You have just received a letter from the local Citizens for Change Forum, inviting you to a meeting to address the growing concerns of citizens in your city on the following Saturday at 9am. The letter states the subject as Threat to Freedoms, which gets you thinking about the current state of affairs. You think about how your country has evolved into a progressive nation since it was founded and became part of the Global Union. However, the country is presently facing civil unrest. The citizens are dissatisfied with the way the government is executing its responsibilities. It seems the neighboring country that your country borders is inciting antidemocratic propaganda in your country. There is a general concern among the citizenry that the current administration has lost sight of the will of the people that had been the foundation on which the founding fathers had built the country. Certain freedoms are facing threats as the current administration is reflecting the influence of the undemocratic viewpoints of the neighboring country. Concerned citizens are gathering in different parts of the country to organize themselves into forums to voice their discontent. They are committed to keeping true to the founding fathers' belief in the value of a democratic society.

You and your fellow citizens are part of such a citizen forum and represent different walks of life. As a group you are exploring the best way to make the general populace understand why it is imperative to preserve rights of individuals and the importance of their contribution to this effort. The meeting has been called to initiate discussion and an action plan to diminish the influence of the anti-democratic propaganda.

The day of the meeting you walk in only to find yourself in the midst of an informal discussion

One of the members suggests,"The best way to have our voices heard is to organize a demonstration.

Another member yells, "Let us liaison with unions to organize a strike."

A calm voice from the back suggests, "Have you thought about the power of the pen to change ideas?"

The group is intrigued by the suggestion and suddenly there is a flurry of questions.

"What do you mean by the power of the pen?"

A skeptic sardonically questions, "Are you suggesting we write as our country falls apart? What a way to solve a problem!"

Another member, while asking for silence, requests the member who provided the suggestion to clarify.

The member, Marc, a man in his forties, walks up from the back to the podium and suggests that each member should make a strong argument in the form of a letter to the editor of national newspapers as to why a particular freedom needs to be preserved if we want to continue to be identified as a democracy.

A woman in the front states, "Oh! You mean maybe I could make a strong case for the freedom of privacy and he could make a case for freedom of speech, both of which we seem to be losing."

Another raises the question, "Okay I get that but do you think we could argue from the perspective of what specific role we play in our society? I am an educator and would be able to better defend a freedom from that perspective."

"Sure you could do that but I think it is even more important that we make arguments that are grounded in sound logic and support," responds Marc

He continues, "How about everyone writes at least a four page letter by [date] and then we can put our letters together and develop a six to eight page White Paper, which we can present as a strong argument justifying the protection of our most important freedoms at [your country's name] National Citizens Forum on [date]."

A young man seated beside the woman enthusiastically gets up and unfolds a fresh sheet on the poster board set up on the podium. He turns around and asks the forum participants, "What are the freedoms that we think are the most vital for a democracy and the possible roles we may take into consideration to develop a perspective on the freedoms we choose to defend?"

Marc continues, "Let us get organized by first listing the freedoms and roles before we set up some time lines. We must have a plan on what we want to state in our arguments and how we are going to support them with reliable sources as we write these letters in defense of different freedoms to the editor."

Questions to consider

• Who is our audience?
• Since we are writing a letter what are important aspects to take into consideration?
• Since we are writing a letter in an argument form what factors should we take into consideration?
• What guidelines do we want to adopt to organize our individual drafts so the final synthesis for the White Paper can be facilitated? Should we develop common criteria for all to follow?

© Rita Kumar, Brenda Refaei, and Claudia Skutar, Univ. of Cincinnati, 2011.
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