ricting use of the flag. As a conservative white Southerner whose family moved here in 1635, I had to explain that this policy was not just politically correct, but that it made sense.

Nine years ago, I was inducted into the Order of the Arrow (OA), a selective Scout organization designed to encourage leadership and community service. My seventy-member induction class included twenty black Scouts, but I never saw more than one or two of them at OA events. I became concerned that the OA was not developing leaders from one-third of our state's population, and wondered why blacks returned so rarely. I remembered the pervasiveness of the Confederate flag on induction weekend-decorating mugs and T-shirts, hanging from flagpoles and in the dining hall. While I knew the flag was not the root cause of the problem, I decided that its removal would help keep black Scouts in the OA.Therefore, as editor of the regional OA newsletter, I published an article critical of the flag. Several black Scouts quietly confirmed my suspicions. One Scout recalled that his mother, seeing the flags in the camp dining hall, pulled him aside and whispered, "I don't think we're welcome here." More typical was the response of a prominent Scout leader, who angrily demanded to know why any debate was even necessary since "we only have two blacks in the lodge anyway." I could not believe how thoroughly he had missed my point.

Though my local efforts were thwarted, I still believed that Scouting should abandon the flag. One year later, my letter to the National Office prompted the new policy and ignited a storm of public debate. Critics blasted my disrespect for Southern tradition, misinterpreting my desire to help the South as an apology for the Civil War. I am proud of my relatives who fought and died for the Confederacy, but it is not their image that the flag represents when it is used at twentieth century Scout meetings, football games, and NASCAR races. Scouts began using the flag in the 1950s, about the time Georgia and South Carolina raised it over their State Houses. The flag is a response to unpopular Supreme Court justices, not invading armies.

Ironically, [school's] student newspaper has charged that I lack compassion and only represent white male fraternity members on a fraternity-dominated campus. The newspaper did not endorse me for student body president because I refused to give unconditional support to every cause, including de-emphasis of Western curricula and mandatory hiring quotas for black faculty. The editors downplayed my leading role in establishing the first main campus housing for a black fraternity, a woman's selective group, and a multicultural organization, because they believed that the fraternities should have been kicked off campus instead. Nonetheless, I was the first person to be elected without their endorsement in twenty years because students recognized my commitment to the entire community.The battle flag has slowly disappeared from Scouting, and [school's] campus better reflects the school's diversity. While integration is still a distant goal, these changes are small steps in the right direction. I sought practical improvements through independent thinking, perseverance, and tenacity in the face of fierce criticism. A legal education would give me tools to better use these abilities. I am not headed to law school on a mission, but I see law as an opportunity to contribute as we build our future. *

（在18歲時(shí)，我從未想到自己會(huì)受到如此的關(guān)注。我花了兩年時(shí)間力圖說(shuō)服當(dāng)?shù)赝�子軍�?lián)合會(huì)禁止廣泛使用南部聯(lián)邦戰(zhàn)旗，之后我寫(xiě)給國(guó)家事務(wù)部的信才有了結(jié)果。全國(guó)性的報(bào)紙報(bào)道說(shuō)我的信激勵(lì)了美國(guó)的童子軍頒布一項(xiàng)限制使用旗幟的政策。作為一個(gè)其家庭于1635年移居到這兒的保守的南方白人，我只能解釋說(shuō)該項(xiàng)政策不只是政治上正確，而且很有意義。

九年前，我正式成為OA的成員，這是個(gè)選擇童子軍的組織，意在鼓勵(lì)培養(yǎng)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)才能和社區(qū)服務(wù)精神。在我那個(gè)七十個(gè)正式成員的班里有二十名黑人童子軍，但我從未見(jiàn)過(guò)他們中有一兩個(gè)以上參加OA的活動(dòng)。我對(duì)此開(kāi)始關(guān)心起來(lái)，因?yàn)镺A并沒(méi)從占全國(guó)人口三分之一的人中培養(yǎng)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者，我還不清楚為什么黑人很少回來(lái)。我記得在征招成員的周末到處可見(jiàn)的聯(lián)邦旗幟?旗桿上和餐廳里掛滿了繪彩的啤酒杯和短袖衫。當(dāng)我知道問(wèn)題的根源不在于旗幟時(shí)，我決定要根除其原因才能有助于使黑人留在OA組織內(nèi)。

因此，作為地區(qū)OA時(shí)事通訊的編輯，我發(fā)表了一篇批評(píng)旗幟的文章。有幾位黑人童子軍證實(shí)了我的懷疑，雖然他們沒(méi)說(shuō)什么。有一個(gè)童子軍成員回憶說(shuō)，當(dāng)他的母親看到營(yíng)地餐廳內(nèi)掛著旗幟，就把他來(lái)到一旁，小聲對(duì)他說(shuō)，“我想我們?cè)谶@兒不受歡迎。”更典型的是一位重要的童子軍領(lǐng)袖的反映，他氣憤地要求說(shuō)他要知道：“既然在地方分會(huì)我們黑人只有兩個(gè)”，那為什么還有必要進(jìn)行辯論。我無(wú)法相信他怎么完全不理解我的意思。

盡管我的局部努力受到挫折，但我仍相信童子軍活動(dòng)應(yīng)該禁止使用聯(lián)邦旗幟。一年后，我給國(guó)家事務(wù)部的信促進(jìn)了該項(xiàng)新政策，并引發(fā)了公開(kāi)辯論的風(fēng)暴。批評(píng)家攻擊我不尊重南方的傳統(tǒng)，把我?guī)椭�南方的愿望誤解為是向南北戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)道歉。但我為自己那些為聯(lián)邦而奮斗并犧牲的親戚感到自豪。但是當(dāng)聯(lián)邦旗幟在二十世紀(jì)的童子軍會(huì)議上、足球賽上、全國(guó)汽車比賽協(xié)會(huì)賽車時(shí)被使用時(shí)，該旗幟所代表的就不是我的親戚們的形象了。童子軍是在二十世紀(jì)五十年代開(kāi)始使用該旗幟的，也就是該旗幟在喬治亞州與南卡羅來(lái)納州的州議會(huì)大廈上空升起的同一年代。那面旗幟是對(duì)最高法院公正（盡管它不得人心）的回應(yīng)，而不是對(duì)侵略軍。

具有諷刺意味的是，（學(xué)校的）學(xué)生報(bào)紙指責(zé)我缺少同情心，說(shuō)我只代表慈善校園內(nèi)白人男性慈善機(jī)構(gòu)的成員。該報(bào)紙沒(méi)有支持我當(dāng)學(xué)生會(huì)主席，因?yàn)槲揖芙^無(wú)條件支持任何事情，包括削減西方課程和雇用黑人職員的強(qiáng)制性配額。編輯們對(duì)我在建立第一個(gè)黑人組織的主要校園住宅，成立婦女選舉小組和跨文化組織等方面所起的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)作用輕描淡寫(xiě)，因?yàn)樗麄冋J(rèn)為早就該把這些組織踢出校園。然而，我是二十年內(nèi)第一個(gè)沒(méi)得到他們支持而當(dāng)選的人，因?yàn)槲覍?duì)整個(gè)社區(qū)的承諾得到學(xué)生們的認(rèn)同。
戰(zhàn)旗已經(jīng)從童子軍活動(dòng)中漫漫地消失。而校園則更好地反映了學(xué)校的多樣性。種族平等仍是個(gè)長(zhǎng)遠(yuǎn)的目標(biāo)，而這些變化則是朝正確方向前進(jìn)的幾個(gè)小小的步驟。我準(zhǔn)備面對(duì)激烈的批評(píng)，通過(guò)獨(dú)立思考、堅(jiān)持不懈地追尋可行的改變。而法律教育會(huì)給我以更好發(fā)揮這些能力的工具。我進(jìn)入法學(xué)院并不是因?yàn)槭裁词姑�，而是我把學(xué)習(xí)法律看作是為建設(shè)我們自己未來(lái)做貢獻(xiàn)的機(jī)會(huì)。）

三、 常見(jiàn)的錯(cuò)誤

與其他任何評(píng)估方法不同，個(gè)人的作文不是多項(xiàng)選擇，也沒(méi)時(shí)間限制，而且不要求面試或預(yù)演。你可重寫(xiě)幾百次，可請(qǐng)任何你認(rèn)識(shí)的人讀一讀。與你的考試分?jǐn)?shù)、成績(jī)、推薦材料不同，你對(duì)自己的申請(qǐng)入學(xué)的作文有絕對(duì)控制權(quán)。一定要利用它使之對(duì)自己有利，不要成為這些文章中常見(jiàn)的錯(cuò)誤的犧牲品。

校對(duì)不周

拼寫(xiě)檢查并不能查出一切問(wèn)題。一定要細(xì)讀文章，以發(fā)現(xiàn)那些不是自己的或荒唐的意思。

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