Hey Whyville,
At the end of both the debate articles submitted by Giggler01 and Lilbeaut, the Times Editor asked a question. "Where do you stand?" I intend to answer that question.
After carefully reading both of the articles, I found Giggler01's kind of offensive. Sure, in reality, minors really have no say in the political world. We are not expected to use vulgar language or make rude or inappropriate comments. We are controlled by our parents and other adults, we watch them do what they please with our world. This is all the reality -- we don't have the freedom of speech, we aren't taken seriously, and we are controlled -- so how is this fair? Giggler01 tells us that if we don't have the rights in reality, than why should we expect to have them in Whyville? To lay it out plain and simply, this is not reality!
While the real world is mostly occupied by adults and they have always been in control, Whyville is mostly made up of minors, so shouldn't we be the ones in control? I'm not saying that City Hall doesn't do a good job managing our town, but we the people want to have a say in what happens and we are often ignored because we are minors.
How can we be expected to be happy if we have not freedom? We are dictated to by City Hall, and a few others. This is not to say we want to get rid of City Hall, we love City Hall, she does a great job, and I would be lying if I said otherwise. We are saying that we want to be heard! We want to be able to make a few decisions of our own! We want Whyville to be run differently and more freely. As Lilbeaut put it, "We want more freedom."
Can you see how important it is to obtain freedom? People gave theirs lives to achieve it. We are seen as free country, but are we really?
To reach freedom, you have to be old enough. Until we reach the age (which varies from place to place), we are ruled by adults, they have the power to do so, they are free. They make our decisions for us, but how is this fair? We have working minds and just because we aren't as experienced doesn't mean we can't make the right decisions.
We are taken for granted, we are a large part of the population, why aren't we given a say? All we ask is to be heard. We all have our own views on censorship, but I think the problem is much bigger than that. That is only the surface. The problem is still growing, the problem is we are itching to be heard, to have say, to have some sort of power over what happens to us and the things around us. Soon people will be out right rebelling for these things. We want the freedom or choice, of thought.
Think about it, why can't we have some power? Our governing bodies send out our people to war, to kill each other because they are too stupid to realize that there are other ways. We, yes the naive underaged, can even see that.
Have you read some of the articles published in the Times? We do know a whole lot more than we are credited for. They publish all of our opinions but they never really do anything to fulfil our requests and needs do they?
We just AREN'T taken seriously. People here that we don't even get to elect run everything. They decide who gets taped, who gets banished, who is more powerful, what things to give us, and what thigs to take away.
They have managed to take away our freedom of speech though censorship, and as Blackbox and Lilbeaut have said, does this really help? IS this freedom?
As you can tell, my answer is no, this is not freedom, censorship should be abolished. Please do not take this as "get rid of the staff and let us take over." We do not want total power; we would not be able to do all the great things City Hall and staff does for us. We appreciate their efforts very much, at least I do anyway, but please, we want to have more power, more freedom.
What do you think you guys? Where do you stand?
As Always,
Shelly1
