Shouting Fire and Freedom of Speech
We have discussed so far a variety of issues. What you need to do is to look at these issues and choose one that interests you the most. Then go to either China Post or Taipei times and read/choose a related news item that was published on their paper.
The letters to the editor section of your local paper is an ideal forum for sharing your opinion and story with the local community. In addition, it is one of the first pages many elected officials turn to. Letters to the editor show that an issue is of concern to the community and are excellent tools for education. Here are a few guidelines for getting your letter to the editor printed.Source: Human rights Campaign
Localize your letter -- explain or include examples
Make your letter timely - if the newspaper has recently printed a story or column about the issue of marriage and same-sex couples, you can reference the article and use it as a springboard for your letter.
Keep your letter short and to the point -- 250 words maximum.
Your letter should carry its most important message in the first paragraph.
Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Editors like to call to confirm that the letter was actually written by the person whose name appears on the letter.
Limit the number of points you make, and stay on the same subject.
Don't be disappointed if your letter does not get printed. Newspapers get many letters every day and can't print all of them. Most papers won't print the same writers over and over again.
Don't be afraid to ask for action -- tell readers what you want them to do. This includes your elected representatives; you can be sure they read the letters to the editor.
No matter what the racial warlords may say, however, Ebonics is not a language. All it is is black slang.
Ebonics is a pillar of Afrocentrism. Through intimidation, violence and pseudoscholarship, Afrocentrists have dumbed down the education of our black children and kept white teachers from working with them. They deliberately cut off poor, black children from mainstream America.
Poor and working-class blacks with Afrocentric educators, however, do not have the opportunity to learn the Standard English necessary to succeed. They are stuck learning through Ebonics. What students aren't told is that, without Standard English, their employment prospects after leaving school are virtually zero. This could lead to chronic unemployment and, potentially, a life of crime.
With educators teaching slang instead of Standard English, is it at all surprising that students are not prepared for standardized tests? Is it any wonder that many black students who go to college spend their freshman year in remedial classes, trying to learn skills and knowledge they should have gotten in high school?
We need to leave slang in the streets, and return our classrooms to Standard English. This will help to give our children the opportunities they deserve.
Language researcher Robert Berdan reports that, after observing the kind of teaching routine described above in a number of settings, he incorporated the teacher behaviors into a reading instruction exercise that he used with students in a college class.10 He put together sundry rules from a number of American social and regional dialects to create what he called the "language of Atlantis." Students were then called upon to read aloud in this dialect they did not know. When they made errors he interrupted them, using some of the same statements/comments he had heard elementary school teachers routinely make to their students. He concludes:
Text: Yesterday I washed my brother's clothes.
A Prayer???