In Ms. Ali's post she talks about the current and future effects of the drought that Texas is currently going through. She also touches on the possible ways in which the state of Texas could alleviate the effects of the drought . Overall I agree with Ms. Ali, but I also believe there are certain things she could have done to make her argument stronger.
Her spelling and grammar errors distracted me somewhat from the point of her post. If you want your opinion to be taken seriously, care should be taken to proper grammar and spelling.
When she spoke of the domino effect of the drought, it came across as overly dramatic. Though those things could potentially happen, it wasn't necessary. It would of helped her point to approach it more logically and to propose actions that could help with the issues we are facing now instead of ragging on the worst case scenario.
I did think her focus on resolutions near the end of her post was a good place to end on. Rather then just ranting about the drought issue, she presented feasible ways in which we as Texas residents can help preserve the water that we have. It's important to  take an pro-active stance on dealing with natural resource issues.

For decades the Texas Board of Education has been scrutinizing our public school's teaching materials. Every time the science textbooks come up for review, it's always the same; they debate whether or not evolution should be taught. Evolution is an established factual phenomena, that is a necessary factor in understanding the natural world and should be taught in schools. Through constant study evolution has been proven time and time again. But because it conflicts with religious beliefs, they decide to put the quality of Texas children's education at risk in order to bring the lessons in line with some of the board members biblical literalist beliefs. Recently, the board met to give final approval to new science and math textbooks. This brought on a prolonged debate over Pearson Education Publishing’s coverage of evolution in their biology textbook. The Board then proceeded to pinpoint “factual errors”, which Pearson representatives was quick to refute. When is the Texas Board of Education going to enter the 21^st century and stop wasting tax payers’ time and money by debating a process that is accepted by 99.9% of the scientific community? Texas children need a strong base in science education in order to succeed in the modern world. Texas can’t afford to let some narrow minded, anti-science individuals dictate what is to be taught in science classes.  Experts in the various fields should determine what should be included in Texas curriculum.

I agree with the main point of Silvia Trejo's post about abortion laws in Texas in that the recently passed abortion bill has set back our rights as women by making abortion more difficult to obtain in Texas. I also believe that there are a few ways in which Ms.Trejo could have made her argument stronger. She could have touched on the fact that closing down abortion clinics puts women's lives in danger. There will still be women getting abortions whether it's legal or not, safe or not. There will be an increase in illegal, unsafe abortions. This bill will make women who can't get a legal safe abortion, turn to other, possibly dangerous alternatives. Another topic she could have discussed was the hypocrisy of the pro-life movement. Most "pro-lifers" are all for making women carry their babies to term, but they are generally unconcerned about the fate of the baby once it is born. Other then that I believe Ms.Trejo's argument and anger to be quite justified, she just needed cover more of the effects of women and children in response to the Texas laws concerning abortion.

A stoic man with skin like leather, with principles carved in stone and a general mistrust of change. The kind of man whose pride gets in the way of logical thinking and the ability to accept help when desperately needed. This is how I would personify Texas. I see Texas as the men that I grew up around, admired, and ultimately grew out of. Texas government to me is a perfect example of this old Texas farm boy telling the world “No one can tell me what to do”.

With the combination of outright stubbornness and a lean towards reactionary legislation, Texas government tends to have knee-jerk reactions to issues instead of dedicating itself to find solutions to the underlying problems.

A great example of this is capital punishment. Texas has been killing its citizens for almost 200 years. There are many factors that affect violent crime rates and Texas government chooses to ignore the source of the issue, and is far more interested in dealing with the final product. Things such as untreated mental health issues and poverty greatly contribute to violent crime rates, and as we all know that Texas is not very willing to give aide to its people. Studies show that the death penalty has done very little at slowing down violent crime rates. If there was an effective way to curb the amount of violent criminals in Texas, why wouldn’t we try it out? Is Texas so set in its ways that it ignores the obvious faults in its laws? I’m starting to think so.

Another example is how Texas government deals with healthcare. Instead of our government trying to get healthcare to our poorest citizens, our state chooses to ignore the problem. With the recent attempt of federal assistance for Texas to expand its Medicare programs, and Texas recent decline of that offer, I can’t help but feel a little exhausted. Texas has these increasing social issues and yet we act like there’s nothing wrong, and it’s fine the way things are. The idea of change, giving and receiving help seems so against Texas ways and it’s just slowly crippling us citizens of Texas.

If our government could just snap out of these deeply rooted, embarrassingly Texan ways of legislation, I could rest a little easier.  But the strength of Texas’ pride shows very little chance of wavering as does the impossibility of radical change with how we deal with social issues.

 

 

On October 15, 2013, right-leaning blog UrbanGrounds posted a commentary piece titled Jack Harry Smith — Will the Oldest Man on Texas’ Death Row Die of Old Age Before He is Executed?. Written by Robbie Cooper, he expresses his opinion on the delayed execution of a geriatric male prisoner, Jack Smith, that has been on Texas death row for 30+ years. Mr. Cooper believes that Jack Smith should be executed, despite his ailing health, and I have to agree with him, but not for precisely the same reasons.

Cooper spotted Jack Smith on The Texas department of criminal Justice's list of inmates on death row, and took note of his age and sentence stretch. Jack Smith at age 40 was convicted of shooting down convenience worker Roy A. Deputter during a robbery in 1978. According to Cooper, Jack Smith, now 76, has been experiencing heart problems and has recently stopped taking his medication. Despite this, Mr. Smith apparently sought out habeas relief(for what part of his case, I'm not sure),which was rejected in June of this year.



Jack Harry Smith's mugshot 1978

Though the reasons behind Jack Smith's long stay on death row is hazy, it is clear that it's about time for him to move on. The author expresses about three points as to why he thinks Mr. Smith should be put to death. I agree with two of those points which is the obligation the state has to carry out Jack Smith's sentence as well as the cost to keep him alive is unnecessary. What I don't agree with is the author's belief that Smith's death will begin his longer sentence in the afterlife.

I agree with Cooper's point that Smith was sentenced to death and that the State of Texas has to honor that sentence. Like the saying goes, "justice delayed is justice denied", and this delay has been going on for long enough.

Also Cooper and even Smith himself made the point that taxpayers have been spending money to keep him alive for all these years. Like a hamster in a cage, but a lot less cute and domestic. This man has been cooped up, contributing nothing positive to the world for 35 years, and he's being kept alive for what? For some kind of legality bull? He was sentenced to death, he should be put to death. There is no reason, especially this late in the game, to tiptoe around putting this man's sentence into motion.

What I disagree with is the comfort Cooper seems to find in the thought that Jack Smith will continue his sentence in the afterlife, for I don't necessarily believe in hell or even heaven for that matter. I just see Jack Smith's death as a lifting of a burden that doesn't seem to even want to be a burden anymore. As well as affirmation of taking our legal system seriously and sticking to the results of court decisions.

In the end, it looks like Jack Smith is going to die either way, whether naturally or not. It's just unfortunate to see the cracks in our legal system, whether it was with Jack Smith's trial,  the sentencing or the following up of his sentence. Putting a person to death is already a complicated decision we don't need to make it worse by having a sloppy way of enforcing that decision.

On Tuesday, October 1st , 2013 The Austin American-Statesman published an editorial titled "Empty Desks, Unhappy Customers".  The article examines the possible reasons as to why there's a decrease in enrollment in AISD schools despite the increase in population in the city of Austin. The author puts the majority of the fault upon AISD officials’ experimental decisions and the reaction of district parents. Even though I agree with the authors’ standpoint, I'm not totally convinced by their argument.

This piece was apparently written by the "editorial board" of the Austin American Statesman. Who that is exactly, I cannot say. I also can't say whether or not this person (or persons) is qualified to address issues in this field. I am particularly wary since there's a lot of spouting of data, but not a whole lot of references. The one reference they do make is from some past article posted by their own paper, The Austin American-Statesman, but they don't even mention the title. It feels like this cocksure author's priority isn't to get all the facts from a variety of reliable sources, but rather from his/her like-minded coworkers. I have no idea if the Austin American Statesman is a biased paper or not, but as a stranger walking into this editorial, I'm a little put off by the shallow treatment.

Despite the nervous stomach, I still ate everything it fed me. I was moderately convinced by all of the author’s points concerning the decrease in enrollment. They spoke about how AISD failed attempts at improving schools which led to abandoned buildings where functioning schools once stood. Also, the increasing percentage of parents who send their kids to charter and private schools because they are looking for more adequate education options seemed reasonable.  The editorial also touches on the rising cost of living in Austin which in itself is having an effect on AISD enrollment.  More people just can’t afford to live here. But then again, my agreement with this author is strictly based on the pre-processed information that they submitted. I have no way of knowing, based strictly off of this article, whether or not the information is even accurate.

What is clear, though, is that this author disapproves of AISD's approach to reform. This is something I can full-heartedly agree with. Changes in education are going to need a lot of time, money, and consistency - three things that Texas isn't renowned for in regards to our educational systems. I think these botched, experimental projects that the AISD leadership have promoted is really just wasting a lot of energy and putting a strain on the AISD families’ trust and patience with their school district.

 

On Tuesday, September 3, 2013 The Texas Observer published an article titled Tough on Truants. It discusses the varying severity of punishments for truancy for students in Texan schools. Since 2003, students with irregular attendance records have been putting themselves at risk for fines and even jail time. What is even more interesting is how Texas school districts vary in cracking down and enforcing this law. It also discusses the potential harm that this law seems to be having on convicted students. This article suggest that some Texas school districts go overboard in punishing truants because they feel that’s the only power they have to combat kids skipping school. People should be aware of this issue because it says a lot about how poorly our educational system runs and how we, as Texans, tend to lean towards force rather than compassion.