NationStates Jolt Archive


I'll at least be honest ... who wants to help me do my homework?

Ginnoria
01-12-2005, 04:12
Here it is:
I have to write a letter to the editor of my local newspaper. This is an assignment from my high school government class. What should I write about? I welcome any suggestions.
Equus
01-12-2005, 04:13
Here it is:
I have to write a letter to the editor of my local newspaper. This is an assignment from my high school government class. What should I write about? I welcome any suggestions.
Have you been particularly outraged by anything lately?
Eutrusca
01-12-2005, 04:14
Here it is:
I have to write a letter to the editor of my local newspaper. This is an assignment from my high school government class. What should I write about? I welcome any suggestions.
What do you feel passionate about ... other than sex that is. :p
DrunkenDove
01-12-2005, 04:16
Have you been particularly outraged by anything lately?

Indeed. Nothing is better for releasing stress than an angry letter to the editor. Sometimes I read paper that annoy me just in order to be angry enough to write.

Write about the new Puritan crusade against video games and how it paints all gamers with the same brush. Or a passionate defense of the flat tax. Or just take a post you like and reproduce it in it's entirety.
Europa Maxima
01-12-2005, 04:17
Hey, sex never goes out of fashion :p Write about decriminilasing weed or something.
Ginnoria
01-12-2005, 04:17
Have you been particularly outraged by anything lately?

Nothing that I'm articulate about, I'm afraid.


What do you feel passionate about ... other than sex that is.

That's the problem ... I don't have a ready opinion on most issues. I'm looking more for an interesting current event, or social or political issue. I just can't think of one that I could write about.
Ginnoria
01-12-2005, 04:18
Hey, sex never goes out of fashion :p Write about decriminilasing weed or something.

True ... it is graded homework however (I turn in a copy of the letter). I unfortunately would earn no points with such a subject. :(

EDIT: Except maybe decriminalizing weed. That's not a bad idea.
Teh_pantless_hero
01-12-2005, 04:19
Here it is:
I have to write a letter to the editor of my local newspaper. This is an assignment from my high school government class. What should I write about? I welcome any suggestions.
Be a partisan asshat, they do it in my local paper all the time.
Tomzilla
01-12-2005, 04:19
If your town is anti-Bush, then call for the secession of the town from the United States of America. That would be awesome to do.

If your town is pro-Bush, forget everything I said.

Thats what I say to you.
DrunkenDove
01-12-2005, 04:21
I
If your town is pro-Bush, forget everything I said.

No. If your town is pro-bush call for a monarchy to be set up.
Aryan Einherjers
01-12-2005, 04:22
a very impassioned and extreme letter on the merits of gay marriage... no matter what your position it stands a decent chance of making your teacher uncomfortable, and that's what's important... make sure to really send it on your own as well as hand it in and make sure you mention your teachers names as your inspiration... with any luck they will be having a most unwelcome conference with the school administration about their teaching methods.:rolleyes:
Europa Maxima
01-12-2005, 04:22
No. If your town is pro-bush call for a monarchy to be set up.
:D That would be so funny :p
FireAntz
01-12-2005, 04:24
Write how some Democrats are undermining the effort to win the war in Iraq, and how Joe Lieberman, a DEMOCRAT, just got back from his 4th trip there, and says that progress can be seen everywhere, and that Iraqi polls done by Iraqis show over 2/3's of Iraqis feel they are better off today than under Saddam, and how 82% feel that they will be better off in a year if America doesn't abandon them. ;)
Gaithersburg
01-12-2005, 04:24
One thing that I have always been rather upset about is that many people have always tried to paint the younger generation as lazy, stupid, assholes. Maybe you could write about that?
Dobbsworld
01-12-2005, 04:24
If you can read about issues, you can write about issues. See, I think the point of this exercise is to get you to kickstart your own critical thinking and analytical skills by actively engaging you in the development of your own opinions.

In other words, sure, you could get help with this, but if you do, you won't have learned anything, and you'll have missed the point of the exercise entirely in any event.

Pick up a paper and read the front section. There will be something there that you can follow up from any number of other sources. You know what?

As assignments go, this is child's play. Stop whingeing.
Tomzilla
01-12-2005, 04:24
No. If your town is pro-bush call for a monarchy to be set up.

Even better! :p
DrunkenDove
01-12-2005, 04:26
Write how some Democrats are undermining the effort to win the war in Iraq, and how Joe Lieberman, a DEMOCRAT, just got back from his 4th trip there, and says that progress can be seen everywhere, and that Iraqi polls done by Iraqis show over 2/3's of Iraqis feel they are better off today than under Saddam, and how 82% feel that they will be better off in a year if America doesn't abandon them. ;)

If you're that desperate for people to read your thread just link to it.
MickShell
01-12-2005, 04:27
Here it is:
I have to write a letter to the editor of my local newspaper. This is an assignment from my high school government class. What should I write about? I welcome any suggestions.

ok, this is what i'd do....pick up a copy of the newspaper, look at the front page, pick out an article, and write a letter about the subject matter as if you really cared. so, if it's about a shooting, argue about how much you hate guns, or how the police force should have more funding so that didn't happen. or whatever happens to be on the cover!
FireAntz
01-12-2005, 04:29
If you're that desperate for people to read your thread just link to it.
Sorry, but I don't keep my opinions in neat little thread categories. I didn't link to it, because that would be trying to hijack this one. I think it's a good thing to write the newspaper about, thats all.

I trust people to make up their own minds about which threads to read.

Now run along.:rolleyes:
Ginnoria
01-12-2005, 04:30
If you can read about issues, you can write about issues. See, I think the point of this exercise is to get you to kickstart your own critical thinking and analytical skills by actively engaging you in the development of your own opinions.

In other words, sure, you could get help with this, but if you do, you won't have learned anything, and you'll have missed the point of the exercise entirely in any event.

Pick up a paper and read the front section. There will be something there that you can follow up from any number of other sources. You know what?

As assignments go, this is child's play. Stop whingeing.

I'm not whingeing. I'm asking for advice. I've gotten plenty already, this is great. All the paper has, at a glance, is an article about Bush's speech and how some local town is ticketing freeway drivers. Boring. Why should I bother to read it when I can get ten times as many ideas just from posting in a forum?

Just because I get my news from a source twenty-four hours faster than yours, doesn't mean I don't get it.
Europa Maxima
01-12-2005, 04:30
Are there no issues which concern you, personally?
MickShell
01-12-2005, 04:32
Are there no issues which concern you, personally?

good question...anything being debated about funding for the school, or stuff like that?
Ginnoria
01-12-2005, 04:33
Are there no issues which concern you, personally?

A few. I'm looking more for something that will have an impact on the class. I'm not amazingly creative, so I'm looking for something more specific. :D
Europa Maxima
01-12-2005, 04:36
Then I advise you look into what you could write about and do so.
Goodlifes
01-12-2005, 04:37
When I was in school I had a long list of changes I wanted for the school.
MickShell
01-12-2005, 04:38
When I was in school I had a long list of changes I wanted for the school.

write about that then! it sounds good to me...i'd use that.
Ginnoria
01-12-2005, 05:15
No. If your town is pro-bush call for a monarchy to be set up.

Alright, I went with that idea ... here's my letter:

As the liberal paradigm of moral relativism threatens to envelop this great nation in an unconscionable hell of homosexuality and communism, there are few that we can turn to for honesty, ethical guidance, and articulation. These noble paragons of strength and wisdom are none other than Jesus Christ and President George W Bush himself. Their just war against terror, evil, and French elitism has been a force for good in this world, no matter what lies the heathen left may spread.
I am thankful for our President's work in securing a Supreme Court that will do God's work; I thank God every day that our congress is controlled by good Christian Republicans. Yet I know that one day the immoral left and their lying liberal media may one day dupe the God-fearing citizens of America into installing another demon-worshiping, adulterous Democrat into the White House; in the name of all that is decent and reverent, we must at all costs prevent this from happening. No longer must this country suffer in a secular swamp of duplicity; I submit that our democracy should be changed, and changed quickly. Only by entrusting America into the hands of the man who has done the most for our freedom can we hope to prevent such a fate. I propose that President Bush be given a permanent position of leadership for the good of all white Christian men.

Do you think that a newspaper would publish that? Should I make it less obvious?
The Cat-Tribe
01-12-2005, 05:18
Write how some Democrats are undermining the effort to win the war in Iraq, and how Joe Lieberman, a DEMOCRAT, just got back from his 4th trip there, and says that progress can be seen everywhere, and that Iraqi polls done by Iraqis show over 2/3's of Iraqis feel they are better off today than under Saddam, and how 82% feel that they will be better off in a year if America doesn't abandon them. ;)

Fiction doesn't count as a letter to the editor.
Dobbsworld
01-12-2005, 05:24
Should I make it less obvious?
Less obvious? Hey, if you're going to do something, do it right. Work in something about the damned owls and your right to use American Bald Eagle feathers as a quill for writing with.

Except you're typing, so I guess the last bit wouldn't work. Damn.
The Cat-Tribe
01-12-2005, 05:25
Gay marriage is seriously a good topic.

Read Loving v. Virginia (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=388&invol=1), 388 US 1 (1967). (Here are summaries: here (http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/214/) and here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia).)

Note that the Supreme Court emphasized that marriage is a fundamental right.

Explain that denying this right to people based on their gender is no different from denying this right to people based on their race. Both are invidious discrimination.

Thus, same-sex marriage is required by equal protection under the law.
Ginnoria
01-12-2005, 05:32
Less obvious? Hey, if you're going to do something, do it right. Work in something about the damned owls and your right to use American Bald Eagle feathers as a quill for writing with.

Except you're typing, so I guess the last bit wouldn't work. Damn.

I may hand-write it just to do that. :p
Ginnoria
01-12-2005, 05:34
Gay marriage is seriously a good topic.

Read Loving v. Virginia (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=388&invol=1), 388 US 1 (1967). (Here are summaries: here (http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/214/) and here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia).)

Note that the Supreme Court emphasized that marriage is a fundamental right.

Explain that denying this right to people based on their gender is no different from denying this right to people based on their race. Both are invidious discrimination.

Thus, same-sex marriage is required by equal protection under the law.


Oh, I agree. But I prefer to express my views satirically.
Eutrusca
01-12-2005, 05:51
When I was in school I had a long list of changes I wanted for the school.
For some strange reason, this does not surprise me! :D
Zagat
01-12-2005, 06:18
Alright, I went with that idea Do you think that a newspaper would publish that? Should I make it less obvious?

I dont know (if the newspaper would publish it), but unless the assignment is to write something ridiculous, I'd give you very low marks for that were I to be marking it.

Unless you have a teacher that is incredibly biased, to the point where they'd rather see a dig at someone who's views they disagree with rather than teach their students valuable skills, I'd seriously consider a re-write.
Rotovia-
01-12-2005, 06:21
<snip> just take a post you like and reproduce it in it's entirety.That's not a bad idea, it gets "Rotovia's Patented Seal of Not Being an Entirely Useless Idea, Though Still Being Potentially Crap, With Humorous Results" award...
WestFullMoon
01-12-2005, 06:31
Some popular topics are:

1) The Second Amendment: Right to Bear Arms. Do you support it, or not?
2) When is freedom of speech too much?
3) Abortions. Should there be an age restriction, parent notification, etc.?
4) Video games. This is old, I admit, but it's quite easy to do.
5) Saying the Pledge of Allegiance in school. Should it be mandatory, not mandatory (but still a school 'ritual'), or should it be completely gone?
6) Dress codes in school. Uniforms? Outrageous restrictions at your school?

There are many more. Try search engines.