Reply to Senate Bill 1907

Tamera you wrote an excellent blog; you informed readers very well about the bill, gave insights on what the senate is doing about the Senate Bill 1907, and you also gave your opinion. In my view I disagree with Tamara’s opinion on the Senate Bill 1907 because I believe there is no need for students to carry guns on campus; I believe that the professor’s and faculty members should be the ones allowed to have guns on campus.  With all these shootings occurring schools are at high risk; if this bill is passed it is going to put schools at greater danger. I am not against guns nor I am for them; I do believe guns are necessary for our own protection. I think we all have the right to exercise the 2^nd amendment if we ever find ourselves in threatening situations.

Who knows maybe this bill will help college campuses be safer, but from the things that I have seen now shows otherwise.  One of the reasons why I oppose this bill is because I believe that there are some students that are not mature enough to carry a gun; anyone can take the class, study, and pass the state license exam. How do we know that person is not going to use the gun for harm at school? I don’t think students are mature enough because of what I experienced at work and at school; two young college students I say about 20-22 year olds got into a heated argument and one of them threatened to take his gun out and shoot him, another incident was at school.  I attend Austin Community College and I am also a student at Texas State University; Texas State police sent out an email to everyone the other day about an incident that occurred involving a gun on campus. Evidently a male around his early 20’s pointed an AK-47 and pulled trigger but the gun did not fire, thank goodness.  This just shows that there are some students that are not capable of having gun, even if they have a permit.

How will this make other students feel knowing that their classmate has a gun in their car? I don’t know about you but knowing that a classmate has a gun doesn’t make me feel safe.  

I think there is definitely a lot of thinking that needs to be done with regards to the Senate Bill 1907 or any gun related law, because it’s our safety that is being put on the edge.

No More Excuses!

I was reading an article on the Texas Tribune that talked about a bill that is trying to be passed, which would allow undocumented people to have a driver’s license. The bill allows undocumented residents to get a driver’s license after getting a background check and paying 150 dollars in fees. I think this bill is a great idea because there will not be any more excuses for hit and run accidents. Many of the people that flee when they are involved in a car accident are people that do not have a license or do not have insurance; if this bill is passed it will also allow undocumented people to obtain car insurance and they will be able to register their car under their own name. It makes the information exchange process harder when you get into and accident with someone that doesn’t have a license and/or insurance because you don’t know if they are telling you the truth regarding their information, so with this new bill it would abolish that issue.

This bill gives undocumented people a peace of mind because they will no longer fear of getting a ticket for driving uninsured or driving without a license. This new bill will help reduce the crime because you are going to be able to identify the person. It will reduce the number of unreported accidents.  Texas is not the only state that has proposed a bill like this one; Illinois, New Mexico, Washington, and Utah are other states that have passed bill allowing undocumented people to obtain driver’s license too.

 If this bill is passed there is still going to be undocumented people without a license because they fear they will get deported once the state has all of their information. Many of the people that are undocumented are people with low resources that cannot afford to pay 150 dollars to obtain their license, which I don’t understand the reason for such a high price.

 This bill should be passed because it would help a lot of undocumented people, and it would stimulate Texas economy, but I think it needs some modification regarding the cost because not a lot of people can afford to pay that amount of money. This bill is beneficial to both the undocumented person and the state of Texas.

Bag Ban Violated our Rights?

Reading Aubrey's blog made me grasp her piont ; we are getting our rights violated,  but the state would be spending more money than it should to educate Austenite’s about waste-reduction. In my opinion that would be a waste of money because not all of Austenite’s would follow the recommendations. Also that money could have better use regarding preservation and a clean environment. With this bag ban that has occurred it has made everyone be more environmental conscious, which in my opinion is not a bad thing; we need to take care of our city.

Regarding the health issues the bags possess when we use them is a serious threat to everyone because that would increase the number of people getting sick, which would increase the antibiotic usage, which would then increase antibiotic resistant bacteria. Antibiotic resistant bacteria is something that we have to look into because it is getting difficult to treat infections.

I somewhat agree with you there should have been an educational approach to the bag ban, so it could of inform residents the reasons why it’s necessary and to educate residents how to care for the environment. But my question is would that have worked? There are people out there that don't care about the environment; would that money have gone to waste? In my opinion there should have been a better way to approach the bag ban without having people feel like they were getting their rights violated.

Education is the Key to Sucess.

Education is a key factor for a better future. It is evident that Texas has been ranked low on its education system, and you would think there would be a change to better the system, but no. I was reading two articles on The Texas Observer and The Texas Tribune and both articles talked about how Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock is attempting to pass an education bill HB 5, which would change the requirements for a student to graduate. This bill proposes that any Texas high school diploma is good enough to attend a university. The system that Texas schools have at this moment is a 3 stage system: minimum plan, regular plan, and the distinguish plan. The minimum plan doesn’t allow a student to attend a 4 year university; meaning they are able to attend a community college when they graduate high school.  The distinguish plan requires students to take 4 years of math and science. If this new plan were to be passed students need to pass 15 cumulative test in reading, writing, biology, Algebra I and U.S. history, which means they would be actually taking 3 test per subject. Students wouldn’t be taking many of the other classes that prepare them for college.

Passing this bill will reduce the motivation, perseverance, and the determination of students because it doesn’t give them some kind of a challenge; with the system that they have now students have to work harder to be on the distinguish plan, which give students a challenge. Also this doesn’t recognize students that put in the extra work to have better grades or a better transcript. The main concern is will students be college ready with this new system? In my opinion I think they will not; I took 4 years of math and science during high school, and I am glad I did because it helps me understand some of the new material that I am learning in college. If the younger generation is going to lead America I think we should be provided with a proper education.

I think that if this bill is passed students are not going to receive the necessary education to be successful in college. I think Texas should not pass this bill, because it doesn’t encourage students to better their education.  College is an important chapter in a student’s life and they should be given the tools necessary during high school to be successful in college.  An education is an important factor that helps you better your future, without an education it is hard to be successful.  

The President Can Flip on Us

Finding out that the president has the right to kill American citizens without trial brings fear to the nation, so don’t get on the president’s bad side. Obama has no intentions in killing Americans, but if there is an “extraordinaire circumstance” he will have no choice. My question is what would be considered an “extraordinaire circumstance”? What ever happened to feeling safe in your own home? This just really shows that the government doesn’t care for its people.  It’s scary to see the extent of how much power the president is receiving.

TexasFred expresses his opinion on the subject in an article named “Holder: Yep, Obama could kill Americans on U.S. soil” on his blog. TexasFred’s audience is intended to the general public. His opinion is that we shouldn’t worry about this issue; it’s is not a big deal if the president has the right to kill civilians, but then he contradicts himself by acknowledging that it is something scary to think about. He also argues that this makes the president a murderer as well as the attorney general that is advising him. He mentions the Posse Comitatus Act, which is an act the limits the power of the federal government using military force against civilians and wonders if that is still effective. TexasFred has faith on our troops what he doesn’t have faith is the front-runners leading the troops. He fears the type of orders that troops may receive and whether they are going to follow them or not.

The thing that freaks me out is why are we hearing about this now? And how long has this been in effect? When did Obama get this power? I think these are the questions that many Americans are asking themselves. It seems as if the president keeps getting more power and is controlling the American population, instead of us controlling the government; I thought that’s why America has a democratic system.

I somewhat agree with TexasFred. I don’t see why TexasFred isn’t worried about this issue; I think this is a major issue that the American population should pay more attention too; god forbid massive killings in the nation. I agree with TexasFred regarding our troops; I would hope they would do right moral thing and not follow orders that are unjust.

No More Parks! :(

Texas is known for various reasons and one of them is for its parks; it saddens me to see that there is going to be closure of at least 7 parks in Texas due to the budget. Parks bring families together, make memorable experiences, and it’s a place where you can connect yourself with nature.

Ian Davis expresses his opinion on the closures of parks through this article “Keep Texas state parks funded, open” available in the El Paso Times. Ian attempts to get the attention of the general public, environmentalist, and state official. His efforts are to let people know that the reasons why they are closing the parks are because legislatures don’t see the value of parks and they are expensive. Ian mentions that Texas parks stimulate the economy in Texas by producing 12,000 jobs and adding 283 million dollars into our communities. He also comments that the Sporting Good Sale Tax has not been used adequately; “The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department only received approximately one-quarter of the Sporting Goods Sales Tax revenues for the 2012-2013 biennium.”

We cannot let parks get closed down and we can’t let the legislature use the Sporting Good Sales Tax on other items. Ian suggest that there is no need for a new tax, also he thinks that the Sporting Good Sales Tax should just be used for parks and not be used for other things, because with the money received from that tax is sufficient to keep the parks open in Texas  

I completely agree with Ian, and I really liked the way he presented his opinion: he showed the benefits of the parks, and he illustrated facts to the viewers. I think that The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department should claim its money and not let it be used for other things. Ian is right we need to take pride in our parks, because if we don’t we may not be able to cherish what nature has to offer us.

Fear of Texas Becoming a Blue State...

                    I found an article on Austin American Statesman that interested me, it was by Tim Eaton “Immigration bills dwindle at Texas legislature”, it talks about how a few years back there were many bills filed that was concerned with illegal immigration, and this year that number dropped. It gives a few reasons why that number may have dropped, one of the reasons is: many republicans were shocked to see the outcome of the election of 2012, because there was a high percentage of Latino voters, which Mitt Romney only got around 27%. Republicans have a bad reputation within the Latino community, which has made many republican rethink their strategy and try to attract more Latino voters, or they could be losing their positions to democrats. The topic of immigration has been on the rise since the dream act was passed; also many other states are passing bills that are beneficial to immigrants, for example a bill that was passed in Illinois that will allow for illegal immigrants to obtain a license. I think this article is very interesting because many illegal immigrants have hope that Obama will pass an immigration reform soon.                  

                  In my opinion, when I was reading this article it made me feel like if republicans have so much hatred towards immigrants. Let’s state the fact that Native Americans were here before any other race was here in America, so we are all immigrants here. What I don’t understand why the lash against immigrants? They are human beings like any other one of us, and I think they deserve a chance to a better life, like many Europeans had when they migrated to America fleeing the desperation they were facing in Europe.

Immigration Bills Dwindle at Texas Legislature