For me there were none of the gradations between public and private society so normal to a maturing child. Outside the house was public society; inside the house was private. Just opening or closing the screen door behind me was an important experience. I'd rarely leave home all alone or without reluctance. Walking down the sidewalk, under the canopy of tall trees, I'd warily notice the — suddenly — silent neighborhood kids who stood warily watching me. Nervously, I'd arrive at the grocery store to hear there the sounds of the gringo — foreign to me — reminding me that in this world so big, I was a foreigner. But then I'd return. Walking back toward our house, climbing the steps from the sidewalk, when the front door was open in summer, I'd hear voices beyond the screen door talking in Spanish. For a second or two, I'd stay, linger there, listening. Smiling, I'd hear my mother call out, saying in Spanish (words): 'Is that you, Richard?' All the while her sounds would assure me: You are home now; come closer; inside. With us.

I am tempted now to say that none of this mattered. In adulthood I am embarrassed by childhood fears. And, in a way, it didn't matter very much that my parents could not speak English with ease. Their linguistic difficulties had no serious consequences. My mother and father made themselves understood at the county hospital clinic and at government offices. And yet, in another way, it mattered very much — it was unsettling to hear my parents struggle with English. Hearing them, I'd grow nervous, my clutching trust in their protection and power weakened.

During those years when I was first conscious of hearing, my mother and father addressed me only in Spanish; in Spanish I learned to reply. By contrast, English (ingles), rarely heard in the house, was the language I came to associate with gringos. I learned my first words of English overhearing my parents speak to strangers. At five years of age, I knew just enough English for my mother to trust me on errands to stores one block away. No more.

Many years later there is something called bilingual education — a scheme proposed in the late 1960s by Hispanic-American social activists, later endorsed by a congressional vote. It is a program that seeks to permitnon-English-speaking children, many from lower-class homes, to use their family language as the language of school. (Such is the goal its supporters announce.) I hear them and am forced to say no: It is not possible for a child — any child — ever to use his family's language in school. Not to understand this is to misunderstand the public uses of schooling and to trivialize the nature of intimate life — a family's 'language.'

To hold up this book as a paradigm of memoir, of thought — of literature — is akin to inviting doctors convicted of malpractice to instruct our medical students.

- in response to a question about Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle - our teacher pulled out a lab laser and instructed us to fire it down the hallway!

many

many public schools

and learning

Many of our world’s greatest CEOs, political figures, and artists

many industries

I encourage you to read more about this here. 

that you should at the same time be found guilty of that most criminal act which you professedly detested in others 40 with respect to yourselves

sir

The issue is, do we think that parents should have 24/7, essentially authoritarian control over their children from ages zero to 18?

Bartholet notes that some of these parents are “extreme religious ideologues” who question science and promote female subservience and white supremacy.

not one of the 50 states requires that homeschooling parents be checked for prior reports of child abuse

“but if you look at the legal regime governing homeschooling, there are very few requirements that parents do anything.”

but may keep them from contributing positively to a democratic society.

their right to be protected from potential child abuse

violates children’s right to a “meaningful education”

sees risks for children—and society—in homeschooling, and recommends a presumptive ban on the practice.

doesnot work for North Korea due to its rather unique socioeconomic position.

At the moment

With the exception of children and camp inmates, every NorthKorean is a member of a state organization,” (NK News) giving the regime great control over thelives of its daily citizens.

With

One of them

for example

Why, then, has the US’s nonproliferation tactics worked for Russia but not for NorthKorea?

Incomparison to the sluggish efforts in North Korea

As of now

Since then

for example

for good reason

This begs the question

However

in particular

Worse yet

Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave?” So the supercomputer HAL pleads with the implacable astronaut Dave

Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski

here is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come

But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house?

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary.

And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House.

Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstranceshave produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne!

re fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging.

sk yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land.

shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve.

of what is, and yet not be able to deduct from that what should be the goal of our human aspirations.

unreconcilable conflict between knowledge and belief.

What humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the inquiring constructive mind

ncomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind

larger-than-life

Even days before his death on April 18, 1955, he wrote his last signed letter to the philosopher Bertrand Russell expressing his intention to sign a joint manifesto insisting that all nations renounce nuclear weapons

Zionist

also as outspoken in the political aren

But Pat and I have the satisfaction that every dime that we have got is honestly ours.

how for it? This will surprise you because it is so little. I suppose as standards generally go of people in public life

audience, a complete financial history, everything I have earned, everything I have spent and everything I own, and I want you to know the facts.

Price Waterhouse & Co. firm, and the legal opinion by Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher, lawyers in Los Angeles, the biggest law firm, and incidentally, one of the best ones in Los Angeles

And I would like to tell you this evening that just an hour ago we received an independent audit of this entire fund.

I am proud of the fact that not one of them has ever asked me for a special favor. I am proud of the fact that not one of them has ever asked me to vote on a bill other than my own conscience would dictate. And I am proud

Let me say, incidentally, that my opponent, my opposite numb

Do you think that when I or any other senator makes a political speech, has it printed, should charge the printing of that speech and the mailing of that speech to the taxpayers?

Go out and see Dana Smith who was the administrator of the fund

I feel that the people have got to have confidence in the integrity of the men who run for that office and who might attain them.

I say that it was morally wrong -- if any of that $18,000 went to Senator Nixon, for my personal use.

I want to tell you my side of the case.

I believe we have had enough of that in the United States, particularly with the present Administration in Washington, D.C

man whose honesty and integrity has been questioned

one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish

While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war

strategies

You see, things that seem impossible very often seem inevitable in retrospect.

And then we fought a civil war, brother against brother, hundreds of thousands dead on both sides—and yet we emerged a more perfect Union.

hat what seems impossible seems inevitable in retrospect.

hat what seems impossible seems inevitable in retrospect

its twin brother, entitlement

And indeed, if every life is equal before the law, and within the eyes of God, then every life is worthy. Every life is capable of greatness. And it truly doesn’t matter where you came from, it matters where you are going.

We l l , t o d a y i n t h e M i d d l e E a s t , t h e l a s t b a s t i o n o f t h a t a r g u m e n t , p e o p l e a r e p u t t i n g a n a i l i n t h e c offin of that idea

difference has been used to divide and dehumanize. I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama—a place quite properly called the most segregated city in America—and I know how it feels to ho

I believe that all human beings share certain fundamental aspirations. They want protections for their lives and their liberties. They want to think freely and to worship as they wish. They want opportunities to educate their children, both boys and girls. And they want the dignity that comes with having to be asked for their consent to be governed.

And I am, to me, the strangest of all.

The people in the snapshots are all strangers.

Stranger

what I am to learn from this piece?

Know that answers are usually organized by question number; for example, the answer to number 8 is usually between the answers to 7 and 9.

It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

hem in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong

—

ollowedby an organ burst that shook the building,

the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender—them home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, sub

ng, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the r

The country was up in arms

We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts

imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it

O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells

f you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time.

it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of

smote

in which burned an uncanny light;

his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness

—

golden seas of glory!

God of Battles, beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpouring of fervid eloquence which moved every listener

the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms,

It was a time of great and exalting excitement.

Yes, by hatred. Hatred is at the root of evileverywhere. Racial hatred, ethnic hatred, political hatred, religious hatred.In its name, all seems permitted. For those who glorify hatred, as terroristsdo, the end justifies all means, including the most despicable ones. If theycould, fanatics of violence would slaughter all those who do not adhere totheir ideological or religious principles. But this they cannot achieve and sothey resort to simply arousing fear, the goal of terrorists since theyemerged in history.I checked history books for a semblance of precedentfor this terror. There may be one.

hey wanted to kill and to do so anonymously.

They demanded neither ransom norconcessions. They proclaimed no belief and left no testament.

: “That’s madness, madness.” Two banalwords, like an accursed mantra. Sheer madness.

“That’s madness, madness.”

Someone we love worked on Wall Street.Cell phones remained mute. At home, we found a message: He was allright.

he Senate and the House made us proud. Democrats and Republicansspoke with one voice. The White House, the State Department, thePentagon lost no time in preparing for the battle to come.

Only this time, they failed. The American people reacted not with fear andresignation but with anger and resolve. Here and there it was misguidedand misdirected: Individual Muslims were assaulted and humiliated. Thatwas and is wrong. Collective blame is unwarranted and unjust. Islam is oneof the world’s great religions and most of its believers in our country aregood and decent citizens. That had to be said and our leaders said it

Yes, by hatred. Hatred is at the root of evileverywhere. Racial hatred, ethnic hatred, political hatred, religious hatred.In its name, all seems permitted. For those who glorify hatred, as terroristsdo, the end justifies all means, including the most despicable ones. If theycould, fanatics of violence would slaughter all those who do not adhere totheir ideological or religious principles. But this they cannot achieve and sothey resort to simply arousing fear, the goal of terrorists since t

They wanted to kill and to do so anonymously. Itwould have taken more courage to live and explain why they had chosenmurder.

hey demanded neither ransom norconcessions. They proclaimed no belief and left no testament.

Someone we love worked on Wall Street.Cell phones remained mute. At home, we found a message: He was allright.

“That’s madness, madness.”

lone, I am on the edge of despair. But Godalone is alone. Man is not and must not be alone

But now there is a before and an after.

On the highest level of government, President Bush immediately chartedthe right path to follow by declaring war against terrorist leaders and allthose who harbor and aid them.

No. Those times and those violent“dreamers” are gone. The 21st century will not be theirs.

That’s madness, madness.” Two banalwords, like an accursed mantra. Sheer madness.

Would this terrible act drive us apart, I asked myself, or draw us together asa nation?

None of us will ever forget that sunny day in September when the UnitedStates was subjected to a man-made nightmare: a heinous terror attackunprecedented in contemporary history. It will remain shrouded inmourning in the violated memory of our country.

One felt it hover in the air. He was still standing in the ropes, trapped as he had been before, he gave some little half-smile of regret, as if he were saying, “I didn’t know I was going to die just yet,” and then, his head leaning back but still erect, his death came to breathe about him. H

but he was off on an orgy, he had left the Garden, he was back on a hoodlum’s street.

Griffithwas in like a cat ready to rip the life out of a huge boxed rat.

Then Paret began to wilt.

Griffithwon most of the early rounds, but Paret knockedGriffithdown in the sixth

But in the last two years, over the fifteen-round fights, he had started to take some bad maulings.

I am a person in whom the first three motives would outweigh the fourth

One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.

. My book about the Spanish civil war, Homage to Catalonia, is of course a frankly political book, but in the main it is written with a certain detachment and regard for form. I did try very hard in it to tell the whole truth without violating my literary instincts. But among other things it contains a long chapter, full of newspaper quotations and the like, defending the Trotskyists who were accused of plotting with Franco. Clearly such a chapter, which after a year or two would lose its interest for any ordinary reader, must ruin the book. A critic whom I respect read me a lecture about it. ‘Why did you put in all that stuff?’ he said. ‘You've turned what might have been a good book into journalism.’ What he said was true, but I could not have done otherwise.

I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.

The Spanish war and other events in 1936-37 turned the scale and thereafter I knew where I stood.

Were you?

Eugene Aram

and then I underwent poverty and the sense of failure. This increased my natural hatred of authority and made me for the first time fully aware of the existence of the working classes, and the job in Burma had given me some understanding of the nature of imperialism: but these experiences were not enough to give me an accurate political orientation. Then came Hitler, the Spanish Civil War, etc. By the end of 1935 I had still failed to reach a firm decision. I remember a little poem that I wrote at that date, expressing my dilemma:

As it is I have been forced into becoming a sort of pamphleteer

iv

(iii)

(ii)

It is his job, no doubt, to discipline his temperament and avoid getting stuck at some immature stage, in some perverse mood; but if he escapes from his early influences altogether, he will have killed his impulse to write.

I give all this background information because I do not think one can assess a writer's motives without knowing something of his early development.