Terrorist Attack

Terrorist Attack The terrorist attacks on September 11th have repeatedly been related to Pearl Harbor. In many ways, the analogy is apparent. Just as that attack initiated us into World War II, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have initiated us into a new kind of war, against terrorism. But starting this sort of borderless war holds great risks, not only to the armed forces commanded to fight but also to core national values. In this way, Pearl Harbor brings other distressing memories, those of the internment.Similar to the explosions on the East Coast, the bombing of Pearl Harbor on 12-7, devastated our beliefs of national security. How could this have taken place? Average individuals, famous journalists, and government officials soon started criticizing at the Japanese in America. Viewing these "Orientals" as terminally foreign, speaking foreign languages, effect foreign cultures, active foreign religions (Shinto, Buddhism), American society could not differentiate between the Empire of Japan and Americans of Japanese crash.United StatesAs General DeWitt, in charge of the Western Defense Command, put it, "A Jap's a Jap." As government reports quickly to the wrapping up that Japanese Americans aided and supported the attack, the wheels of the internment machinery began revolving.On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which approved armed forces in the Western U.S. to issue no matter what orders were essential for national security. Although provoked by DeWitt's threateningly titled "Final Recommendation" for mass internment, the Order suitably made no declaration of race or ethnicity. In March, Congress criminalized insubordination of military rules issued pursuant to the executive order. By December, an well-organized, powerful military had determined nearly all Japanese on the West Coast into ten isolated camps, encircled by barbed wire and armed sentries. All this without the...

Famous First Lines of Novels

Famous First Lines of Novels The first lines of novels set the tone for the story to come. And when the story becomes a classic, the first line can sometimes become as famous as the novel itself, as the quotes below demonstrate. First-Person Introductions Some of the greatest novelists set the stage by having their protagonists describe themselves in pithy but powerful sentences. Call me Ishmael. - Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851) I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted  Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. - Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man  (1952) You dont know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of  Tom  Sawyer; but  that aint no matter. -  Mark Twain,  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn   (1885) Third-Person Descriptions Some novelists start by describing their protagonists in the third person, but they do it in such a telling way, that the story grips you and makes you want to read further to see what happens to the hero. He was an  old man  who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. -  Ernest Hemingway,  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹The Old Man and the Sea  (1952) Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. -  Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude​ Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing. -  Miguel de Cervantes,  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Don Quixote When  Mr.  Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton. - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955) Starting With It Some novels start out with such original wording, that you feel compelled to read on, though you remember that first line until you finish the book and long thereafter. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. - George Orwell, ​1984 (1949) It was a dark and stormy night ... . - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830) It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. - Charles Dickens, ​A Tale of Two Cities (1859) Unusual Settings And, some novelists open their works with brief, but memorable, descriptions of the setting for their stories. The sun shone, having no alternative. -  Samuel Beckett, Murphy (1938), There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it. - Alan Paton, ​Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. - ​William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)