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Hi Everyone! I need some help. For my Speech Communications class I have to write and give a speech about a current controversy. I need to find an Opinion or Editorial written about from the past year. Does anyone have an idea of what a good topic would be? I want to do something different. I spent a great deal of last semester studying the Conflict in Darfur and I found it very interesting. I recently found out from my classmates intro speeches for this semester that many of them did stem cell research. I am just about sick and tired of hearing about that so I want to do something different. Does anyone have any ideas? They don't have to be related to religion but I think that would be something interesting and also something that other people are afraid to cover. Thanks in advanced.

-Katie G

Thomas Friedman has a ton of op Ed pieces online. Picking one of his might be a good start. He seems to get to the heart of many issues. I suppose he isn't always right but he is almost always insightful.

Michael Medved is also quite insightful and is a Catholic.

CDL

Iraq's forgotten Christian minority

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=10817

Fr. Deacon,

Here, here. This would be an excellent starting point for Katie.

CDL

OOOOO great ideas. Keep them coming.

Some controversial issues I can think of:

-Whether those who are famous have a greater responsibility placed upon them to set good examples (example: sports and music stars)
-If being against homosexuality is a behavioral problem needing therapy (See Isaiah Washington)
-The treatment of villagers in the making of the Borat movie
-Tibet
-Political ties with Taiwan
-The death penalty
-The death penalty for the mentally retarded
-The insanity plea
-Off-shore oil drilling in US territories
-Oil usage vs alternative fuels
-Whaling
-Planned Parenthood and racism
-Censorship of public resources (such as library computers)
-Censorship of books (such as the Freedom Writer's Diary) in public schools
-Perverted Justice's tactics
-Ashley Treatment of disabled girl
-Vegan diets
-Foreign adoption (see Madonna)
-Chinese abortion laws
-Chinese adoption laws
-Public smoking laws
-War on drugs and legalization of marijuana
-Banning of religious articles in public institutions
-Wal-Mart:
.labor practices
.health insurance
.third-world workers
.political practices
.vs Mom and Pops
-NASA expenditures
-College admittance based on race and gender
-Seat belt laws
-Prison Reform
-School vouchers
-Lebanon's ethnic and religious tensions
-Female circumcision and genital mutilation
-Illegal immigration and the US borders
-STD/Cervical cancer shot being required for admittance to public schools
-Vaccinations of any sort being required for admittance to public schools
-Kyoto Protocol
-Famous people's gag orders on household workers (See Beckhams)
-Spanish-speaking public schools
-Amish being required to place reflectors on their buggies
-Parental rights or responsibilities of sperm or egg donors
-Parental rights or responsibilities of surrogate mothers
-Online privacy and caching

Wondering,

I like many of your ideas but am scratching my head over many of them. Has there really been a serious attempt to kill the developmentally disabled? Is this a way of speaking of abortion? I didn't know that there was still a controversy over seat belt laws. But others are very interesting because you have put provocative titles to them.

The Ashley Treatment, as it has been dubbed, concerns the severely handicapped girl whose parents had selective procedures such as a hysterectomy and mastectomy done to make caring for her at home easier. It is a step-up from the Terri Schiavo controversy because it has the "good" intentions of the parents thrown in (after all, they aren't killing her), creating more controversy.

The Andrea Yates case is a prime example of the controversy in the US over the legal responsibilities of the mentally ill or disabled. The death penalty has come up in some form in almost every one of the states, as well as at a federal level, in the last 5 years or so. I know the death penalty for the mentally disabled was addressed by the Supreme Court at least as recently as 1999. A Roman Catholic nun was highly (and controversially) involved in that case and many others. The defendant was Dobie Gillis Williams. The case also has another controversial link: racial minorities' and indigent people's public defense, which is strongly decried among some circles. 98% of those sentenced to death had public defenders. Juries are also statistically more likely to find a racial minority to be a continuing threat to society (a determinant of the death penalty) than they are a Caucasian for the same crime. 1 in every 7 death row inmates have been exonorated with DNA evidence, access to which is still denied to many. (Joseph Roger O'Dell is a good case concerning that, which Sr. Prejean was also involved in controversy over.) The death penalty has many different facets, all of which are highly controversial.

I left abortion off the list in large part because of Katie's request for something different. I did put the Eugenics foundation of Planned Parenthood on there as it is not discussed very much outside of pro-life circles.

Seat belt laws don't have much political level controversy surrounding them, but the enforcement of them does. Courts and city councils are more likely to hear about the issue than legislators are now. Some police departments have instituted policies where they may pull people over for that one violation (in most places it is restricted to being added as a secondary violation) and that movement--while greatly decreasing deaths and tax money spent on accidents through law enforcement, health care, hospital bills, and other extraneous costs-- remains highly controversial among the citizens who sense a police state of sorts. They believe not wearing a seat belt is a personal prerogative which the state has no interest in overseeing. The state argues that it has a public welfare and an economic interest in regulating seat belt usage on public thoroughfares.

The therapy for being gay issue is all over the news right now concerning a Grey's Anatomy actor who made a crude slur to a co-worker. His executives are quoted as praising him for seeking immediate help through therapy for his behavioral problem of being anti-gay. He's meeting with GLAAD and overcoming his prejudices.

The Borat movie was strongly criticized by many for its uncivilized "look" into Kazakhstani life, while others argued that it was typical English comedy which no one took seriously. The second controversy comes from the potential ethical lapses among the film crew who the villagers say misled them about the reason for filming and took advantage of their poverty-stricken state, and the local prejudices against the villagers add an interesting twist to the mix.

There was a sperm-donor who was found monetarily responsible for child support, much to his surprise.

A surrogate mother decided she wanted to parent the baby she was carrying and it was decided that she had no rights to the baby after entering into the surrogacy contract. This is extremely controversial among adoption detractors who fight very hard for mothers to have the right to choose to parent or enter into an adoption agreement only after the birth of the child.

The Beckhams made recent controversial news when their nanny started writing newspaper exposes on them. Like all celebrities, they included a no disclosure clause in her contract. The judge overrode it saying that they made their money on their personal image of a happy family and therefore that image (and their family life) was open to the public's scrutiny.

China's forced abortions, especially among the rural inhabitants, is a topic in itself. It is illegal in China to put a child up for adoption, despite the Chinese government running the largest, most stable, and longest continuously running adoption industry. There is a push to abort girl babies so the family will have a son to take care of them. Doctors perform sonograms for the sole reason of determining gender to prescribe abortions for girl babies. This has led to a disproportionate number of men to women. There is also a problem of the third generation of only-children who have no aunts, uncles, or cousins. School teachers are pulling their hair out because of the brattiness from children who are the center of attention at home, since mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa all have their future riding on this one child. Baby girls are also almost exclusively placed for adoption. This raises an issue over foreign adoption (which the Chinese goverment pushes to get the babies out of the country because of their concern of over-population). Is it unethical to adopt from a country with such practices where the parents are forced to place their children for adoption, much less where they must do so anonymously, so the child has no chance of knowing its origins? Or is it more important to provide an alternative to the people who otherwise would be likely to abort their little girls? It would be an interesting look into the lives and controversies of mainland China today, which would touch on foreign adoption, forced abortion, selective abortion, and the ethical responsibilities of others.

I think I've remembered the issues pretty well. All that is from memory so Katie would need to actually find sources on them to determine the detailed facts.

Is there anything else which isn't self-explanatory and looks provocative?