Da Bomb

On July 16, 1945, at 5:30 in the morning, something horrific happened in the desert of Alamogordo, New Mexico. The Manhattan Project was the U.S. Army’s code for the undertaking that launched our civilization into the nuclear age. Oddly enough, the detonation of the first atomic bomb by the United States on that Monday morning was given the theological name of the Trinity test.

Twelve hours later and 2057 miles east on the isle of Manhattan in New York, another project was launched. Me! But, leave it to the Catholics to cast a shadow of gloom on even the happiest of occasions. All newborns come into the arms of their devout Catholic mothers with the burden of sin—Original Sin. This is, of course, cleansed away with the baptismal basin ritual. The Catholics are big on rituals and are the consummate experts on sin.

I have often thought that the truest sin that day was in Alamogordo. It was far worse than that of a newborn in Manhattan. The bomb set in motion the bonafide terror of a global war machine capable of destroying the Earth. Perhaps that is why Catholics are so hell-bent on making sure we do all the rituals that rid us of sin and clear our path to Heaven. It is sort of an eternal do-over after we screwed it up down here.