Warning Signs

When you think about what our generation’s going to be called in the history book I’m convinced it’ll be labeled the era of a rapid growing technological evolution. Within two decades advancements in computer graphics, means of communication, and all over technology has expanded generously. As we’ve grown up surrounded by this, what else would you expect from people our age? Children these days are even having their textbooks replaced by iPads. It looks like soon kids will think of books as prehistoric artifacts rather than a learning device that isn’t actually virtual.

This commentary is in response to Vanessa Tamayo’s article “Distracted driving is blind driving” in which she argues that there should be a ban on texting while driving because it’s distracting. She provides some statistics for her argument as well as the existing laws that are enforced here in Texas.

I agree to some extent; it seems like we should put a ban on texting while driving. But, I don’t think it should be up to the government to enforce this. Call me old fashion but people need to be more responsible and realize they can not only take their own life but also take someone else’s. That should be common sense and by texting and driving you’re asking for something horrendous to happen.

To answer your question, no it’s not worth it. I for one refuse to check a text message or even talk on the phone while driving because I don’t feel like risking a life by simply being distracted. I feel like there’s a lot more to be aware of while driving a 3,000-pound piece of steel then a piece of technology. I think it’s wrong to fully blame distraction on cell phones though, there are so many other attributes that you have to take into effect. “Distraction” according to the U.S. Government Website for Distracted Driving is any activity that could divert a person’s attention away from the primary task of driving. Something so simple like adjusting the radio or even taking a drink endangers drivers, passengers, and bystander safety.

People are going to text and drive weather or not it’s illegal. The best way to end distracted driving is to educate Americans about the danger it poses. It’s sad but true what Rick Perry said in mid-June of this year, “I support measures that make our roads safer for everyone, but House Bill 242 is a government effort to micromanage the behavior of adults.”

It’s sad to think that people can’t put their phones down for a single car ride. What if we did enforce a ban on texting and driving, what good would it actually do? A study done recently in by the Highway Loss Data Institute found that amongst three of the four states studied had experienced higher numbers of motor vehicle accidents after banning texting while driving. So just because it seems like a good idea doesn’t mean it will inevitably succeed.

Re-Education

The Texas Republican party is calling for the promotion of abstinence and an abstinence-only education in our school systems. It’s nice to know that finally Republicans are pushing for a realistic campaign when it comes to the practice of teaching our future, our children.

Are these Texas Republicans serious?

To actually disagree with the distribution of condoms because it’s the parents responsibility to speak to their children about sex is such a crock. With shows like “16 and Pregnant” or “Teen Mom” that glorifies teen pregnancies, those parents that don’t talk to their children about the facts of life are going to think that, ‘this is my shot at fame, that could be me on those magazines.‘ It is up to the parents to speak to their children but it should also be reinforced amongst teachers, staff, or even councilors that a child may look up to for advice.

According to the Washington Post this “long awaited national study has concluded that Abstinence-only sex education… Does not keep teenagers from having sex. Neither does it increase or decrease the likelihood that if they do have sex, they will use a condom.” Texas is among the most restrictive states to attain birth control for teens. Even if a teen has had a child already she still needs parental consent to obtain birth control, that make's sense right? It seems like these adolescents are trying to protect themselves but the government is forcing them to suffer. 

Teenagers need a comprehensive understanding of sex education, not to be shielded with the idea of an abstinence-only education. I don’t think abstinence shouldn’t be promoted, but it shouldn’t be the only means of education with such a controversial subject. According to Texas on the Brink, Texas has the third highest teen birth rate in the nation. I understand that Republicans may or may not be trying to improve that statistic but is this really the answer?

To shove abstinence, a religious based ideal that says you should wait till marriage to have sex, down our throats is unethical. We need to stop wasting our tax dollars on these obviously failed programs. Yes, the only way to prevent pregnancy is to not have sex. But the realistic thing to do is to teach these raging hormonal teenagers ways to prevent sexual transmitted diseases as well ways to prevent pregnancies with the help of contraceptives, because in the end it is their choice to have sex, not their parents or even politicians that try and control them.

I think more then ever we should institute more knowledge upon America’s preteen and teenagers especially since tweens are growing up faster than ever. Scientists are even studying why we're seeing alarming numbers of 7-year-old girls and 8-year-old boys hitting puberty. So you tell me why we should try and satisfy a state in which pregnancy is already running rampant with an abstinent-only sex education, especially with children growing up faster than ever.

Some Sense Of Security

The government’s real financial problems are, “old people?”

This commentary is in response to David's article "Old People?" in which he tries to argue that government debt is a big enough issue that it should reduce funding for programs that help the elderly, financially. He incorporates the idea that the elderly as a growing population are leaving the younger generations with nothing but a soon-to-be struggling fate.

You have to understand the benefits like Social Security helps not only older Americans, but also workers who become disabled and families in which a spouse or parent dies. You’re basically saying that after however many years of working, people who are trying to receive their benefits by retiring, shouldn’t. During the course of their entire life their hard work, when in comparison to the importance of national defense and education, should be cut because they’re trying to collect their benefits that they have been putting into since they started their career.

Instead of reducing these programs we should try and figure out a permanent benefit that will suffice a growing population. These programs such as social security will eventually run out but until then our taxes are paying for people who are eligible to obtain these benefits. If anything I think these “old people” deserve these benefits more than we do.

Since older people are voting to not reduce these programs, can you really blame their disregard of the younger generation on the elderly? It’s our fault that young adults these days aren’t more involved in politics. If we want reform then we need to be involved, and since we aren’t as concerned as our elders were, we suffer; it’s as easy as that. Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University observed that, “from Medicare to Social Security to Medicaid, the older people just have a greater interest in voting than younger people who don’t see the same benefits.”

Because our generation doesn’t have the need for these government-sponsored programs such as Medicaid and Medicare we don’t understand the genuine importance. Since, in Texas, our parents (if assumingly, they pay for your insurance) are able to insure us up until the age of 25. At this point I feel like the younger generation just takes what they have for granted and doesn’t evaluate how important these federal insurance programs are. 

You would think, as the population grows, people would be more inclined to embrace the protection of their future. If we really want to see a change then the younger generation needs to step it up and become more involved in government affairs. We’re watching funded programs crumble because of a lack of involvement to reshape what could be our future programs. 

The Bright Side of Suffering

I am completely and utterly against this new empowering “requirement” that is being bestowed against my kind. As a woman, my rights are being challenged.

New state law requires that to have an abortion in Texas women must (twenty-four hours prior to the abortion) get an ultrasound of the fetus that they are intending on terminating. Anyone that is whatsoever analytical should be able to figure out what’s so wrong with this horrifying demand.

With the help of our outstanding Governor, Rick Perry, he pushed and then passed this bill. This is the man who’s pro-life but according to The Huffington Post is also for the death penalty. If Perry can believe in the saying “abortion is murder” how can he not say the same thing about the death penalty? Ironic, I know. Then to be making decisions for the sake of women all over Texas, it’s nauseating. To think that he is not only Governor of Texas but was also a presidential candidate blows my mind.

It seems as if Texans are slowly losing their rights as American citizens, why not add this one to the list? In this case women are losing their right to privacy as well as our right to free speech because it violates the rights of both doctors and patients.

Let’s say a teenage adolescent chooses to not abort because of these distasteful sonograms that the government is forcing women to see. What happens then for the well being of the child? What happens when the maturity level of this teen mom can’t handle having to take care of somebody else? According to new data from the CDC, siblings of teen parents are two to six more likely to become pregnant as teens than younger siblings of teens who are not parents. So why don’t we take a reasonable approach to this delicate circumstance and stop trying to brainwash women into thinking what they’re doing is ill-advised. It is their god given right to do what they want with their own body, and nobody else should have a say so.

If you decide on having the child instead of an abortion, then so be it! But you shouldn’t have to be persuaded to give birth, you should want to have a child and be ready for one. The government shouldn’t be poking its nose into other people’s business and especially men trying to make decisions about what women can and cannot do.

Louise Melling, director of the Center for Liberty at the American Civil Liberties Union once said, “Even if we disagree on the issue of abortion, we can agree that these are private personal decisions we all must be able to make based on our own circumstances, beliefs, and values… It is neither my place nor our government's place to make such an important life decision for someone else...” 

So no matter what your stance on abortion is, the decision to have one should not be based solely on what the government endorses but your own personal convictions. 

We Both Go Down Together

Published on July 9^th of 2012 the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured criticized the topic of Rick Perry’s predictable call on health care in The Dallas Morning News. Obviously upset with the decision of our Governor to turn down the Medicaid expansion program this editorial article explains why Rick Perry shouldn’t have opted out of the program and how because of him we are missing an opportunity to expand Medicaid.

In the article they use the statistic “One out of every four residents of Texas has no health insurance.” But there is so many more factors to that statement. There are an estimated 25,145,561 people that populate Texas and an astonishing ~44% of that population are illegal aliens*, that’s nearly half!

We give a percentage of our already hard to come by insurance to people that aren’t even legal residents. Before the people of Texas start talking about how to fix the already lacking insurance coverage, we need to defeat the war on illegal immigration entering our state and eventually give actual citizens what they deserve. Not to mention with so many illegals taking over Texas jobs, Texans miss out on the opportunity to get a substantial job that may provide some sort of insurance.

Rick Perry is portrayed telling the great state of Texas to basically suck it up and in many ways you could blame him for his decisions to turn down the Medicaid expansion program. But who we should really blame are the registered voters that elected this man. Perry, an obvious Republican clearly cares very little about social reforms.

It’s pretty clear that he did something right to become governor and until we put a Democrat into that position we won’t see a change in any such social reforms. The intended audiences of this article are people that believe Perry shouldn’t have chosen to exclude citizens of their rights to have health insurance as well as Democrats that believe in reform of social programs.

I feel like the credibility of their argument is almost lost, because yes, Texans who want health coverage should be able to receive such benefits but there are so many other hurdles we need to get over before providing something that not everyone deserves (wow, I know, harsh…) or even wants.

My conclusion to this article is this: There are so many people who don’t have insurance out of lack of necessity, and because they don’t make it a priority they wait until it’s to late. Before we start blaming a single person we need to look at other aspects of this unfortunate situation.

*The statics of ~44% of Texas’ population being illegal immigrants is based off of dividing 100 by the total number of the Texas population (25,145,561) and then multiplying the outcome by a report by the Pew Hispanic Center’s percentage of undocumented immigrants in 2010 (11.2 million). Both statistics are based off of Texas' population in 2010.  

Noodling: The Revenge of Republicans

The basis of this article is about noodling in Texas. Yes, noodling. In Rachel Farris’ blog entry Size Matters? Published on May 19, 2012 she incorporates an ironic aspect towards the reality of what the government in Texas is prioritizing. 

There is something almost unsettling, concealed under her thick sarcasm. And if you don’t read carefully enough then you may miss what she’s actually trying to get across.

Other than doing very little (if not anything) about the concerns of jobs, education, and our economic security, Republicans are focusing their attention on making noodling a legal activity in Texas. Not to mention another hunting sport called helicopter hog hunting, which is pretty self-explanatory.

Noodling, if you aren’t aware, is a type of “hand fishing” using nothing but your bare hands to catch fish. The fine for this activity is a whopping $500 in Texas and if this bill were to approve noodling by the Texas Senate then it would require the participant to have a fishing license as well as a freshwater fishing stamp.

Not only are these Republicans fishing for this bill to be passed they are also anticipating another bill funded by Senator Glenn Hegar (also a Republican) to make it illegal for people to lie about the size of a fish that they’ve caught noodling.

I’d like to say her evidence was well built and solid but as I clicked on her links, one didn’t even work. It made me question her sincerity.

I see her point that Texas legislature (predominantly Republicans) have bigger things to worry about then fishing laws. But here in Texas fishing is a profitable source of income and for some people it's a thriving industry. 

There’s one other element I’d like to point out: Since we do live in a Republican state what else would she expect? I could see if we were a prominently Democratic state than things would be different and our focus would be more about education and reform. But this here is Texas for you, run by tradition.

Nevertheless since the people of Texas have entrusted Republicans on the state board of education this is what we get.

It’s obvious that Farris is a Democrat and she chose an easy Republican state to pick apart. I feel like any Democrat or teacher could relate to this article because of the lack of security we have as a state because of the priorities of the majority party.

But there is good news about these bills, they both passed. Now people all over Texas can noodle without fear! Let’s just hope they’ll use their conservative ‘noodle’ and not lose any fingers or limbs.

Losing Our Rights One Day at a Time

The article posted in the Austin Chronicle addresses the eviction of many outgoing occupiers. It reports how we’re gradually losing our right to protest as American citizens.  

Not only is this happening in Austin as well as other distant Texas cities but it’s also happening all over the world.

The protestors were forewarned about their eviction; given notice that they needed to evacuate the steps of City Hall within the next hour, due to a new rule issued by City Manager Marc Ott. Between the hours of 10pm and 6am nobody was allowed to use the Mezzanine or Amphitheatre for non-city usage, which included sleeping or camping at any time.

As the deadline past, the city was fully prepared for the events that would surely abrupt because of these demonstrators.

A bus packed with police arrived nearly an hour later and promptly emptied the area, without giving the protestors a chance to gather their belongings.

Seven arrests were made for criminal trespassing with one person taken to the hospital.

Subjectively the whole event was handled poorly, if not worse, with the comparison to the Cleanup Versus Clean Out operation and the Halloween Arrests.

Rumor has it that Mayor Lee Leffingwell’s office was severely displeased with how the situation was handled. They questioned the actual necessity of the eviction as well as the use of the APD forces on a Friday night.