Take your NDAA and shove it.

Dear Senators Boxer and Feinstein,
As the climate in this nation continues to grow more and more oppressive and hostile, I find the legislation posed in sections 1031 and 1032 of the National Defense Authorization Act to be a complete affront to American principles.
This government's blatant and disgusting disregard for a citizen's right to express dissatisfaction with their government has been more than apparent in the nationally coordinated and frequently violent and illegal arrests of concerned citizens participating in the Occupy movement. With the recent deliberation of H.R. 3261 in the House regarding internet censorship, it would seem that the U.S. government is making it easier to suppress the voice of the very people it was meant to represent.
I am a college student, and I generally find myself on the conservative side of many of my peers, but as a witness to the violent beating of my fellow students during our peaceful protest of tuition hikes at UC Berkeley, I have come to realize that the world I am about to step into is nothing like the world my forefathers imagined into existence in the 18th century. It is heartbreaking to watch this government overtly crush foundational American sentiments such as the right to speak out against the wrongdoings of one's own State...but as history has shown us, the revolutionary always comes to occupy the role of the oppressor. American revolutionaries were killed by British soldiers when they sought to speak out against a government that denied them their basic liberties. I think our forefathers would be horrified to see the awful, decrepit mutation of our founding fathers' dreams that stares back from section 1031 and 1032 of the NDAA.
I have been a loyal supporter of yours for the ten years of my voting life, and I hope that you will please consider my voice when you cast your vote. A month ago, I was just a student trying to finish her degree. Thanks to the shocking police brutality and the conspicuous denial of first amendment rights that I have witnessed firsthand on the campus of UC Berkeley, I will remain forever vigilant of the threat to my rights by a country that I love with my whole heart. I study rhetoric at Cal, which means that my whole life is dedicated to studying the soundness of arguments and the guiding philosophies behind texts and behaviors. I cannot stand by while the country I love becomes a horrible, mutated contradiction of the original American vision. I implore you, please oppose this ridiculous bill.
Thank you so much for your time. 

Things are a little tents...

I sent this letter to the chancellor at UC Berkeley. Trilesalectinophobia is purportedly the fear of camping equipment. In case you missed it, University police beat the crap out of peaceful student (and professor) protestors for having a few tents on the plaza. The chancellor responded with some really stupid emails-- beautiful lessons in fallacious reasoning (argumentum ad baculum, yo)-- including one in which he declared linking arms an act of violence. Call me crazy, but I am more concerned with the recent sexual assaults on campus than a few thousand people trying to speak truth to power.

Dear Chancellor Birgeneau,
I am concerned that the administration finds it more of a priority to email students about a few tents on Sproul Plaza than to address the recent sexual assaults on and near campus that have been reported by the Daily Californian. As a female student who escaped an assault relatively unscathed this summer near campus, I find it deeply disturbing (and insulting) that the administration has not taken the immediate initiative to warn the campus community about recent attacks.
While I am sure that your trilesalectinophobia has made the past few weeks difficult, I am convinced that the UCPD's time could be better spent actually protecting students rather than keeping watch for rogue camping equipment.
I appreciate the feigned concern for student safety expressed in recent campus-wide emails, but I think warning students of real threats (not ideological ones) would be a better expression of concern for the safety of the community. Thank you for your time.