Empress Wu Zetian of Tang and Zhou

Like so many other strong female leaders, from Catherine the Great to the Empress Dowager Cixi, Chinas only female emperor has been reviled in legend and history.  Yet Wu Zetian was a highly intelligent and motivated lady, with a strong interest in government affairs and literature.  In 7th century China, and for centuries afterward, these were considered inappropriate topics for a woman, so she has been painted as a murderer who poisoned or strangled most of her own family, a sexual deviant, and a ruthless usurper of the imperial throne.  Who was Wu Zetian, really? Early Life The future Empress Wu was born in Lizhou, now in Sichuan Province, on February 16, 624.  Her birth name probably was Wu Zhao, or possibly Wu Mei.  The babys father, Wu Shihuo, was a wealthy timber merchant who would become a provincial governor under the new Tang Dynasty.  Her mother, Lady Yang, was from a politically important noble family.   Wu Zhao was a curious, active girl.  Her father encouraged her to read widely, which was quite unusual at the time, so she studied politics, government, the Confucian classics, literature, poetry, and music.  When she was about 13, the girl was dispatched to the palace to become a fifth rank concubine of the Emperor Taizong of Tang.  It seems that she likely did have sexual relations with the Emperor at least once, but she was not a favorite and spent most of her time working as a secretary or lady in waiting.  She did not bear him any children. In 649, when Consort Wu was 25 years old, Emperor Taizong died.  His youngest son, 21-year-old Li Zhi, became the new Emperor Gaozong of Tang.  Consort Wu, since she had not borne the late emperor a child, was sent to Ganye temple to become a Buddhist nun.   Return From the Convent Its not clear how she accomplished the feat, but the former Consort Wu escaped from the convent and became a concubine of Emperor Gaozong.  Legend holds that Gaozong went to the Ganye Temple on the anniversary of his fathers death to make an offering, spotted the Consort Wu there, and wept at her beauty.  His wife, Empress Wang, encouraged him to make Wu his own concubine, to distract him from her rival, Consort Xiao. Whatever actually happened, Wu soon found herself back in the palace.  Although it was considered incest for a mans concubine to then pair up with his son, Emperor Gaozong took Wu into his harem around 651.  With the new emperor, she was a much higher rank, being the highest of the second rank concubines.   Emperor Gaozong was a weak ruler and suffered an illness that frequently left him dizzy.  He soon became disenchanted with both Empress Wang and Consort Xiao and began to favor Consort Wu.  She bore him two sons in 652 and 653, but he had already named another child as his heir apparent.  In 654, Consort Wu had a daughter, but the infant soon died of smothering, strangulation, or possibly natural causes.   Wu accused Empress Wang of the babys murder since she had been the last to hold the child, but many people believed that Wu herself killed the baby in order to frame the Empress.  At this remove, it is impossible to say what really happened.  In any case, the Emperor believed that Wang murdered the little girl, and by the following summer, he had the empress and also Consort Xiao deposed and imprisoned.  Consort Wu became the new empress consort in 655. Empress Consort Wu In November of 655, Empress Wu allegedly ordered the execution of her former rivals, Empress Wang and Consort Xiao, to prevent Emperor Gaozong from changing his mind and pardoning them.  A blood-thirsty later version of the story says that Wu ordered the womens hands and feet chopped off, and then had them thrown into a large wine barrel.  She reportedly said, Those two witches can get drunk down to their bones.  This ghoulish story seems likely to be a later fabrication. By 656, Emperor Gaozong replaced his former heir apparent with Empress Wus eldest son, Li Hong.  The Empress soon began to arrange for the exile or execution of government officials who had opposed her rise to power, according to traditional stories.  In 660, the sickly Emperor began to suffer from severe headaches and loss of vision, possibly from hypertension or a stroke.  Some historians have accused the Empress Wu of having him slowly poisoned, though he had never been particularly healthy. He began to delegate decisions on some government matters to her; officials were impressed with her political knowledge and the wisdom of her rulings.  By 665, Empress Wu was more or less running the government. The Emperor soon began to resent Wus increasing power. He had a chancellor draft an edict deposing her from power, but she heard what was happening and rushed to his chambers.  Gaozong lost his nerve and ripped up the document.  From that time forward, Empress Wu always sat in on imperial councils, although she sat behind a curtain at the back of Emperor Gaozongs throne. In 675, Empress Wus eldest son and the heir apparent died mysteriously.  He had been agitating to have his mother step back from her position of power, and also wanted his half-sisters by Consort Xiao to be allowed to marry.  Of course, traditional accounts state that the Empress poisoned her son to death, and replaced him with the next brother, Li Xian.  However, within five years, Li Xian fell under suspicion of assassinating his mothers favorite sorcerer, so he was deposed and sent into exile.  Li Zhe, her third son, became the new heir apparent. Empress Regent Wu On December 27, 683, the Emperor Gaozong died after a series of strokes.  Li Zhe ascended the throne as Emperor Zhongzhong.  The 28-year-old soon started to assert his independence from his mother, who was given regency over him in his fathers will despite the fact that he was well into adulthood.  After just six weeks in office (January 3 - February 26, 684), Emperor Zhongzhong was deposed by his own mother, and placed under house arrest. Empress Wu next had her fourth son enthroned on February 27, 684, as the Emperor Ruizong.  A puppet of his mother, the 22-year-old emperor did not exert any actual authority.  His mother no longer hid behind the curtain during official audiences; she was the ruler, in appearance as well as fact.  After a reign of six and a half years, in which he was virtually a prisoner within the inner palace, Emperor Ruizong abdicated in favor of his mother.  Empress Wu became Huangdi, which is usually translated in English as emperor, although it is gender-neutral in Mandarin. Emperor Wu In 690, Emperor Wu announced that she was establishing a new dynastic line, called the Zhou Dynasty.  She reportedly used spies and secret police to root out political opponents and have them exiled or killed.  However, she was also a very capable emperor and surrounded herself with well-chosen officials.  She was instrumental in making the civil service examination a key part of the Chinese imperial bureaucratic system, which allowed only the most learned and talented men to rise to high positions in government. Emperor Wu carefully observed the rites of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism, and made frequent offerings to curry favor with higher powers and retain the Mandate of Heaven.  She made Buddhism the official state religion, placing it above Daoism.  She also was the first female ruler to make offerings at the sacred Buddhist mountain of Wutaishan in the year 666.   Among the ordinary people, Emperor Wu was quite popular.  Her use of the civil service examination meant that bright but poor young men had a chance to become wealthy government officials.  She also redistributed land to ensure that peasant families all had enough to feed their families, and paid high salaries to government workers in the lower ranks. In 692, Emperor Wu had her greatest military success, when her army recaptured the four garrisons of the Western Regions (Xiyu) from the Tibetan Empire.  However, a spring offensive in 696 against the Tibetans (also known as Tufan) failed miserably, and the two leading generals were demoted to commoners as a result.  A few months later, the Khitan people rose up against the Zhou, and it took nearly a year plus some hefty tribute payments as bribes to quell the unrest. The imperial succession was a constant source of unease during Emperor Wus reign.  She had appointed her son, Li Dan (the former Emperor Ruizong), as the Crown Prince.  However, some courtiers urged her to choose a nephew or cousin from the Wu clan instead, to keep the throne in her own bloodline instead of that of her late husband.  Instead, Empress Wu recalled her third son Li Zhe (the former Emperor Zhongzong) from exile, promoted him to Crown Prince, and changed his name to Wu Xian. As Emperor Wu aged, she began to rely increasingly on two handsome brothers who were allegedly also her lovers, Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong.  By the year 700, when she was 75 years old, they were handling many of the affairs of state for the Emperor.  They had also been instrumental in getting Li Zhe to return and become Crown Prince in 698. In the winter of 704, the 79-year-old Emperor fell seriously ill.  She would see nobody except for the Zhang brothers, which fueled speculation that they were planning to seize the throne when she died.  Her chancellor recommended that she allow her sons to visit, but she would not.  She pulled through the illness, but the Zhang brothers were killed in a coup on February 20, 705, and their heads were hung from a bridge along with three of their other brothers.  The same day, Emperor Wu was forced to abdicate the throne to her son. The former Emperor was given the title of Empress Regnant Zetian Dasheng.  However, her dynasty was finished; Emperor Zhongzong restored the Tang Dynasty on March 3, 705.  Empress Regnant Wu died on December 16, 705, and remains to this day the only female to rule imperial China in her own name. Sources Dash, Mike.  The Demonization of Empress Wu, Smithsonian Magazine, August 10, 2012. Empress Wu Zetian: Tang Dynasty China (625 - 705 AD), Women in World History, accessed July 2014. Woo, X.L. Empress Wu the Great: Tang Dynasty China, New York: Algora Publishing, 2008.

Critique. This Critique Seeks To Provide Contextualisation

Critique This critique seeks to provide contextualisation for investigations into gendered representations in children’s literature, and the mechanisms that underpin their construction and reproduction. The key aim is to explore possible shifts within gender representation in children’s literature. Hamilton et al. (2006) argue that although there have been changes, over time, to gender representations, improvements have been mitigated by both the underrepresentation of female characters and a continued tendency to cast girls in â€Å"passive roles, boys in active ones† (p. 758). It is important to note that whilst underrepresentation is an important facet of study in children’s literature, it will be excluded from this discussion as to†¦show more content†¦178). Representations are construction in text, thus have a constructive effect in shaping understandings of world, identity and gender (Sunderland, 2011, p. 5). Sunderland notes, and partially support s, claims that representations constructed by discourses that stress differences could play significantly into naturalising and legitimating traditional ideas of gender. Construction is not without criticism, particularly as there are multiple definitions of what constitutes constructionism. Similarly, meanings of key concepts are open to contest by theoretical approaches (Lehtonen, 2007, 11). For example, various theoretical approaches disagree on the ‘role of the reader’ in construction as an ‘active negotiator’ or ‘passive recipient’ (Stam, 2001, p. 294). Other criticism of construction, in relation to discourse, argues that it is stronger theoretically, but lacks empirical outcomes (Stam, 2001, p.294; Sunderland, 2004, p. 172). Sunderland does observe this. Her own clear and concise investigation on discourse allows her to explore and critique various theoretical approaches to gendered discourse. Throughout the book, Sunderland makes an argument for interdisciplinary approaches to gendered discourses arguing that each theoretical approach has something to offer that may support or strengthen the othersâ₠¬â„¢ conclusions. Despite criticism, it is possible to conclude that discursive construction is useful to critique approaches to representation toShow MoreRelatedThe Sociology Of Health And Mental Illness3181 Words   |  13 Pagesbe rooted in the Fruedo-Marxist ‘methodological individualism’ of critical theory (Rogers Pilgrim, 2010: 14), or even a broader constructionist critique of medical truth, it just as easily lends itself to a more limited historicist Libertarian reading: mental illness as socio-political deviance within an encroaching state (Sumner, 1994). Within this interface must be located the panoply of ‘iconographic’ representation (Shorter, 1997: 273) within wider mass-culture: Sumner cites the example of

Bronsted-Lowry Acid Definition

In 1923, chemists Johannes Nicolaus Brà ¸nsted and Thomas Martin Lowry independently described acids and bases based on whether they donate or accept hydrogen ions (H). The groups of acids and bases defined in this manner came to be known as either Bronsted, Lowry-Bronsted, or  Bronsted-Lowry acids and bases. A Bronsted-Lowry acid is defined as a substance that gives up or donates hydrogen ions during a chemical reaction. In contrast, a Bronsted-Lowry base accepts hydrogen ions. Another way of looking at it is that a Bronsted-Lowry acid donates protons, while the base accepts protons. Species that can either donate or accept protons, depending on the situation, are considered to be amphoteric. The Bronsted-Lowry theory differs from the Arrhenius theory is allowing acids and bases that dont necessarily contain hydrogen cations and hydroxide anions. Key Takeaways: Bronsted-Lowry Acid The Bronsted-Lowry theory of acids and bases was proposed independently in 1923 by Johannes Nicolaus Brà ¸nsted and Thomas Martin Lowry.A Bronsted-Lowry acid is a chemical species that donates one or more hydrogen ions in a reaction. In contrast, a Bronsted-Lowry base accepts hydrogen ions. When it donates its proton, the acid becomes its conjugate base.A more general look at the theory is an acid as a proton donor and a base as a proton acceptor. Conjugate Acids and Bases in Bronsted-Lowry Theory Every Bronsted-Lowry acid donates its proton to a species which is its conjugate base. Every Bronsted-Lowry base similarly accepts a proton from its conjugate acid. For example, in the reaction: HCl (aq) NH3 (aq)→ NH4 (aq) Cl- (aq) Hydrochloric acid (HCl)  donates a proton to ammonia (NH3) to form the ammonium cation (NH4) and the chloride anion (Cl-). Hydrochloric acid is a Bronsted-Lowry acid; the chloride ion is its conjugate base. Ammonia is a Bronsted-Lowry base; its conjugate acid is the ammonium ion. Sources Brà ¶nsted, J. N. (1923). Einige Bemerkungen à ¼ber den Begriff der Sà ¤uren und Basen [Some observations about the concept of acids and bases]. Recueil des Travaux Chimiques des Pays-Bas. 42 (8): 718–728. doi:10.1002/recl.19230420815Lowry, T. M. (1923). The uniqueness of hydrogen. Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry. 42 (3): 43–47. doi:10.1002/jctb.5000420302

Analysis of Colm Tóibins Short Story, A Journey Essay

Life is a journey, a cycle. We start somewhere and end somewhere, we are on a round trip. We experience different seasons and grow both physically and mentally. But some point in life all of us realize that we want last, live forever. From a very early age on we are being told that we all one day will pass away and be buried in the ground. The short story:†A Journey†, written by Colm Tà ³ibin, takes us on a journey together with a young boy called David and his mother Mary. The short story, A Journey, starts off in a dialogue, in medias res, between the son and his mother, where we also are introduced to a 3 rd person narrator. The story contains flashbacks, which are being told through the mothers point of view. †... but random images†¦show more content†¦Later, as he turned into an adult he got a serious depression. He even enrolled into a hospital in order to receive treatment for it. Maybe he has a tendency to be obsessed with negative aspects of life such as death, or he could have genetic causes, since his grandma hung herself, probably due to depression. â€Å"She saw the portrait of her mother hung after she died in the unused musty parlour over her fathers shop in Ferns.† On their way home to Seamus, Mary tries to start a conversation with her son, but he refuses to talk to her. He wants to remain in silence, something that possibly comforts him, but makes her feel uneasy. Deep down inside she wishes that everything could be as in the old days. She lives somehow in her past, since her mind often dwells on â€Å"the good old days†. She has a hard time to accept reality, and longs for it to change. This gives her strength to concur each single day, keeping her spirit high and remaining positive, even though she is surrounded by â€Å"clouds†. â€Å"She dreamed now of going back to Cush with him, of a bright summer day and the light from the sea giving him back something he lost, ah old vitality he seemed to have willfully discarded. She thought if he could walk on the sand in his bare feet, it might lift his spirits, but she sighed as she realized that nothing would be as quick or simple.† She tries to get beneath

21st Century man is no more knowledgeable than his 19th Century predecessor he simply thinks he is Free Essays

To answer this question entirely and accurately it is necessary to define quite what we mean by knowledge. Knowledge is the state or fact of knowing; the familiarity, understanding or awareness gained through experience or study; the sum or range of what has been perceived, studied or learned; learning, erudition: teachers of great knowledge or specific information about someone. This question needs to be answered before we can say whether a layman has become more knowledgeable since the 19th century or not. We will write a custom essay sample on 21st Century man is no more knowledgeable than his 19th Century predecessor: he simply thinks he is or any similar topic only for you Order Now I will focus on the first definition that states, â€Å"Knowledge is the state or fact of knowing. † A man’s knowledge consists of facts and we cannot say whether these so-called facts are true because if somebody tells us something we merely take it for granted that it is the truth. We can mainly tell what the macroscopic properties of something are i. . if someone confronted us with a red baseball bat we would be able to see that it was red and metallic looking and nobody would be able to disprove these facts. If we looked at the baseball bat closer though, going into the realms of science and the theories surrounding it and somebody said that the rod was steel and the atomic structure of steel was such and such and the properties of it were such and such we wouldn’t be able to see these things in reality. What we are taught in schools and elsewhere is basically the thoughts of other supposedly clever men and women and we cannot that they are true – to be very honest we cannot prove that anything is true not even that the world we live in is real and that we actually exist as people. An instance of everyone believing the words of some supposedly clever men is when before the time of Galileo (who proved this to be utter rubbish) it was widely believed that the world was flat and anyone who disagreed with this was joshed and laughed at, as everyone knew that the fact was that the earth was flat. This leads to my belief that in years to come things that we take for granted such as that we have landed on the moon will be proved to be complete rubbish and an immense cover-up by an embarrassed nation who could give its people what they wanted and so had to trick them into believing about space flight. From this we discover that knowledge is purely subjective and could not be any other way. Our knowledge of science or at least our layman’s grasp of it is in fact a jumble of half-remembered â€Å"facts† which we regurgitate when necessary. My view at the moment would be that a layman in the 21st century does know more a bout science than his predecessor in the 19th century. In the 19th century education was neither compulsory nor state-funded as it is today and so only the rich would have the benefit of a sound education and they could not be counted as lay. Even if they could be counted as lay though due to the fact that there has apparently been extremely large amounts of scientific discoveries made, such as that of electricity, between the 19th century and the present day. Other resources such as the media and the internet help to make information more widely available to us today and these certainly wouldn’t have been available or even existed in the 19th century. Every bit of this contributes to our so-called knowledge making us a more knowledgeable human being. We at Winchester College are in a slightly different situation to the your Joe Public on the street but even we have no idea what Phenyl Cyclo Hexyl Hyperidine (otherwise known as PCP) actually is. Now we ask ourselves do the scientists who do these things actually know that they are true or are they merely making educated guesses about them. They don’t; they merely speculate and that is the most that anyone can do. The fact that these scientists are always improving their theories suggests even more so that they are speculatory, as a fact cannot be changed in such a way by definition. The only thing that can be said to be a fact upon this apparently realistic earth, actually a simulation, is the Ultimate fact – that God exists. Unfortunately this is only the Ultimate fact to those who believe in God so even this can be argued against. Humans, at least in my knowledge, has not evolved at all since the 19th century thus our brains have no more capacity for extra knowledge, merely that we have extra information crammed into our head due to the fact that information is more readily available to us, rather than actually having more knowledge than we did in the 19th century. We could thus be called more knowledgeable but we don’t even know whether this so-called information is actually true or not. How to cite 21st Century man is no more knowledgeable than his 19th Century predecessor: he simply thinks he is, Papers

Causes Of Terrorism Essay Example For Students

Causes Of Terrorism Essay Terrorism Never Affected Anyone Until The ‘Attack on America’This is an announcement to all people within the boundaries of North America. Terror affects us all every day, not only the days when it is within our grasp of reality. The population of North America has never really taken into consideration that terrorist acts are important or even matter to their people. Why? Well that answer is simple. Anything that isn’t in our immediate scope of view is looked at in a fairy tale way. The American embassy bombings that seem to happen every year aren’t looked upon as important by the people of that country. Why should the world superpower’s people care if their country’s symbols are being annihilated almost annually? Terrorist acts must be one of the most cruel, cowardly, and overall selfish acts that can be inflicted on a group of people. This is underlined by the kind of people who wreak this havoc on innocent communities around the world every day. These fellow humans, who cause these terrible acts, are part of the most important problem facing the world today. People die from many different causes every year. This is a known fact, but how many people are killed by acts that are so selfish and cowardly that they can only be characterized by one statement: Terror? The answer to that depends on how you would define terror. For example the ‘Attack on America’, claimed what is estimated to be over six thousand people. This attack was targeted on major political and economic epicenters in the U.S. The World Trade Center towers were both demolished by planes flying into them. The Pentagon was damaged to a point where the fires were burning for days after. I am sure that the attack took in well over six thousand people. This atrocity took the population of the U.S. and the World in its path. The amount of people who it affected is incalculable. The people’s families who were affected by death are the immediate people who were affected. Next were the hundreds of millions of people populating the United States, and lastly were th e billions who watched on television around the world. This was a huge blow to not only the U.S. but also to the populous of earth. This attack didn’t attack only lives but it attacked the very basis of being free. The innocent people who were killed were in America because it was the ‘land of the free’. This is a world-wide fact, and we are all thinking if the Americans aren’t safe than who is? The repercussions of this didn’t just affect people but also the commerce of the world. When the American stock markets reopened the Monday after the attack the week before, as the other world markets had foretold, the American stock market dived reaching lows of such magnitude that the depression was the only time that rivaled the lows on the Dow Jones that week. The repercussions of this tragedy kept on piling and piling up. The people who felt the hit the worst were the workers in the business of commercial air travel. United Airlines alone layed off twelve thousand people and cancelled flight all across North America. This was not the only change that will be happening. We as consumers and people who fly are going to be slowed down to a crawl at airports with new security measures and procedures, but we will not have the flights we want and might have to be layed over to catch a connecting flight which means more wasted time for us. This shows that we all are affected in commercial travel and commerce by this calamity. .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee , .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee .postImageUrl , .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee , .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee:hover , .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee:visited , .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee:active { border:0!important; } .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee:active , .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u44e29b8a6ba9c24db1819511c95342ee:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: A Journey of Thousand Miles Starts with Single Step EssayThe signs were all there, threats, previous attacks on American embassy’s, and a general lax way of getting into the United States. It seems that terrorism had taken a backburner position. Aside from the Holy War attacks in Israel and Palestine that are pretty much daily occurrences terrorist acts have not been that important to people. Some would call the recent attack that took the lives of an estimated six thousand an overflow point. In all seriousness, depending on the reactions and retaliations by different sides there could be a full-fledged world war brewing. At the surface it seems harmless. The Americ ans are trying to keep their livelihood intact by paying strict attention to the number one suspect Osama bin Laden. When the name bin Laden comes to mind you think of him as a terrorist with major financial backing. This analysis is very true but he represents terrorism itself. He hates the ‘Land of the Free’ and is willing to admit that. The amounts of people who are like bin Laden are definitely numerous. If a coalition were to be had by the different America haters around the world no amount of military pressure could deflate these people without blowing up into a world war. The problem with terrorists is that they are not part of specific solid states. They are usually extremists who scatter themselves to various locales as to not be found. There has also been worries that States who do not like the U.S. have shown interest in backing anyone who wants to challenge the ‘Home of the Brave’. Specifically Saddam Hussein who has been quoted as saying to the American government â€Å"Use your intelligence and not your force or you might be sorry!† This implies that Saddam might just have some plans of his own when it comes to military involvement with the U.S. and bin Laden. The people of Earth have to realize that in these times anything is possible when a war can be started by just the push of a button. When people are capable of doing such things any number of situations could occur and we need to as a planet recognize this a put aside religious and political differences before we are all experiencing our own nuclear winter. We also have to recognize that although the horrible event that took place on September 11, 2001 does not just concern the people who lost loved ones and lives. We mourn for them all. We must see that that one terrorist act has affected the way most people live on this earth, in commerce, travel, and most of all in our minds. We are scared, there is no way that we couldn’t be. Bibliography: