Don't Legalize Just Accept

This project is for my Argument class for our last Action Project. The purpose of this project was to pick a law or rule to write about and then you have to pick your position on that argument and find a opposing side to contradict your argument. After you pick a side and find an opponent you have to figure out where both arguments meet in the middle and what similarities they have. I learned about the graffiti removal projects we have in Chicago and also what they are still trying to make the graffiti law tighter and cut down on graffiti more. I am proud of my thesis because graffiti is something I am passionate about and I feel that it is one of the only topics I can write about and not have roadblocks.


Thesis
If graffiti is up, the city of Chicago should not remove it. It is art, and although classified as illegal, once up, should be displayed for all to see. I feel that graffiti should not be legal but it should be respected when it is up because someone went through a lot of struggle to get their art out into a world that wouldn't usually care about anything that they do. I feel like it should be respected just like art in a gallery because you do not see me going into a gallery and painting over someone else's artwork.

• The graffiti removal projects budget in Chicago has more than doubled from 4 million to 9 million since 1993
• The Chicago public school system is running a deficit of 370 million dollars
• The Chicago police department is chronically understaffed

Antithesis

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel would have a rather different argument. You can tell that Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants graffiti to be cut down more and more until he gets it under control. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Department of Streets and Sanitation (DSS) announced that they will be putting out 2 new chemical graffiti removal trucks and they say that it will remove 10-15 percent more graffiti. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and raised the fines for graffiti from $750 to $1,500 and $2,500 for repeat offenders.

Synthesis
Both Mayor Emanuel and I agree on at least one point: that graffiti is illegal. This might sound strange coming from me, a practitioner of this art form. As a practitioner of this art form I feel that graffiti would not be as interesting if it was made legal because you probably would not have the same adrenaline rush. Rahm Emanuel believes that it should be illegal because it makes the city look ugly. Even though we don't have the same reasoning it all comes to the conclusion that it should be illegal and it is vandalism regardless of my love for it.

After researching Mayor Emanuel's arguments I would like to ask:

• With all of the other important issues this city needs to be investing money in (see my evidence above), why focus on graffiti removal?
• A question I feel that Rahm Emanuel would have for me is: What about businesses and private owners that do not want this “art” on their buildings?

Dialect 

Works Cited
Zekas, Joe. "Gang Graffiti on the Edens." YoChicago RSS. Joe Zekas, 07. Web. 21 Mar. 2015. <http://yochicago.com/gang-graffiti-on-the-edens/5889/>.

Admin. "Graffiti Removal Business." The Business HQ. N.p., 04 Mar. 2015. Web. 21 Mar. 2015. <http://thebusinesshq.com/graffiti-removal-business/>.