Richland Chamber of Commerce WELCOME TO RICHLAND. Plus, for your first 10 articles, youll be compensated by HQ at $10/response. In the 1980s the school became Richland High and adopted a new logo: a bright yellow capital R with a white mushroom cloud billowing up behind it. Just because I am upset about Japanese citizen lives lost does not mean that all my compassion is used up on one group of people. Interesting story of the evolution of the Richland Bombers mascot [13][14][15] Kellerman was a four-year starter at Idaho, a top ten team in 1982, and he was the Big Sky player of the year as a sophomore in 1981. Americans turned against nuclear power during the later 1970s and early 1980s. 2022-23 . Those two exams just stripped you of your pride. The high school is decorated with an absurdly large BOMBERS plastered on the side of the gym that can be seen from the opposite side of the Yakima River; atomic clouds litter the buildings; an over-sized, gaudy R-Cloud lays on the center of both gymnasiums. The town of Richland has stubbornly stuck to their pride in this symbol. The Electric Woman by (new pen name) James Scott ~ on Amazon. Washington's Top 50 high school football teams in 2022: Is this No. 18 However, in the 1950s the people residing in the vicinity of Hanford began pushing to have their voices heard, too. Richland Bomber logo, Pasco Council among Herald letters | Tri-City Herald The sights, sounds, and smells of a summer day in your hometown. Manhattan Project Medal (right) (Courtesy U.S. Department of Energy). Lets Not Talk About the Bad Things, Once again, I am reminded of Stanley Kubricks great film, Dr. Strangelove, and especially its subtitle, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The good doctor would feel quite at home in Richland. Hanford was the nation's main supplier of fissionable material for bombs as the Cold, War began and the United States decided to rely heavily on its nuclear arsenal. The shift in topic was near-automatic, like a switch shunting a train onto a different track. Everyone feels the desire for belonging and to fit in with the people around them. But in Richland, there is an interesting story about the high school's nickname and how people's opinions about it have changed over the years. Yet for many observers more distant from Hanford, the wastes were an all too enduring symbol of the history of Hanford and the Tri-Cities in the half-century after 1942. (The bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 was fueled by uranium produced at Oak Ridge.) 85, No. Their skin was dripping from their bodies.. And around the state, and the nation, there is a growing sentiment for schools with Native American mascots (Chiefs, Braves, Indians) to change their mascots. I also want to clarify that I am not making light of the American and ally lives lost. Your brain hurts. Today, Richlands plutonium days are behind it, but many residents are still proud of what their predecessors made here. She finally spoke up", "Another hoop crown for Richland quintet", "Richland tips Lewis & Clark to take Washington AA title", "Boys basketball: Richland High squad brings back memories of fabled '79 team", "Bombers claim third in state cage tourney", Richland School District honors and awards, "Trump picks retired Marine Gen. James Mattis for secretary of defense", "Ranking 2022 NCAA tournament men's basketball coaches as players, 1-68", "Ruemmler Started Out as Enron Prosecutor", dated 1 January 2011, "White House Counsel", dated 10 October 2014, "Richland grad called-up to the big leagues", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richland_High_School_(Washington)&oldid=1151385024, Mike Edwards (2022-23, Interim), The shift began in 1993, when the schools installed a mural in the courtyard depicting a B-17 from 1944 called Days Pay. The bomber was named by workers from Hanford who rallied together to donate one days wages to purchase a B-17 for the war effort. People who had life planned perfectly and people who were just winging it. Choose from thousands of products to decorate, including the newest Richland High School Bombers t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, jerseys, hats, long sleeve shirts, face masks, polos, shorts, sweatpants, and more. During my time abroad, we were encouraged not to wear athletic clothing to fit in with the European culture. I remember feeling relieved when I had a conversation with my boyfriend and he explained that he would love me regardless of what I wear (the only exception being the ill-fitting cat eye glasses I wore in high school but thats beside the point). Celebrating 15 Years in Business Additional development of the river, of hydroelectric power, and of regional farm resources was essential if the Northwest was to contribute as much as it should to American mobilization for the Cold War. I would like to preface this article by saying that I dont think Ive ever been known for my style, so take that as you will. But in Richland, there is an interesting story about the high schools nickname and how peoples opinions about it have changed over the years. They generally did not regard nuclear wastes as a desirable icon for local towns (although they did see "remediation" of those wastes as an economic opportunity). But he wont wear the R-Cloud mascot, and hes removed it from uniforms for the students he coaches. Not only will you gain valuable writing experience, but youll get to choose your own topics and write one response a week to one of our top trending articles. But Im not proud of the death and destruction brought by the bomb. The bombs changed humanitys relationship with technology, said Tim Connor, who was born in Hanford in the 1950s. Richland Bombers - Facebook Other nearby towns, including Pasco and Kennewick, had also expanded considerably beyond their 1940 size. Richland High is proud of mushroom cloud logo despite debate | Tri-City Thereafter, Washingtonians took pride in Hanford as one of their state's signal contributions to victory in World War II. Richland Bomber Boosters | Richland WA - Facebook Petersen also wrote River of Life, Channel of Death: Fish and Dams on the Lower Snake (Lewiston, ID: Confluence Press, 1995).] The paradoxical result was that the presence of the plutonium plantwhich dispensed a considerable amount of radioactivity to the cold, clear water prevented the damming of more than 50 miles of the river. The city has restaurants, bowling alleys, stores and coffee stands sporting terms like atomic, bomber and bunker. We really used our best and brightest to unlock the secrets of the atom that, in a way, still hold the world hostage to this incredible terror., But for Pierard, a 1959 local graduate with cloudy blue eyes and a long gray ponytail, the Bombers R-Cloud is an inspiring reminder of a time when Richland, in his mind, saved the world. In 2016 the school placed second in the state. I understand that. '83 - Richland Bombers Class of 1983This is a Public Group '84 - Richland High School (RHS) Bombers Class of 84This is a Public Group AND. Windshield stickers on cars in the area boast theres a Bomber inside. Hagley Museum and Library.). What do you see? My relationship to the bomb as image begins with my birth in Richland, Washington, in 1950, home of the Richland High School Bombers, where pretty cheerleaders still wear the logo of a mushroom cloud across their bosoms. My whole family got wiped out, she said. The title of an article previously cited here refers to the following quote: When workers did have qualms, they deferred to those they called The Men Who Know Best, the people in Congress and the Pentagon who gave the directives to make the weapons they fueled. Richland Bombers Limitless 1/4 Zip Hoodie $68.00. [A good summary of the politics behind the construction of dams on the lower Snake is Keith C. Petersen, "Battle for Ice Harbor: Fish, Navigation, and the Lower Snake River, 1948-1962," Pacific Northwest Quarterly 86 (Fall 1995): 178-88. Visit the Richland High School Spirit Wear Shop on Prep Sportswear today! BEAVERS ATOMS BOMBERS RESEARCH PROJECT, Richland High School: Home of the Bombers, Beyond Despair: An Imaginal Odyssey Into the Soul of Hiroshima, Fallout from Bushs Tactical Nukes on the American West, CNN Host Shockingly Blasts Teachers Union Boss Over School Closure Lies, Fox Newss Existential Crisis After Tucker Carlsons Firing and Audience Flees, with Buck Sexton, ABC News Admits It Censored RFK Jr. Interview For False Claims About Covid-19 Vaccines, Documenting the Greatest Crime in History, New Lyme Disease mRNA Vaccines Being Developed for Humans, How Not to Solve the Boys Wanting to Use the Girls Restroom Conundrum, The Gnostic Parasite I James Lindsay New Discourses, Nations Ditch Dollars Thats The Real Debt Ceiling. ), The creation of a plutonium factory left an enormous footprint on south-central Washington. The Richland Bombers were in agreement that the logo is awesome. Anonymous callers left threats. In the 1980s the school became Richland High and adopted a new logo: a bright yellow capital R with a white mushroom cloud billowing up behind it. 1 [January 1994], p.13. The Cold-War buildup at Hanford also increased the size of the growing metropolitan area known as the Tri-Cities. Over 200,000 men, women and children. Of course, the pride Richland has in the bomb may have its price, as there may be consequences for a town which has worked with radioactive poisons since 1944.3 I direct attention to the following article: My relationship to the bomb as image begins with my birth in Richland, Washington, in 1950, home of the Richland High School Bombers, where pretty cheerleaders still wear the logo of a mushroom cloud across their bosoms. Ridgefield Spudders or Camas Papermakers). For some, Richland Highs mascot embodies political incorrectness: a symbol that glorifies destruction and the deaths of innocents, a mark of hatred and fear. 1734 Oak Tree Road Edison, NJ. The Bombers were state champions in 1981, 1999, and 2017, and played in the title game in 1975, 1996, and 2016. After more than five decades of harnessing the river by building dams and dredging its bottom, of using it to cool atomic reactors and carry away radioactive wastes, it increasingly seemed like a good idea to try to leave the Columbia alone. If a student asks, hell talk about what he sees in the logo. It has known security flaws and a limited feature set. The nation needed "to develop every natural resource at its command," the Columbia Basin News opined. These existed but they do not make it OK to forget those whom lost their lives. Richland High School Bombers Apparel Store | Prep Sportswear During the 1950s Richland's annual summer festivalthe equivalent of Seattle's Seafairwas called Atomic Frontier Days. Youve finished packing and found out you passed all of your classes! The federal government took the lead in developing the site for the purpose of producing plutonium to use in nuclear weapons during and after World War II. The 1999 state champion team, led by future United States World Cup and gold medal-winning goalkeeper Hope Solo, was undefeated and ranked fourth in the nation. Construction of the three WPPSS reactors continued during the 1970s, fueling the local economy, but by 1982 it had become clear that nuclear power plants would not be an anchor for the future. There I grew up among my friends and their parents, workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the birthplace of the . It is time to shut up and actually do something about it. They called the donated aircraft Days Pay., In the 1990s, local newspapers reported that the Days Pay bomber, not the bomb itself, was the schools namesake. Fish and Wildlife Service, and that an 86,000-acre national wildlife refuge be created abutting the northern and eastern banks of the Hanford Reach. Proud of the Cloud, written on a mushroom cloud symbol, is what it says on Bomber Boosters memorabilia, which can be purchased online at: RHS Bomber Boosters Memorabilia. She sees the Nagasaki bomb as simply a part of Richlands history. Or President Bush? After the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, the people of Richland decided to show their pride in what they had helped to create. So, it should not surprise anyone that people somewhere worship this thing, which gibbers madly in the collective unconscious like H.P. In 2019, "Archie" a B-17 Ball Turret Gunner was named the first-ever character mascot at Richland High School. But these opportunities had closed by 1987, by which time plutonium production had ceased and decisions had been made not to import nuclear wastes from out of state. Always expecting to be on the cutting edge of nuclear technology, Tri-City residents were consistently disappointed by the twists and turns that the atomic age took. 5 talking about this. There I grew up among my friends and their parents, workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the birthplace of the plutonium bomb later dropped upon the city of Nagasaki, Japan, an incendiary device which killed 70,000 human beings. Change Richland High School's mascot from 'Bombers' back to 'Beavers' As a writer for Odyssey, youll have the opportunity to share your voice with our community of readers from all over the world. #exploreRichland - Bombers Baseball : Richland CityView - Archive WWII was horrific and terrifying and one of the darkest experiences that has ever happened on this earth. The school is now part of the Richland School District. "The West is the last economic frontier. Not at all.. Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest - University of Washington If we truly wanted to celebrate our contributions, we would focus on celebrating scientific and engineering accomplishments that have occurred at Handford that didn't directly cost thousands of people their lives. Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy. Cold War symbols pervade the state of Washington. However, we don't celebrate the American lives lost but we do celebrate the Japanese deaths. 64 were here. In light of the harm done by dams to fisheries along the Columbia, or by radioactive releases from Hanford to nearby ecosystems, there emerged among people in the Pacific Northwest a sense that efforts to industrialize and militarize the Columbia had been somewhat shortsighted, even a little arrogant, in their confidence in the blessings that science and industry could wring from nature. At first, I felt pressured to wear the same, their matching sets, bike shorts, crop tops, and more. In 1943 and 1944 the Army and its lead contractor, the DuPont company, built three production reactors and two processing buildings in which plutonium was purified. I sit; prisoner to my own body. Perhaps the Cold War would endure at Hanford in the form of productive reactors. Senator Henry M. Jackson (D, WA) introduced a bill to this effect in 1956, and ten years later the dual-purpose N Reactor was completed at Hanford. Founder, Artistic Director, and horn player of New York Philomusica. The RHS mascot glorifies violence and ignores the tragedy our contributions caused. Thats our community. A symbol representing that kind of destruction is not a proper mascot for a public high school; also, it is insensitive and demaning towards the civilians that died in Japan from the nuclear bombs that were dropped. See more petitions: Education Sign Petition First Name Last Name Email Country Afghanistan Aland Islands Albania Algeria Tears fall from my face the same way petals fall from wilted flowers. bomberfootball.org: Richland Bomber Football At LogoLynx.com find thousands of logos categorized into thousands of categories. The economic future once more appeared bleak, with problems compounded by the fact that Senator Magnuson had failed to win re-election in 1980 and Senator Jackson died in 1983. MAXPREPS; CBSSPORTS.COM; 247SPORTS; B. With its ties to the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb, Richland High changed the name of its team from the Beavers to the Bombers in 1944. Join our team and let's create something amazing together! This photograph is the artist's conception of what it would look like. You may even be procrastinating right now while you read this article! Prep Sportswear is not affiliated with the Richland High School Bookstore or the RHS Bookstore. Shirley Olinger sees sides to the Bomber debate that few others can. In 1944, the first reactor began operation at the Hanford Project. Poster for 1948 Atomic Frontier Days (right). But theres no symbol more prominent in Richland than the high schools R-Cloud, which hangs floor-to-ceiling on the side of the cafeteria. Shop Richland High School Bombers apparel, clothing, spirit wear, gear, and merchandise at the Richland High School Spirit Shop on prepsportswear.com. And she dances. To sign up, email glorie@theodysseyonline.com. The browser or device you are using is out of date. From a young age, girls are introduced to a culture where they are expected to dress to impress specifically the men around them. This was part of the Manhattan Project. Overall record: 106-45. While Washington, D.C., still called the truly important shots at Hanford, the people of Washington state began to feel that their voice could be heard, too, in planning Hanford's future. RICHLAND, Wash. The workers inside Hanfords nuclear reactors in the early 1940s knew their jobs were important, even if many of them didnt know why. I certainly dont run around carrying a picket sign saying, Down with the cloud! Qualheim said. Lets stop the thing about where the name Bombers came from be proud whether it was Days Pay or the A-bomb, I am proud of either and/or both Bud Row (47), (33). But she continues to sway from one direction to the next, while I cannot seem to remember how to move. Both the boys' and girls' team were state champions in 2003. submitted to the Washington Public Power Supply System an engineering report covering the Hanford Electric Generating Project (left). Keep up with Richland High School sports with football jerseys, baseball jerseys, and Bombers fan apparel for baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, volleyball, and more.
