My First Published Words

When I was in High School, I took an AP government course in my junior or senior year (2002).  As part of the class, we had to write letters to the local newspaper on current affairs.  After we wrote our letters, our teacher sent them to the newspaper.  Mine was one of the few that was actually published. I don’t remember much from High School anymore, but oddly enough I still have a lot of the files on my computer.  I found the letter when I was going through my backup hard disk. Unfortunately I don’t have an exact date, and its unlikely there are archives for the letter’s section, but below is what I wrote.

The threat of weapons of mass destruction has plagued the world since the Cold War.  Yet, we have survived and prospered, going about our lives with outcries of rage at any mention of war.  This has prevented action; we go on letting terrorists and enemies past and present go on with little regard for national and world security.  Time has allowed for the exponential growth of weapon stores around the world.  Leaders of countries agree to inspections, but negotiation degrade them to a superfluous level, an annoyance that is eventually forgotten.  Who in their right mind would negotiate with someone who is merely biding their time until they attack? We do.  The destructive works of the past are forgotten, to today’s generation.  War, not all that long ago, is forgotten, this is why history repeats itself, no one cares to remember.  How do we change the past, protect the future?  We must make amends for the lack of action.  Iraqi weapons, North Korean weapons programs, of course there is a likely hood they would use horrible weapons, they do horrible things, that is why we must stop them.  The important thing however is that we never sink to their level, and, we must never give in.  If we do then we have no place as a world power.

 

I can say I don’t agree with everything I wrote. The worst part is seeing how bad it needs an edit!  Not only are there errors, but the ideas bounce around without a single coherent message.  Still, it is the first of my writing that was ever published.  I think I’ll stick to avoiding politics like the plague.  Fiction is much more fun.  It’s strange to go back and read such old work.  Now I’ll have to go back and re-read all my other reports.  Not a bad project as the 10 year mark comes around!