Issue43 Argument67 3.13

longxuUID: 2290268

TOPIC: ISSUE43 - "To be an effectiveleader, a public official must maintain the highest ethical and moralstandards."
WORDS: 561          TIME: 0:45:00          DATE: 2007-3-13

Should a public official maintain thehighest moral and ethical standard to be an effective leader, as the speakerclaims? I agree with the assertion of the speaker insofar as the ethical andmoral standards for a political official are important in many cases. However,when we take into account the qualities of an effective leader, the ethical andmoral standards are insufficient under somecircumstances.

In the first place, the ethical and moralstandards are indeed for the leader of a country in that the confidence thatthe nation should have in the leader of their country is based on the moral andethical quality of the leader. Needless to say, if the leader cannot bebelieved by his citizens, there will be a great number of obstacles in the wayof his measures and policy. And, we could take Mao Zhedong, the significantleader of China,for example. Mao is a famous leader in the history of China, even nowthere are lots of people who still show great respects to him. It is the moraland ethical quality in his personality that made many people believed in himand could follow his measure during the dangerous war.

In the next place, the leader in some senseis the hero of his time in that the populace support their heroes to be the person who can make the wholenation's decision. For supporting examples, one need look no further thanGandhi in Indian. Gandhi is the leader of the civil rights in Indian, who isthe idol of his time and was admired by a great number of people of hiscountry, even the world as a whole. In fact, Martin Luther King, Jr is one ofhis followers, who is also a great leader in the Unites States as the initiatorof the civil right movement and the nonviolence protest. Thus, the highestmoral and ethical standards are actually needed by a effective leader to leadhis citizens.


It is true that the highest moral andethical standards are vital for a leader, however they are far from the allqualities of a great and effective leader of one country. Courage, knowledgeand wisdom are also of importance in the leadership.

For this point of my opinion, one tellingexample of the Unites States involves Lincoln, who was the president in theCivil War. During the war, Lincolndid a series of measures and made the U.S be a great country in the world. And,the courage Lincolnshowed can be seen from the process in which he did away with the slavery whichhad troubled the Afro-American for many years. Though there were huge amounts of opponents in that time, along with thecourage and wisdom he brought great changes to America and the whole world ofblacks. In this situation, it is not the highest moral and ethical standardsbut the wisdom and courage that are not able to help the leaders to own asignificant version and make far-reaching decisions in the time.

On the whole, a public official should meetthe highest moral and ethical standards in his or her time. Nevertheless, thequality of wisdom and courage are also of importance in the leadership. Withall of them, the leader can get the belief from the nation and be an effectiveleader.


TOPIC: ARGUMENT67 - The following appearedin a letter to the editor of a newspaper serving the villages of Castorvilleand Polluxton.

"Both the villages of Castorville andPolluxton have experienced sharp declines in the numbers of residents who payproperty taxes. To save money and improve service, the two villages recentlymerged their once separate garbage collection departments into a singledepartment located in Castorville, and the new department has reported fewcomplaints about its service. Last year the library in Polluxton had 20 percentfewer users than during the previous year. It follows that we should nowfurther economize and improve service, as we did with garbage collection, byclosing the library in Polluxton and using the library in Castorville to serveboth villages."
WORDS: 492          TIME: 0:30:00          DATE: 2007-3-13

The arguer claims that to economize andimprove service, the library in Polluxton(P) should be closed and both villagesuse the library in Castorville(C). To justify the conclusion, the arguerpresents some evidence about the measures taken to merge garbage collectiondepartments. However, the assumptions about the declined number of residentswho pay property taxes, the garbage collection departments and the library aredubious on several grounds, rendering the argument wholly unpersuasive as itstands.

First of all, the arguer unfairly assumesthat the declined number of residents who pay property taxes in both P and C isthe result of bad service of garbage collection departments. Nevertheless,there is no evidence to support the assumptions. It is entirely possible thatthe number of residents who have property enough to pay the tax is decreasingdue to some other reasons, such as a growing number of residents who are moveaway from P and C to another city. Thus, unless the arguer is not able todemonstrate more evidence about the reason why the number of paying propertytaxes residents is decreasing, the assumption of the argument is not wellfounded.

Next point, the assumption that fewcomplaints about the service are strong evidence to draw the conclusion thatservice of garbage collection departments is simply improved seems logical butstill cannot be interpreted. Perhaps, the residents lose heart with the garbagecollection departments, and no longer desire much better service. Or perhaps,the residents are still not familiar with the new garbage collection departments and cannot know much about thequality of service. Thus, unless the evidence that the service is actuallyimproved after the merge, we cannot accept the assumption that the merge canbring good effect on the service.

Last but not least, the arguer fails to take into consideration that there arenot sufficient similarities between library andthe garbage collection departments. Therefore, it is not substantial for thearguer to assume that the merge between P and C will result in good service. Itis likely that the library is far away from most of the areas of P and C,though the library is in C. It is also likely that the once service in Clibrary was not better than P and the residents will still not be satisfiedwith the service of library in C after the mergence. Consequently, lackingenough investigation about the service in C library, the arguer cannot expectgood service for residents in both P and C.

To sum up, the argument is indeed logicalunsound with the existing evidence and flawed assumptions about the library andthe garbage collection departments. Before any final decision, the arguershould inform us more information about: (1)why the number of paying propertytaxes residents is decreasing; (2) whether the service is actually improvedafter the merge; To strengthen it, the arguer should present more informationabout the library and the garbage collection departments.