A good question that needs answers from English teachers/majors... Historians & all of you other talented ppl!

Question

... What issue is important enough in your society today for which you would be willing to take a stand or possibly spend a night in jail?

(I'm asking this because I am EXTREMELY INTERESTED and I just read Resistance to Civil Government by Henry David Thereau - If you read it send me an email :) )

Please, I'm looking for good answers - like you can write a book or even an essay about. I don't want answers that are rude or retard. I'm thinking I would spend a night in jail if a certain race like Middle Easterners weren't allowed to live in the U.S because of 9/11. .. What about you?


I have to present my 2 page essay & use things like Paradox, Logic, Emotional Appeal, Ethical Appeals, Anecdote etc in... If you know these terms & you can help explain them to me - EMAIL ME ASAP!

Answer 1

A few come to mind, actually.

1) The right and the freedom to continue scientific research based on sound scientific principle, not anecdotal or sentimental false evidence. Three out of four letters to Congress are from people who want to stop animal research, stem cell cloning, science education, etc. because it is "bad". These people cannot argue scientifically, but they may shape policy that affects life-saving cures, research, crops, and vaccines.

2) A woman's right to detemine her own reproductive status.

3) There was a conference of world leaders in recent years to determine whether access to clean, potable, water is a human "right", or a "luxury". The ruling could mean that governments do not have the responsibility to provide access to drinking water to all citizens, but rather only to those who could "afford" it.

4) The right of minority indigenous peoples and biodiversity in the natural world to coexist with modern life and "progress".

Answer 2

I personally would be willing to spend a night in jail for the cause of decriminalization of marijuana in the U.S.

Now before you lambaste me for not taking the question seriously, allow me to make several points as outlined in your final paragraph.

A paradox: Both alcohol and tobacco are much more dangerous to society (drunk driving/second hand smoke) and harmful to one's health than smoking pot. However both of these drugs are legal in the U.S.

Logical appeal: The U.S. Government spends billions of dollars a year fighting a "war on drugs" which is un-winnable. Legalize drugs, tax and regulate them, and turn a monstrous and useless expense into a profit.

Ethical appeal: Hundreds of people are in jail in California for their "three strikes" being non-violent drug offenses. These are people who never hurt anyone or stole anything IN JAIL.

Anecdote: The prohibition era should have taught us the futility of banning that which the public wants. Yet here we are, making the exact same mistakes for the last 80 years.

In conclusion, getting high is great.

There ya go, feel free to steal any or all of these ideas for your essay. I think your teacher will get a kick out of it.

Answer 3

If BMWs were banned from the U.S. ;-)=

Seriously, many things, but it would depend on the conditions and circumstances of the current situation in which it falls.

Everything is relative to its own contextual relationship to itself and the outside world. The whole, "it depends," argument.

Good luck on your paper.

P.S. - Haunted...I agree with what you said except for the animal testing bit. How is killing animals okay for the sake of "life-saving." Seems contradictory to me. Only way you can swallow that down is if you place animal life and feelings secondary to humans. I'm sorry. Slicing open live monkeys while they wretch in horrific agony in the name of "science," or shooting cologne into pressured-down rabbits' eyes to test its caustic nature, etc., etc., etc. is beyond science. It's outright madness.