Blog Stage 8

To Kelly Jura-Myrick's point, I completely agree with your opinions stated in your Certified or Rehabilitated post. Some children are a product of their environment and you cannot decide right then that this offender will continue to commit crimes of any sort. If you give someone a chance to better themselves and they still choose to make wrong choices then obviously you have proven what path that person has decided to take. We need to take more measures to provide that opportunity for those that need it most. Give them knowledge, give them a platform that they can believe in themselves and not back them into a corner with a finger pointed at their back the rest of their life. I appreciated the facts provided within this blog entry, I currently have a younger sibling in juvenile detention facility and I personally was unaware of the probability that she would come out a better person. I am concerned that she will only spiral down and be stuck in a place she cannot free herself from. Given the facts though, maybe she will be able to see the light and make better choices in her life. One can only hope the best.

Blog 7

The Texas lottery was almost put out this past Wednesday, but last minute voting kept the lottery running at least until the next legislation period in 2015. The House gave final approval only a day after they voted to kill the Texas lottery. Apparently the popularity of the state funded gambling program has been dwindling for some time. From the beginning of the lottery in the 1990s, the purpose was to use the revenue from the lottery to help pay for education in our state, but somehow we are putting less towards our children's education now than we were in the 90s. And yet, the funds are going to other places, such as veterans in our state that need some extra assistance. This prompts me to ask some questions. The money produced by this lottery program, if discontinued will have to be found some other way. Yes it is gambling, and I never actually buy tickets anyway, but other people do in this state. Why can't we just find a way to make it popular again, and then put the money to good use like intended? Our state education really needs some serious attention and I think with some adequate advertising we could use the lottery as a starting point to get our schools up to par.

Blog Stage 6

To our Gun-less Cowboys, I must agree, it seems a little less like Texas for us not to be able to wear our firearms at our sides. I had to really contemplate the multitude of consequences for and against the “open carry” option and I seem to be at an impasse.  Personally, I don’t think people wearing their guns out in public would make me feel safe at all. I also think that the knowledge of a weapon in close range would deter would be criminals from an attempted act of robbery, or anything that could cause harm to another person. My fear would be those individuals who would see a firearm as a taunt. You could say a challenge of sport. The probability that one would be more inclined to engage with another person carrying a weapon seems like only a matter of time in our lovely cowboy country.  Although, I do think it would be more safe to only allow those with a CHL license, but then again the possibilities are so endless to the damage that could be done, I am glad I don’t have to be the one to decide which way I would lean in the end.

Blog Stage 5

Obama was able to surprise me in a very unexpected way today. I read in LifeSiteNews that Obama has given money to the Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas to assist facilities that are no longer covered under Medicaid due to state law when it comes to providing abortions. Texas passed a law and Obama basically just continued on with his purpose. I am 110 % pro-choice and I think there should be enough funding for women when it comes to family planning, or postponing family as well. 

Just to make it clear Planned Parenthood and other facilities are not necessarily unfunded any longer, they are now just at the very bottom of a long list that that money gets allocated to. The question I would ask myself if I was ever faced with this decision of being able to take responsibility for my actions of creating a child is, can I actually take care of a child? I would not want to give it up for adoption, and I really would not want to have a child that I could not provide for. Why don't I just cut the child's chances of having a good life in half. The possibility of starvation comes to mind, as well as the foster system abusing this child to the point where the child itself wishes it was never born. I love my son and I am so blessed to have in my life, but I know without a doubt that I cannot provide for another child at this point in my life. I want options, as cruel as that sounds. I personally think bringing a child into this world that has everything going against them is even more cruel than anything else. You can't just roll the dice with life if the odds are not in your favor to begin with.

Blog Stage Four

This past weekend in San Antonio, one of the columnists by the name of Gloria Padilla is pointing her fingers at County Clerk Gerry Rickhoff as the least popular man in that city, for now. He has decided to practically reinvent the way the court system is ran in their area. Ms. Gloria sees Rickhoff as someone who has taken the opportunity to change a flawed system, and has also managed to tick everyone off in the process. I really actually like this guy. He had brought in the IRS and requested that the "books" be looked at. He does not believe people are really working what they are getting paid, and even skimming off the top whenever possible. There is a portion in there about our judges not reporting every dime they receive when conducting marriage ceremonies even! When the judges complain that it is not the best way to run a business, he only replies that this is no business. Things he has opted to change are keeping an accurate account of the hours associates work, and rotating count clerks every four months. They have the honor system when it comes to payroll, and he believes it is prone to fraud. The best part about this whole fiasco in my opinion, is that no one can do anything about it! He has complete control over his employees and the judges and other clerks can threaten to sue among other things, yet they will still have to follow suit. He is only responsible to the voters electing him. If I was approving multimillion dollar payroll, I would want to make sure it was accurate too. I believe that Gloria Padilla is really only talking to anyone that will listen. I think that in this time drastic change is needed and it may seem like a steep price for those judges to really have to keep themselves accountable, but I think it is worth it. Great story, I love to hear people break away from the ordinary.

Blog Stage Three

This commentary is about the budget cuts that have occurred on our state parks. The editor is stating just how much the state parks are a part of our natural heritage, as well as our daily lives. Only a few years ago the Texas Legislature cut the Texas Parks and Wildlife budget by $113 million. Over 100 rangers and wildlife staff were laid off and each park was neglected in one way or another, some parks even stopped building due to lack of funds. Oddly enough, our sports sales tax is supposed to be allocated to keep the parks well maintained, but of course, the Legislature has used those funds for other resources. The end result, if things don't change soon, parks will begin to close for good. The intended audience is most likely anyone that enjoys the great outdoors, and can't imagine our state without them. This message is straight forward, you understand that this is a bad thing, if you care about parks at least. This is not a subject that many people take the time to listen about, and it is easy to see how you can feel useless to the cause. We are in such a large state that if we tried to gauge just how much help our state parks need, we would definitely be overwhelmed. I think that the author needed to be a little more pushy in the text, asking others to wake up and take control of the possibilities that could save our parks of Texas. This article had statistics and evidence that support their claim that this never had to happen. There are a few state officials that are fighting to correct this money train arriving at the wrong station, but apparently nothing has made a difference. I am an Environmental major and I see the benefits of our state parks. Some days I wonder why money drives us more than our own well being.


http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Budget-cuts-bad-for-state-parks-4279870.php

Stage Two: Legislators filing Bills

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/legislators-filing-fewer-bills/nWHnt/

This article, published just yesterday February 6th, gives a few perspectives from our lovely state officials about the amount of bills being filed within the House and Senate at this time. The author made note of the much smaller number of bills filed from 2011 (1819) to 2013 (1448). The main purpose of this article was to make aware the very small number of bills being filed, but I managed to find more information between the lines than the very message itself. I really do not know very much about Texas Government or pay attention to politics because it is something that doesn't interest me. The benefit of this article was more informative on a basic level. I was able to find out the names of two Senators from Texas, Judith Zaffirini and Kel Seliger (Democrat and Republican respectively). I also found out two Representatives in the House, Donna Howard and Larry Phillips (same respective order as last). I learned that there are 44 new faces in the House who they like to call Freshmen, and could be the reason so few bills have been filed. Also, the very large amount of filing that occurred back in 2009 was really amazing. Can you imagine over 7,500 bills compared to only the 1448 we have at the same time each year? March eighth is the filing deadline, so of course there is still time for the amount of bills filed to go up and the Reps and Senators all thought that the race to the finish line would create a buzz, but still they seemed to have the inner workings down to an art. Donna Howard suggested that they were paying more attention to the budget this session, which makes me a little less lonely when I sit budgeting daily for the goals I have set for myself. In the end this is an informative article for me, since I was able to learn a little bit about the inner workings of the Legislature itself and some of the people from our state.