Letter to Elected Official
Letters, emails, and phone calls are the easiest ways to communicate with our elected officials. If we don't let our officials know how we feel, how can we be angry when they make decisions we don't support? Contacting officials is even more important on the local level, as national and state representatives get hundreds to thousands of letters, emails, and phone calls each week.
Your task is to craft a letter that targets a specific problem and identify why it is important and what can be done about it. This letter can be in support or against the elected officials beliefs or actions. You must provide emotional, logical, and factual arguments, and must also identify a solution. This letter is to be done respectfully. We will discuss formatting of the letter in class.
The following is a link to a letter written by Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. King, to then-Senator Strom Thurmond in 1986. It discusses her opposition to Jeff Sessions' nomination to federal court judge. The issue became important recently, when Sen. Sessions was being vetted for the position of Attorney General of the United States. Sessions' nomination was approved and he currently serves as Attorney General, the chief lawyer in the United States.
Here's what your rubric looks like: