Midterm Exam - The Literature of Peace
Literature of Peace
Georgetown University
March 2, ‘05
Mid-term Exam
Match the names with the quotes. All quotes are from the course texts.
Some authors may have two quotes.
Write the author’s name next to matching quote.
Henry David Thoreau
“It is almost impossible to maintain
Joseph Giarratano
a sense of humanity in a system
that ignores the fact that you are
George McGovern
a living breathing human being: a
system where you are recognized
M. Kerry Kennedy
only as a number, a compilation of
legal issues open for debate, a 20 Marie Deans
to 50 page legal brief before
tribunals that will determine your
Gordon Livingston
fate without ever knowing you,
something nonhuman—a piece
of tainted met to be disposed of.”
“Unjust laws exist; shall we be
content to obey them or shall we
endeavor to amend them, and
obey them until we have
succeeded, or shall we transgress
them at once.”
“Patriotism cannot be good. Why
do not people say that egotism
can be good, thought this may
asserted more easily, because
egotism is a natural sentiment,
with which a man is born, while
patriotism is an unnatural
which is artificially inoculated
“Every senator in this chamber
is partly responsible for sending
50,000 young Americans to an
early grave. This chamber reeks
of blood. Every senator here is
partly responsible for that human
wreckage at Walter Reed and
Bethesda Naval hospitals and
all across our land—young men
without legs, or arms, or genitals,
or faces, or hopes.”
“I have yet to find a case where
there wasn’t a red flag thrown
up years ago—in grammar
school or somewhere—where
a kid said ‘I’m in trouble, help
me.’ He gave the message loud
clear and we didn’t pay
attention. And he ended up,
years later, going down and
and killing someone. Let me
tell you something. I resent the
hell out of that as a member of
a murder victim’s family. These
governors, these prosecutors,
Ronald Reagan, George Bush,
all getting up and saying, , ‘I
care about victims, I want the
death penalty.‘ If they cared
about victims, they would
have taken care of that
victimized kid when he was
six years old and prevented a
homicide later.”
“I was eight years old when my
father was murdered. It is
almost impossible to describe
pain of losing a parent to a
senseless murder. And in the
aftermath, it is similarly
impossible to quiet the
confusion: ‘Why him? Why
this? Why me? But even as a
child one thing as clear to me:
I didn’t want the killer, in turn,
to be killed. I remember lying
in bed and praying, ‘Please
God, please don’t take his
life, too.’”
“But what is war? What is
needed for success in
warfare? What are the habits of
the military? The aim of war is
murder, the methods of war
are spying, treachery, and
their encouragement, the ruin
of a country’s inhabitants,
robbing them to feed the
army, and fraud and
falsehood termed military
military craft….And in
spite of all this, it is the
highest class, respected
by everyone. And he who
kills the most people receives
highest awards.”
“I went to West Point to
become a soldier. Tired of
learning to kill, I became
a doctor. At a military
ceremony in Vietnam in
1969 I handed the
commanding general a
satirical prayer I had
written: ‘Lord, forget
not the least of thy
children as they hide
from us in the jungles.
Bring them under our
merciful hand that we may
end their suffering.’ Before
I was discharged from the
Army as an embarrassment
I adopted an Amerasian
child of the war. Michael is
30 now. When I look at him
I remember what I was in
moment I chose life over
“Under a government
which imprisons any
unjustly, the true place
for a just man is also a
“In my last letter, I
answered your question
well as I could. It is not
only Christians but all just
people who must refuse to
become soldiers.”