During the course of our school year our newspaper staff ran into a variety of problems due to our lack of technology. Although our school’s publication, the Palantir newspaper, manages to share computers and pagemaking software with Canyon del Oro High School’s yearbook, our cameras and darkroom technology are outdated. We feel that purchasing a digital camera would increase the quality of our photos and allow for the efficient use of time during deadline by eliminating the time- and labor-intensive darkroom development process.

However, the purchase of a digital camera is currently beyond our financial means. We make no profit from the production of our paper; we depend on the school and the district for all our funding—printing costs, paper, film, and other production essentials (for example, pizza). Unfortunately, the district is unable to allocate funding for this purchase—the board can’t do withouts its paid vacation time, you see, and like neglected first children, most money is now flowing away from us and, like the open sewers of medieval cities, towards the new high school that cost approximately ONE metric assload of taxpayer dollars.

In light of these difficulties, we request approximately $500 to cover the cost of this much-needed digital camera. We thank you for your time, even if your paper possesses a disgustingly conservative bias, and await your decision.