Category: x Archive Exercises

“Open Strong” Exercise

Essay in need of a Strong Opening

Anne Frank, the Jewish girl whose diary and death in a Nazi concentration camp made her a symbol of the Holocaust, was allegedly baptized posthumously Saturday by a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to whistleblower Helen Radkey, a former member of the church. The ritual was conducted in a Mormon temple in the Dominican Republic, according to Radkey, a Salt Lake City researcher who investigates such incidents, which violate a 2010 pact between the Mormon Church and Jewish leaders.

Radkey discovered that Annelies Marie “Anne” Frank, who died at Bergen Belsen death camp in 1945 at age 15, was baptized by proxy on Saturday. Mormons have submitted versions of her name at least a dozen times for proxy rites and carried out the ritual at least nine times from 1989 to 1999. This time, Frank’s name was discovered in a database that can be used for proxy baptism — a separate process, according to a spokesman for the church. The database is open only to Mormons.

A screen shot of the database shows a page for Frank stating “completed” next to categories labeled “Baptism” and “Confirmation,” with the date Feb. 18, 2012, and the name of the Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple.

Mormon posthumous proxy baptisms for Holocaust victims or Jews who are not direct descendants of Mormons has continued, despite church vows to stop such practices. Negotiations between Mormon and Jewish leaders led to a 1995 agreement for the church to stop the posthumous baptism of all Jews, except in the case of direct ancestors of Mormons, but some Mormons have failed to adhere to the agreement.

The name of Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel was recently submitted to the restricted genealogy website as “ready” for posthumous proxy baptism, though the church says the rite is reserved for the deceased, and Wiesel is alive. Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, was among a group of Jewish leaders who campaigned against the practice and prompted the 2010 pact by which the Mormon Church promises to at least prevent proxy baptism requests for Holocaust victims.

Wiesel last week called on Republican presidential candidate and Mormon Mitt Romney, a former Mormon bishop who has donated millions to the church, to speak out about the practice. The Romney campaign did not immediately reply.  The Frank case follows closely on an apology from the Mormon Church last week for recent posthumous baptisms of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal’s parents.

The latest baptism of Frank by proxy is especially egregious because she was an unmarried teenager who left no descendants. Mormon officials have stressed that in accordance with the agreements, church members are supposed to submit only the names of their own ancestors.

“The security of the names submissions process for posthumous rites must be questioned, in view of the rash of prominent Jewish Holocaust names that have recently appeared on Mormon temple rolls,” Radkey said about her latest find. “This one sailed straight through, with Anne’s correct name in their ‘secure’ database.”

Radkey said she expects, once word gets out, that church officials will scrub the records as they did with Wiesel and Weisenthal’s parents. The Mormon Church responded later Tuesday in a statement: “The Church keeps its word and is absolutely firm in its commitment to not accept the names of Holocaust victims for proxy baptism. While no system is foolproof in preventing the handful of individuals who are determined to falsify submissions we are committed to taking action against individual abusers who willfully violate the Church’s policy. Ritual baptism should be understood to be an offering based on love and respect; we regret when it becomes a source of contention.”

Exercise Specifics

In the Reply field below this post, write your strongest Opening Paragraph.

Your paragraph must contain a thesis sentence that clearly and boldly proclaims the claim you promise readers you will prove.

In addition, your Opening Paragraph:

  1. Will make strong, perhaps paradoxical claims.
  2. Will sum up a very strong argument your essay will make.
  3. Will NOT LOSE the argument.
  4. Will itself be an arugment.
  5. Will be memorable.
  6. Will be debatable, demonstatable, illustratable.
  7. Will be a good example of itself.

Well, maybe it won’t accomplish all 7 goals, but the more the better!

You have until the end of the period to write your best first draft.

Robust Verbs- phillygirl

In Vancouver, heroin addicts often commit crimes to support their habits. The “free heroin for addicts” program is doing everything they can to stop the addicts. The problem is that there is a large crime rate due to the addicts. Addicts have a hard time getting through their day to day lives. Addicts’ daily activities such as jobs, interactions, and relationships are hard to maintain because of the fact that they are using. By heroin users being addicted, they will do whatever they have to do to get their hands on the drug. Users may commit crimes such as breaking and entering as well as stealing. No limits to where they will go to retrieve this drug so that they can feed their addiction. The problem with this program is that it won’t help to ween these addicts off using heroin. The program only helps to save the city from rising crime rates that they’re up to. By providing the drug, addicts will be off the streets, which in turn will prevent them from committing minor street crimes. in addition, keep the heroin users out of the hospital. Hospitals shouldn’t have to deal with people that want to use bad drugs or unsanitary needles and find themselves being unable to afford hospital bills and hard to cope without the drug. The program gives people free heroin in the cleanest way possible. The program will in turn fix the city but not the addiction that these people face.

Robust Subjects – NewEditionLover

In Vancouver, there is a huge problem with heroin addict committing crimes to support their habits. Although crime rate is high because of these addicts.. The program gives users heroin in the cleanest way possible by providing clean heroin and clean needles to prevent the spread of blood-borne diseases. The city’s crime rate will reduce but heroin addicts still have a long and difficult road in front of them.

Robust Verbs- alaska

In Vancouver, heroin addicts often commit crimes to support their habits. The “free heroin for addicts” program is doing everything they can to stop the addicts. The problem is that there is a large crime rate due to the addicts. Addicts have a hard time getting through their day to day lives. Addicts’ daily activities such as jobs, interactions, and relationships are hard to maintain because of the fact that they are using. By heroin users being addicted, they will do whatever they have to do to get their hands on the drug. Users may commit crimes such as breaking and entering as well as stealing. No limits to where they will go to retrieve this drug so that they can feed their addiction. The problem with this program is that it won’t help to ween these addicts off using heroin. The program only helps to save the city from rising crime rates that they’re up to. By providing the drug, addicts will be off the streets, which in turn will prevent them from committing minor street crimes. in addition, keep the heroin users out of the hospital. Hospitals shouldn’t have to deal with people that want to use bad drugs or unsanitary needles and find themselves being unable to afford hospital bills and hard to cope without the drug. The program gives people free heroin in the cleanest way possible. The program will in turn fix the city but not the addiction that these people face.

Enough About You- alaska

Money seems to have a big role in our society; we can’t do much or get far if we don’t have any. Money is valuable in different ways, even when we don’t see it physically. In today’s society we must have faith in the government and in the banking system that money is being handled in the proper manner; if not, then we would have to hide all the money under a mattress or around the house. I have no clue what happens in the banks, or how they take care of money. I always thought money was simple; either it’s there or not – that’s it. However, being introduced to this assignment, the Yap Fei, US gold, French francs, Brazilian cruzeros, and debit accounts now seem similar. In the banks we don’t see the money being transferred. When getting paid, we aren’t handed cash, no physical check, the money is directly transferred to the bank account, and have to trust that all the money is in the account.

“Robust Verbs-pdqlover”

In Vancouver there is a huge problem with heroin addicts committing crimes to support their habits. The “free heroin for addicts” program is doing everything they can to stop the addicts. The problem is a large crime rate due to the addicts. Obviously that addicts have a hard time getting through their day to day lives. Daily activities such as jobs, interactions, and relationships are hard to maintain because they are using. Heroin users being addicted, they will do whatever they have to do to get their hands on the drug. Types of crimes committed are those of breaking and entering as well as stealing. No limits to where they will go to retrieve this drug so that they can feed their addiction. The problem with this program is that it won’t help to ween these addicts off using heroin. Only trying to save the city from rising crime rates that they’re up to. By providing the drug, these addicts will be off the streets, which in turn will prevent them from committing minor street crimes. This will also keep the heroin users out of the hospital. It’s pointless that the hospitals have to deal with people who want to use bad drugs or unsanitary needles and find themselves being unable to afford hospital bills and hard to cope without the drug. Programs give people free heroin in the cleanest way possible. In return this will fix the city  but not the addiction that these people face.

“Enough About You—pdqlover”

Money seems to have a big role in our society; we can’t do much or get far if we don’t have any. Money is valuable in different ways, even when we don’t see it physically. In today’s society we must have faith in the government and in the banking system that our money is being handled in the proper manner; if not, then we would have to hide all of our money under our mattress or around our house. I have no clue what happens in the banks, or how they take care of our money. I always thought money was simple; we either have some or we don’t—that’s it. However, being introduced to this assignment, the Yap Fei, US gold, French francs, Brazilian cruzeros, and debit accounts now seem similar. We don’t actually see our money being transferred. When we get paid, we aren’t handed cash, we don’t receive a physical check, the money’s all directly transferred to our bank account, and we just have to trust that we have more money.

Robust Verbs Jonhjelly

In Vancouver we have a huge problem with heroin addicts committing crimes to support their habits. The “free heroin for addicts” program is doing everything they can to stop the addicts. The problem is a large crime rate because of the addicts. It is obvious that addicts have a hard time getting through the day. Daily activities such as jobs, interactions, and relationships are hard to maintain because of the fact that they are using. By heroin users being addicted, Nothing  will stop them from doing whatever they must to do to get their hands on the drug. The types of crimes committed are those of breaking and entering as well as stealing. It seems to be no limit for these addicts to go through to retrieve this drug so that they can feed their addiction. The problem with this program is that it won’t help to ween these addicts off using heroin. It is only trying to save the city from rising crime rates that they’re up to. By providing the drug, these addicts will be off the streets, which in turn will prevent them from committing minor street crimes. This will also keep the heroin users out of the hospital. It is pointless that the hospitals have to deal with people that want to use bad drugs or unsanitary needles and find themselves being unable to afford hospital bills and hard to cope without the drug. This program gives people free heroin in the cleanest way possible. This will in turn fix the city  but not the addiction that these people face.

E11: Robust Subjects and Verbs — ChandlerBing

Vancouver suffers from a plentiful amount of heroin addicts committing crimes (such as breaking and entering and robbery) to support their unfavorable habits. A new controversial program provides addicts with free heroin as a way to aid heroin users. Using heroin consumes the users life, turning into an obsession that they are unable to live without. Finding jobs, day-to-day interactions and maintaining relationships become all too difficult for the user because they invest all of their time finding ways to obtain heroin. Weaning users off heroin is not the programs intent; in fact, it is only trying to reduce the rising crime rate in Vancouver. Many heroin users cannot afford expensive hospital bills when they overdose and hospitals should not have to deal with people who choose to use the drug. The program gives users heroin in the cleanest way possible by providing clean heroin and clean needles to prevent the spread of blood-borne diseases. The city’s crime rate will reduce but heroin addicts still have a long and difficult road in front of them.

Enough about you – Princess45

Money seems to have a big role in our society; we can’t do much or get far if you don’t have any. Money is valuable in different ways, even when we don’t see it physically. In today’s society we must have faith in the government and in the banking system that your money is being handled in the proper manner; if not, then we would have to hide all of the money under the mattress or around the house. I have no clue what happens in the banks, or how they take care of money. I always thought money was simple; we either have some or we don’t—that’s it. However, being introduced to this assignment, the Yap Fei, US gold, French francs, Brazilian cruzeros, and debit accounts now seem similar. We don’t actually see our money being transferred. When we get paid, we aren’t handed cash, we don’t receive a physical check, the money’s all directly transferred to the bank account, and we just have to trust that we got more money.