On a Mission to Petition

Choose an issue, and write to the appropriate level of government advocating for a change in policy.

Requirements:

1-page max

2 copies

  • Address to appropriate level of government
  • State, Local, county, city, school district, special district [water, fire, electric]
  • Appropriate branch:
  • Legislative: City Council, County Council, School Board, State Senate/House, Congress (Senators, Representatives)
  • Executive: City Manager, Mayor, County Executive Governor, Cabinet, President, Secretaries…
  • Judicial: State Supreme Court, National Supreme Court, Appeals Courts
  • Appropriate specific person (and job)
  • Who is the person? What is their job? Title? Responsibilities? How did they get that job? What powers do they have? Do they have the power to make the changes that you recommend?
  • Annotated Copy(for rhetoric, persuasion, and connections to Constitutional Principles, explained on back)
  • Ethos, Logos, Pathos
  • Statistic, concrete details, stories
  • Economic issue/idea (if applicable)
  • Constitutional principles
  • Core US Values (use a quote from a Founding Father or prominent American (MLK Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, Einstein…)
  • Specific Rights
  • Enlightenment Principles
  • Specific Constitutional issues (checks and balances, expressed/reserved powers, “Necessary and Proper”)

Step 1:

  • Choose 3 issues that you care about:
  • 1 local level issue (school district, water district, city, county…):
  • What is the issue?
  • What is the current policy?
  • Why do you care?
  • What should be changed/done?
  • 1 State level issue:
  • What is the issue?
  • What is the current policy?
  • Why do you care?
  • What should be changed/done?
  • 1 Federal level issue:
  • What is the issue?
  • What is the current policy?
  • Why do you care?
  • What should be changed/done?

Possible local and state issues:

•Skate Parks, crosswalks, traffic signals

•Gay Rights (employment discrimination, housing…)

•New Bike Trails

•Federal Budget

•Gerrymandering

•Transgender bathrooms

•Minimum wage ($15?)

•Testing in schools

•Taxes (sales, income, property, tariff, gasoline, cigarettes…)

•Marijuana and/or other drugs

•Environment

•Carbon Tax

•Gas mileage

•Pet licensing

•Stray animals, wild animals

•Health Care

•Paid family leave

•The National Debt

•Names of lakes, streets, and teams

•Sammamish water

•Income inequality in WA

•Traffic Issaquah

•Snake Hill Road

•Metal Water

•Drinking Age

•Puget Sound Pollution

•Minimum Wage

•Comcast issues in Sammamish

•Class sizes

•STEM class offerings

•ISD bell schedule

•Irrigation backflow testing

•Lake Sammamish pollution

•Sammamish storm drains

•Viaduct

•Salmon, tax $

•Plastic in Puget Sound

•Tent city

•Unemployment

•Gun rights

•Wildlife in Cascades

•Traffic

•Pine Lake invasive crawfish

•Plateau deforestation

•Poor construction

•Artificial turf

•Minimum wage

•Speeding/school zones

•Light rail

•Native replanting

•Women’s wage gap

•Business encouragement

•I-90 Bridge

•Coal management

•Sports complexes in Sammamish

•Bees v Chemicals

•520 bridge

•ISD budget

•Private beaches?

•Public safety

International Issues (Congress and Executive Branch):

  1. Military Spending
  2. Immigration
  3. Syrian refugees
  4. Supreme Court nominee
  5. ISIS/War
  6. Patents and intellectual property
  7. Hacking and internet security
  8. College costs
  9. Education
  10. Global Warming
  11. India/Pakistan
  12. North Korea/South Korea
  13. Israel/Palestine
  14. Rising China (China/Japan East and South China sea)
  15. Human rights in China/Tibet, Uighur independence
  16. Al Qaeda
  17. ISIS
  18. Hostages/Negotiation with Terrorists
  19. Russia, Ukraine, Crimea
  20. Iran
  21. Human rights
  22. Ebola
  23. Cuba
  24. Zika Virus
  25. Cyber security
  26. Chinese patent protection
  27. African civil wars/border disputes
  28. CAR
  29. South Sudan
  30. Nigeria
  31. DR Congo
  32. War on Drugs (Latin America)
  33. Somali piracy
  34. War on Terror
  35. Spying CIA/NSA (domestic/international, heads of state)
  36. Torture
  37. Drone strikes
  38. Immigration
  39. Arab Spring, democracy
  40. Syria civil war
  41. Egypt
  42. Libya
  43. Myanmar/Burma
  44. Drug/gang violence in Mexico/Central America
  45. Trade policy
  46. Corporate global responsibility laws
  47. (anti-corruption/fair trade labeling/conflict free products)
  48. Global warming/climate change
  49. Cuba embargo
  50. WTO/free trade agreements
  51. Renewable energy (subsidies)
  52. Oil drilling offshore
  53. Coal mining
  54. Tar sands and Keystone pipeline
  55. Sweat shops/worker safety/labor rights
  56. NATO/US military spending
  57. Saudi Arabia/Gulf States US alliance
  58. Nuclear proliferation
  59. Afghanistan
  60. War/withdrawal
  61. Iraq
  62. Kurdistan
  63. Wikilinks/internet privacy/piracy/Snowden
  64. Funding for terror groups
  65. Farm subsidies/ethanol
  66. Foreign Aid budget
  67. Haiti
  68. “Pivot” to Asia
  69. Pollution
  70. Arctic land grab/mineral rights
  71. AIDS/Malaria
  72. The UN (funding/strength/usefulness)
  73. Free Trade
  74. TPP
  75. TTIP