Here Ms this one is better hopfuly.

1.2 n0. 3
Topic: The legal drinking age should be raised to 21.

To Whom It May Concern:

I am starting to consider unsubscribing to your newspaper. You continuously print unfair and unreliable articles. Again I will provide the other side to your article. In the hopes that you consider printing a article written by a consumer.

My first point in this argument is, people will still drink underage it doesn’t matter if you raise the age. If teens drink underage now why would they stop because the buying age has risen. When teenagers consume alcohol it is usually bought by people who are of the legal age so instead of penalizing those who don’t by for kids who are underage. If the government wants to control under age drink they should make it compulsory to provide photo identification.

My next point is what does the government plan to about the people who already drink legally e.g. 19 & 20 yr olds. I imaginethat they will rebel, most people would. I don’t believe it fair to make people how have been drinking for a year, two years how will the government deal with that.
The answer is the government haven’t come up with a plan for those people who will be affected by this change, they just expect that those who are over the age now but will be under the age if they change the age to “suck it up” and wait again.

The New Zealand government will never change the drinking age because it earns to much in revenue from the taxes. The New Zealand government charges a tax on liquor, this tax is an additional charge to GST. So this begs the question why would they change when alcohol taxes fund huge part of our economy. Especially when at this time the global economy is in a major slum, not only would this age raise hurt our economy it would hurt the economy of the countries who import alcohol into New Zealand.

My final point is New Zealand is incredibly slack when it comes to enforcing our laws on alcohol. It is my idea that instead of changing laws New Zealand police should be enforced them. Recently I was at a public event where there were a huge number of drunken teens obviously underage. This in its self was not alarming what was alarming was the police who were doing nothing. New Zealand should try enforcing the current law instead of creating a new law to delay the inevitable, which is teens will always drink irresponsibly if we didn’t we would learn how drink responsibly.

However there is merit in the idea of raising the age, a possible merit of raising the drinking age is it may encourage New Zealanders to adjust our binge drinking culture. Although I have my doubts about just how effective it would be. I wonder about this because binge drinking has been engrained onto our culture since the days New Zealand was called “the hell hole of the pacific.” New Zealand was given this name because it was the place to come if you wanted to get drunk and have sex. This idea is still an idea in young New Zealanders minds today. So although it may give us a nudge it the right direction it will not stop New Zealanders from binge drinking and drinking under age.

By Kate Mason.

1.2 Essay

Here you Ms, better late than never.
ill hand my mean creek essays to you on paper
tomorrow in class.



1.2 essay: Social networking site are a danger to New Zealand kids?


To the editor,

I am writing to you in response to an article ran in your newspaper recently “Social networking site are a danger to New Zealand kids”. It is my felling towards this article that it was under researched and written from the point of view of someone who was technologically illiterate. Because of this article it is my fear that many New Zealanders will get the wrong impression of social networking sites, and because of this fear I have taken the liberty to write a few paragraphs on the pros for social networking websites on the subjects of: Communication and Politics.

Communication, because of social networking website people all over the world are able to connect, so in a world where its difficult already to keep in touch with loved ones overseas because of the cost of the call social networking site are connecting them. It’s as simple as an email address, to join facebook the only thing you need is a name and an email address, and you’re on away. Even better if your friend has an email and is facebook member, when you join it automatically searches for them. facebook and myspace are free to join and free to use. It is a common misconception that the only people who use these websites fit into the age bracket of 15 to 30 yr olds, however people who fit 60+ groups are one of facebooks biggest user groups. And this makes sense these websites give those who can’t get out and talk to each the opportunity to talk. Although your article topic was about kids and the supposedly danger these sites pose to them I feel it is necessary to talk about the positive parts of these sites. It is my feeling that because most people only use these sites to get in touch with lost friends or relatives living overseas the motive to abuse is low. Also because there are a number of older people on these sites the motive again is low.

Politics in the 2008 U.S. presidential elections they had a 21% increase in voters, it was also the year the most people who fit into the voting age bracket 18-25 yr olds voted. It’s my belief that the reason for this sudden increase in voting was because the democrat candidate Barak Obama had a facebook. By creating a facebook page Obama put him self in touch with the young votes. The young voters were able to ask him questions and get the answers in a format hey understand. Also in New Zealand most of our political party’s have a facebook page. Its seems unlikely that those who seek to abuse these websites would try anything with such an obvious political presence.

I will accept that there are dangers to joining these sites. One of the biggest issues is fraud but this does not only apply to the Internet it’s a worldwide issue. Online when your using these sites you have to be careful. The ways to avoid getting burned online are: only accept people you know as friends, Never give personal information away and if your page is on public view change it to privet view (this means you have to accept the person before they can visit your page).

By Kate Mason