Period 1: LEINS, ZACH: Letters Project

On November 4, 2008, voters in the U.S. will elect a new president, as well as 470 members of Congress. Whichever candidates are elected, they will face an array of pressing issues at home and abroad, all demanding attention and action. Where do we start? Voters can express their priorities in the voting booth—but young people also deserve to be heard. It’s your future too. What do you believe is the most urgent issue for the new President to tackle? What would you say to the candidates for the 470 seats open in Congress? What would you want the voting public to think about as they go to the polls? Your letter will be published for the candidates and the voting public to read. Can you convince them of the importance of the issue you care about? Can you move them to action on November 4…and after?

This is your template for writing the letter or persuasive essay you will be submitting to Letters to the Next President: Writing Our Future. Please complete all the areas in white. You may complete these sections in any order, and you may change or edit the information at any time up to the point where you submit your letter or essay. The information entered will be displayed on the Writing Our Future website to help readers find your essay and become interested in reading it.   Information needed for the website before you submit your persuasive piece: Title or headline: Readers are attracted by sharp, focused titles -- like newspaper headlines. Give your piece a short, attention-getting title that conveys your main point. The Economic Crisis Keywords: Choose up to three keywords for your piece to help readers find your piece by topic. Write your words here, separated by commas. Economic Crisis Summary lead: As readers scan the website, they will get the main idea of your piece from the summary lead.  Write a lead of no more than 75 words to summarize your main point and catch your readers' interest. Do you want to go through a Great Depression? We must save our economy so this doesn't happen.       Writer's name or pen name: Your piece will be published under your first name and last initial, or you can use a pen name.  What first name and last initial will you use? Zach L Instructions for composing your persuasive piece: Please use the white space below to respond to the Letters to the Next President: Writing Our Future prompt. You do not need to repeat the title and name that you have entered in the table above. You also do not need to begin with a greeting such as "Dear Future President" or sign your name at the end. Simply begin with the first sentence of the body of the letter and continue to the end, double-spacing between paragraphs. There is no minimum or maximum length. As you compose your piece, remember that you can edit, change, and correct your letter until it is ready for publication and your teacher submits it. You can invite other students or adults to read your draft and to collaborate with you or give you advice about your draft. You can also use the editing tools to help you with final editing including spell-check.

[Compose your piece in this space]

  As we all know this economy hasn’t been the best and continues to decrease as we speak. This is from the stock market, housing market and in consumer products. If we don’t do something very soon we could have another stock market crash and that would be an economic disaster. Fear and worry would devastate every home more than it already has. The entire country would fall apart with little money to defend itself, buy food and so many more essentials.

 

  Gasoline prices have continued to escalate. My grandpa tells me of a time when gas was only a dime a gallon. That is now the impossible. Not only do gas prices kill the economy, it kills our planet too. It emits poisonous gases into the air. From talks about the ozone disappearing to the polar ice caps melting we all must take it into account that we must do something like finding alternate energy and recycling to help prevent this. This could be as easy as driving less, or using alternate sources for energy like wind, water or solar. If ozone damage continues or the ice caps continue to melt it will be a natural disaster that could change the way we live forever. The UV rays from the sun would destroy our skin and if a lot of water dumps into the ocean it will mess up the balance of water. If we don’t act now, who knows what will happen to this planet.

 

  The housing crisis is another thing that really hurts our people. My grandparent’s old house has been on the market for almost two years. This is very serious because sales of homes have dropped a dramatic 40% in the last decade. Homes are also increasing in value, which makes it harder to buy them too. With bad investments we have really hurt ourselves by going into bankruptcy and foreclosure. Soon, trying to sell a home at actual value will be out of the question because no one can afford it. Hopefully, you can turn this around by helping the people, making a plan, or anything that could save our real estate market.

 

  College tuition's have increased so much that the amount paid by loans increased by 24%. Everyone knows that everyone that gets out of college is in a lot of debt and to try to pay back the loans is very hard. The average school tuition has increased by an average of $10,000 in ten years. College’s should lower tuition rates and quit spending so much to help the average student be able to go, have a good time and not worry so much about their bills. Students just can’t spend that much and go for all four years to graduate when money is getting scarce and cost is rising.

 

  Truly, we all must do something to save this economy. Every single person counts in this world no matter who you are or where you come from. It will not be an easy task to do this with all that is happening from the stock market’s enormous drops to the housing crisis. Yet, with time, effort and a good plan we can make this economy better than ever.