photos of pinkers and everything. This country is so much about hate…
I did have a stalker… for ten years. Eventually he even went after my parent’s finances… bank got involved, but the police said they couldn’t do anything untill he hurt me. But MONEY… whoa that was different.
I hope your situation clears up. Please let us know how we can hellp, support you and your loved ones.
Or should I say, Super Diary?! Returning online, it seems like it’s been weeks since I’ve been here, and I know it’s only been, what…two days?
Anyway…we spent 8/6 at the UN building where this anniversary was touched on just so briefly. Our tour guide was wonderful but I can tell it’s a tricky job because you never know who you might offend by telling the truth.
We didn’t see Guernica.
Surprise of all surprises, of course. I was looking forward to seeing it. We were told that it was on the second floor where only delegates have access.
And another thing–oops, I did say “one” didn’t I???–the building is nice but could use renovating. The seats in the balcony area of general assembly and security council look like they date back to the 50s.
Another thing I noticed: there were all kinds of visitors to the UN, and they all took pictures beside the portrait of Secy-Gen Kofi Annan. Even if most visitors to NY even thought about venturing to the UN building, we’d never take a picture by Annan’s portrait. Better to wave and scream like a bunch of idiots outside of the Today show. We took the nieces to the Rockefeller Center, but there are some things AP & Hubby must put our collective “foot down” about. :<) Luckily, they only asked about it once.
I saw the original of Guernica last summer when I was in Madrid. I sat in front of it for at least 1/2 hour, writing out my thoughts on my laptop which I was able to bring in with me (you can’t do that in the Prado, unfortunately.)
What’s wild is seeing all the preliminary sketches – which choices lived, which got twisted and changed along the way, which were abandoned. The journey for Picasso was truly amazing.
War is really so horrible. I wish television would bring it right into people’s living rooms so they’d have to live with it the way others around the world do. It’s really horrific.
And shame on me for implying that seeing something on TV is like living it – you know (I hope) that’s not really what I meant. I meant we should have SOME experience of it. Of course, the people in the war torn areas are living that hell. I just think if people had to watch it, it would turn their stomachs and make them confront their own morality, and then maybe, just maybe, things would change.
No problem. For so many people, nothing is “real” unless it’s broadcast on the teevee.
((Sigh)) El Museo del Prado. One day we shall visit.
Ever since I was a little girl two things have made me realize that the world is a horribly, dark place. No, it’s not the stranger danger, or monsters under the bed…
Two things.
The Holocaust and Hiroshima/Nagasaki.
The Holocaust, the torture, experiments, the rounding people up, shooting people in lines along mass graves. “Just following orders”… no one standing up to stop the atrocity. Just following orders… going along to get along. I think this is why supporting war resisters like Lt. Watada is so important to me.
Hiroshima/Nagasaki. The fact that we dropped two weapons of mass destruction on cities still makes me shake with anger, shame and shock.
I wrote about them because due to the WarMonger Administration have brought up the use of nuclear weapons. All options are on the table… this man is a crazy mofo.. bent on destroying as much as he can while he can. The fascism, rapturism aside…
Nuclear war is no longer just my childhood nightmare… both my kids are worried about it.
My Gawd, pre-emptive nuclear strikes.. THINK ABOUT THAT!!!! I have been staying out of the political race threads and articles because I simply right now don’t even have enough faith in my country or countrymen that there will even be an “election”. I fear that there will be another vacation surprise… but regardless even if we do have a vote… it’s not like they’ll be counted correctly anyways. I’ll still vote, but I’m first off going to try to STOP the WAR and the NEXT WAR.
We can not look ahead if we don’t remember.
I worry that so much is too late. I see so much of the apathy in this country, the exceptionalism. I mean, skin was peeling off little girls who survived the initial blast… we see horrible photos today of Abu Ghraib, Lebanese babies dead in the dirt… and so many on our shores say… it’s in our best interest. Or “War is hell, get over it”.
Or the foulest… “they’re doing their job”
We may not have a long future ahead… but while I still have time on this planet I want my children to be aware, awake and living as if War was not an option. In peace and seeking peace for all.
The scariest, most vivid dream I’ve ever had was riding a barren trolley through a post-nuclear landscape. The faces of people were so hollow – beyond emotion. Spent. The landscape looked like Mars – reddish, desert. I was on a trolley to nowhere, and the nightmare lives with me to this day. I don’t ever want to see that become a reality, not for anyone on the planet. NEVER.
WHY LIVERMORE NUCLEAR WEAPONS LAB?*
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is one of the three national laboratories that act as the brain of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, which today is modernizing and developing new nuclear weapons to support U.S. wars of empire.
*WHY BECHTEL?
Bechtel has recently partnered with the University of California to manage the Los Alamos National laboratory, another key nuclear weapons facility, and will most likely bid for Lawrence Livermore. Bechtel is one of the world’s top nuclear profiteers, built upon an extensive history of abusing indigenous populations for profit.
WHY NOW?
The culture of fear that surrounds nuclear weapons and even their suspected presence creates war and destruction. With respect to Iran enriching uranium, President Bush has continually stated that, “All
options are on the table.” The paranoia over the possibility that Iran could develop a nuclear weapon a decade from now should be turned inward. The U.S. is even now designing new nuclear weapons in direct
violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty while hypocritically pushing for another illegal war and possible nuclear strike against a sovereign nation. On August 6^th and 9^th , we will take our voices to the people who design and profit from human suffering. We demand an end to U.S. nuclear weapons development, production and testing. We demand
an end to wars of empire and an end to nuclear excuses for war.
In Iraq, they never found nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, yet the daily reality of death and destruction rages on, sparked by the Bush Administration’s invasion and fueled by the ongoing U.S. military occupation. A majority of people in this nation now oppose the war, but the White House and most members of Congress are resisting the only
solution to the crisis: bring the troops home immediately. We will send our message loud and clear to decision-makers and the public at large:
End the war in Iraq, No war with Iran or North Korea, End the threat of nuclear annihilation! – from Portland IndyMedia post
NO NUKES! NO WARS!
For more information, go to http://www.august6.org/bay_area
This reminded me of my first political activity I ever engaged in. I went with a group of students from college out to the Nevada Test site, on Easter, to protest the atomic tests.
Daniel Ellsberg met us there, and spoke to us.
Men in black hung out of the back of a truck, capturing our faces.
Security guards with radiation monitors on their lapels talked to us, unconcerned at the high exposure they had already received. Tragic.
And the desert. My God, what a beautiful place. If you’ve never seen the desert in spring, well, you haven’t fully lived yet. The sparseness of the overall landscape makes colors pop. The tiniest flower becomes an amazing centerpiece. Beautiful reds and magentas and golds and periwinkles and purples. Birds chirping. Wind caressing the sand as it blows, unimpeded by roads or wires across the natural curves of the planet. It was really so spectacular.
It was so horrible to think that death was being planned there, in a land that was at that moment showing the regenerative side of nature.
My friend was just there… did you know that the testing land was stolen from a reservation. They killed their livestock, poisoned the children… and now the only way to stop the nuke testing there is to try and show that the land isn’t even the governments. ACK.
So not only is it bad they are testing on that area… but they stole it outright.
Doesn’t that just figure?
Didn’t they move people off a reservation in Arizona or somewhere because they discovered Uranium on the reservation and wanted the land back?
American history is pretty barbaric, when it comes right down to it!
Here’s a good article addressing the uranium issue and the Nevada Test Site/Shoshone issue:
http://ncseonline.org/nae/docs/knudsen.html
OMG!!!
thank you
There was a No Nukes protest at the other big terrorist nuke lab, Lockeheed Martin in Colorado.
from the rocky mtn peace and justice site… from this weekend
“Gathering at foot of the world’s largest military contractor’s operation in Colorado, to grieve for the horrific loss of life in Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a result of the U.S. Government’s dropping of atomic bombs in 1945.” then they give directions…
and one side note: “Note: Dogs are not permitted on this part of the Colorado Trail — a good thing, given chemical and radioactive contamination of creeks and other surface water in the vicinity.”