Nasiyah Richardson

English 101
12/14/10
Discourse Community: AbstinenceNoAbstinence= More
Tax Dollars Actually.

The purpose of my cover letter and presentation is to express the conflict of my discourse community in
a fluent way. The discourse community I am focusing on is Abstinence and those who participate in it.
Conflict of it arises as the pregnancy and STD rates continue to grow. My presentation is to show that in
Illinois task of removing money from abstinence programs it didnt really help out tax payers or will it
help the pregnancy and STD rates.
Sexual Abstinence is of a subject that sparks many independent opinions and feelings. Illinois act in
removing funding to claim to save tax payers money, and to put more money in sex education could be
seen to me as a selfish act. In order to do something about the conflict and take an approach I decided
to write to the 1st district congressman of Illinois, Bobby Rush. I took this action as a way to voice my
statements.
Valerie Huber is the President of the National Abstinence Education Association. She has been one to
spark many opinions towards her because she states passionately about her support of Abstinence

Education. On an public speaking event Huber stated Sexual education does not provide practical skills
for maintaining or recognizing abstinence, but typically gives teens a green light for sex that puts them
at a gateway for STD &unwanted pregnancy. Huber tends to speak in a way that shows how strong she
stands by her points and views. It is this same argumentative approach I took in order of fulfilling my
action of writing to Congressman Bobby Rush.
My letter to Bobby Rush consisted of many facts and statement who like Huber I strongly emphasized
on. As a summary of my letter it surrounds these topics, Illinois main argument is that because
abstinence didnt work then this became a waste of taxpayers money and it didnt even help our teens.
What Illinois fails to realize is the fact that the bit of teens that were being influenced by abstinence, like
myself and many other girls has helped the rate to be where it is because without us the rates could be
much higher. But now with no abstinence programs the girls to come wont even know what abstinence
is, which means sex is the alternative, and more sex equals more pregnancy. And it is factual by statistics
that more than 75% of all unmarried teen mothers receive some sort of welfare within 5 years of the
birth of their 1st child, and more welfare equals more tax dollars taken. So who and what is Illinois really
helping?
The approach I took as to arguing as a ways of Huber was very useful in order to fulfill my purpose of
this project. It allowed me to voice facts and statements to defend the conflict of my discourse
community. It allowed me to do it in a way where it proved the stability in my reasons. I feel as I
effectively achieved and was able to get my point across clearly. Though these things are true many
adaptions had to be made as the way I must state facts and my own opinions. The adaption of forcing
your words to fit the context of what someone else, I might say was a challenge. As consequences there
were no negative effects. Only consequences of being able to validly prove statements.