Comments

Hi Patrick. I really enjoyed reading this post, and the rest of you argument obviously. I like how you included the image and the hyperlink, your article became interactive and really enjoyable to read.

Your last stanza seems to be a bit unsure however, with your statement " I guess the point.." From those lines I felt a little uncertain about your argument. You raised a good point at the end, but I think you should have done more imperatively or with a bit more certainly. For example you could have said. " In this day and age, where kids can get their hands on practically anything, parents need to be playing a more vital role in monitoring what their children or watching or interacting with.

Just a thought, but all in all I found your article interested, especially because you kept your reader involved right throughout.

Elsie this is a really awesome topic to argue over. Like Hannah says, it is a really relevant topic in today's world, one that many people choose to ignore, or one that hasn't really gained enough attention. Personally I think this issue is a lot bigger than you have laid out. The issue of growing up could have been given more attention, or even the wish to please our parents. Kids often are a product of there parents, but most times kids will at some point go through some form of 'rebellion' against their parents and what they believe in. However some kids do not get that opportunity, perhaps they live in homes where there parents trap them in, or force them into conformity via threats, or abuse. This is really important, and I think people on the outside should be doing more for kids as unfortunate as them.

Hi leigh, good on for picking such a difficult topic. Personally I believe women should have the choice of aborting, but for obvious reasons I am uncomfortable with the thought of killing the chance of a beautiful life. But for this reason your argument was comforting to read, and you have actually successfully managed to smooth over my own ideas surrounding abortion so now I'm not as uncomfortable with the whole idea. 

I love how you chose to lay out your argument. It was simple, and I don't know if you did this intentionally but its simplified the argument in a good way. It was almost as if you were saying to us (through the layout) ' look this really isn't a difficult issue'. Thats awesome that you could manage that. This caught my attention even before I read your article, so you can imagine how involved I was when reading through it!

I love how you layout your arguments with titles to each section, I love how you use points. Really inspirational argument, god on you for getting your honest thoughts on the page so well, I may not agree with everything you said, but two peoples ideas are never the same regardless. 

Hi Gemma good use of imagery in here. I like your smoke rings. They seem to be a bit inappropriate though don't you think? I mean if your trying to convince people to legalise a drug, don't show a hot red head blowing smoke rings, seriously. At least you have the complete opposite in your argument, its all pretty coherent, but I can't help but think that you only want marijuana to be legalised so you can smoke up like the red head in the background. I'm on your buzz by the way, but I think I would have been a bit more honest in my opinion piece. It may sound ridiculous but a solid start would have been 'I love to smoke weed' go from there, we all know it's true, the only people who don't are the people who are too scared to give it a go. You know it's not like smoking, or drinking alcohol, or even caffeine. I'd say its a lot better than all of those, then get into some little factoids for your readers. Regardless I loved reading you article, obviously something that we all agree on.

14 May 2013 18:21

Hi Davy, ok you may hate me but here goes. I absolutely agree with all the points you have raised here. I'll even go so far to say that music piracy really is bad for the respective artists. BUT I will still illegally download music, maybe because I'm selfish, but I don't believe in intellectual property. Let me explain, first of all an artist comes up with a song, a video, or a piece or art. Does that immediately make it his or her intellectual property. I think no, and I think in these days that there is no such thing. People say ideas are all around us, but really your ideas are inspired by other peoples, and other experiences. Let me ask you have you ever had an original thought, that no one else has thought of before. So I think no one has the right to put a price on thought, it should be free for the world to here. Maybe if people could stop thinking about money for a minute, and begin thinking about how their music could be helping people all around the world. I think that is pretty special.

Summary

The issue of how we treat our earth is extremely understated. Most people realise that there are better alternatives to chemical and intensive farming, myself included obviously. I've always believed in living in harmony with my surroundings, however belief and action are two different things. I can accept that chemical farming has benefits, especially in places of extreme poverty, drought or infertile land. I will even go so far to say that the introduction of chemical farming has improved millions of lives. Farms are able to produce crops on a massive level and feed thousands of mouths at a relatively cheap price. However in New Zealand, where our land is fertile and abundant,  we do have the opportunity to practice environmentally friendly methods. We have the opportunity to improve our country. We have the opportunity to improve our lives, and future generations. I think its time we took that opportunity, and I think it's absolutely imperative that we do soon.
Finally I would like to discuss the issue of money. People are under the illusion that chemical farming is vastly cheaper and for that reason more feasible. This is not entirely true, as in the long run organic farming can become sustainable and cost free. I won't lie to you; you will need to put in a lot of effort into organic farming. You will need to make your own organic fertilizer, instead of  going down to the store to buy some chemicals. You will need to research companion farming, construct compost bins, make organic herbicides, watch the land, research what grows best and so on. But as the old saying goes you won't gain a harvest if you don't sow seeds.
It's the choices we make that define us. Future generations will only benefit from our actions today, we must remember that.