First Response "Haunted America"

There were just a few things that caught my eye in this essay.

"Invaded or invader, conquered or conqueror, nearly every group had occassion to use terror as a memorable method of communication."

This kind of reminded me of our September 11 terrorist attack. It seems like that's both sides only mean of communication because after they hit our twin towers in new york, we just hit them back with violence by sending out troops over to Iraq to solve the terrorist attack. And now, because of that, anyone who's not flying can't go through security to see the person who is flying out off. That' sucks!

Another sentence that caught my attention was:

"Before they took up arms against each other, Indians and whites had to go through a substantial "getting to know you" phase. But, unlike the pattern in the musical The King and I," "getting to know you" in these situations often meant "getting to dislike you and distrust you," "getting to realize that, even though I thought I could use your presence for my benefit, it is not working out that way.""
Doesn't this remind anyone of our present time. It just seems to me like no one will help you out or befriend you unless they can benefit from it beause all society does not is look out for themselves and protect themselves - not help someone else in need.

One last thing that caught my attention was a bit funny. Just because of my original thought when I read it.

"It was not uncommon, after a massacre or vicious battle, to find a few soldiers or officers who were repelled by what they had seen or taken part in." "The loudest objections came from men and women far from the battlefield - humanitarians who registered their dismay and disapproved when they looked at the actions of the Army and hostile Western settlers. After the Civil War, these humanitarians coalesced as a significant history with real power. Army officers thus spent part of their time anticipating criticisms and denunciations from the humanitarians. These agents of Manifest Destiny could feel themselves to be besieged on all sides; constantly challenged and often outfoxed by the Indians, denounced by the Eastern humanitarians for their cruelty, and damned by Western settlers for their unwillingness to punish the Indians with proper harshness."

The reason I think it's a bit funny is because my original thought when I read this passage was "From the stories I've heard about the Vietnam War, this sounds exactly like what happened in this war". The reason it's funny is because as you read the rest of the essay Patricia references the Vietnam War quite a bit.