My Address to the Secretary of State Concerning Recent Terrorist Attacks.
Ladies and gentlemen of the committee, I am here today to speak to you about a growing concern of mine in the aftermath of a great tragedy. .
As we are all well aware, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 have caused great turmoil in the United States, as well as around the world. As a result, many changes will occur in order to help preserve the American freedom and safety that the United States government was founded upon. Now the question lies before us, "what is the best way to go about protecting American citizen's safety without infringing on their rights as Americans?" We must start by looking at disasters that have occurred in the past, how they were dealt with, and what consequences resulted from our dealings. What event more similarly portrays this than the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor?.
In the early 1940's, directly following the Japanese surprise attack on the American Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Americans began to look at Japanese-Americans differently. I wave of racial hatred swept the nation towards these Japanese-Americans. They quickly lost their title as American citizens and were classified as "enemy aliens" simply based on their heritage. Since they were perceived as a threat to the nation, our government thought it would be a good idea to get these people off of the streets and place them in separate facilities that would keep them restricted from causing any potential harm. In all, more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans were apprehended and placed in various prison camps set up around the U.S. and treated with severe hostility. Now, years later, we look back and wonder if we would react to the situation in a similar manner. .
Today we face an analogous situation to what took place in the 40's. Since the terrorists that launched the recent attack against the United States are of Middle Eastern origin.
