20 minute free write, Daily Universe document

Timed write

What to write to the Daily universe about.

There should be more women and minorities in the ROTC program at BYU. Right now it is only 5% female and essentially all white, except for me. Not only is this detrimental to BYU as a whole in limiting the flow of ideas in the program, but it creates a narrow minded vision of what the army should be composed of, especially when the ROTC program offers so much to it’s cadres. 

Get rid of some of the GE’s. What if you know exactly what you want to do with your career, and your GE’s simply take up time? Furthermore, what if you are a music major? It distracts from the central focus and tarnishes BYU’s reputation.

What else

What is an issue of utmost importance at BYU? I think sometimes BYU students think they are superior to other students. I think every student should have to spent time away from BYU either in another school (especially in another state) or have mandatory study abroad programs.

It’s hard to think of things to complain about on the spot

General issues around the world

Marijuana, drugs in general, abortion, gay marriage, immigration, foreign policy, trade, feminism, LGBT rights, so many problems.

Could talk about political instability in Thailand.

Corruption in India.

Migrant workers in China.

The loss of minority languages in China.

I still like the ROTC idea. It emphasizes the whiteness of BYU, and how the rest of the world views us as this school with lots of weird people, no minorities and a bunch of white males and subversive females. The essay could focus on the ROTC program, then talk about the perceptions of the school in general and how we as students could strive to change this perception.

Could draw on personal experience—never wanted to go to this school because non Mormons and Mormons alike told me I would hate it and made fun of it all the time.

Can always talk about: 

Why people don’t listen to more classical music

Global warming

The demoralization of society

Now I’m just wasting time.

10 minutes and 16 seconds to go.

Someone once told me the church spends a ton of money trying to make their members think their church is “normal” in society. It would be interesting to do a study on whether or not we find this to be true, what mormons think of this, and what non LDS members think. But that would waste too much time and would have to be done on a much larger scale. 

- Could always write something on why people leave the church.

- Talk about women and the church. Cliche, but necessary.

- Taboo topics in the church that people don’t usually openly discuss without getting heated-the: Priesthood and women, distribution of power, etc.

Back to the ROTC thing. Why don’t more females and minorities join ROTC?

Isn’t part of their culture.

Could talk about the role of Mormon missionaries facilitating the Sino American relationship back in the 1980s. It’s a very interesting topic, but would take a lot of research to write a really good paper on it.

People say they hire Mormons because they are:

stone cold sober

follow without thinking

have no dirty history

have experience with rejection (ie) mission)

How true is it that LDS people “follow without thinking”? Would be very interesting to look into this. 

Three and a half minutes left.

Well

Um

Uh

Could always talk about pollution.

Talk about why standards are where they are. For instance, why are we allowed one piercing, but not two, or none at all? How did that get settled? How much of what we believe to be the standards as an LDS people are actual commandments and others lines drawn because a line had to be drawn somewhere? What difference is there between intent and actual outcome, and do we as a people dwell too much on the actual outcome part of the equation instead of the intent part of the equation?

40 seconds

Why we judge so much.

Why the sky is blue.

How fairy tales are unfeministic (is that a word?) and what we should do about them.