Cruel and Unnecessary

I am not an animal person, but I do have an enormous amount of respect for any living organism.  All living creatures should never have to be exposed to any form of cruelty, and unfortunately we read in Aaron Bonnette’s blog “You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas.” he posts how this is not always the case in his titled work “Pets in Parked Cars.”  Texas pet owners need to recognize their full roles of responsibilities for what it means to care for helpless and defenseless animals; and they should definitely be held accountable if they are inconsiderate by leaving them in a parked vehicle.

I was not aware of how quickly the amount of time it takes for the inside of a car to drastically increase in temperature to 120 degrees, and blogger Aaron Bonnette cites an article from Examiner.com in order to effectively paint the potential tragic outcome of death that an animal can face if left in this type of situation.  I too agree with Bonnette that Texas needs to enforce harsher laws towards pet owners that negligently leave their pets in a parked car. 

The Austin American-Statesman just recently updated their July 9, 2013 article “Round Rock police identify woman whose dog died in hot car” about a 24 year old woman from San Antonio who killed her dog because she left it in her parked vehicle in Round Rock.  According to the update on the article, Round Rock police dismissed the charge and she only paid a fine in connection with the city ordinance that was violated.  The collie mix was left in her car for two hours with the widows closed, and the temperature reaching 140 degrees.  Instead of just slapping them with a measly fine, Texas law should make it so that a careless pet owner endures and experiences the same struggle as their powerless animal.

An Early Start at Education for All

An early start towards an education is crucial for any child’s success.  I do not believe that a child whose parents meet the poverty restriction guidelines should be the only ones allowed at the opportunity towards an early start at education.  Every child regardless of their parent’s financial qualification should be allowed to attend Pre-K.

Our nation implemented the “No Child Left Behind Act” by our ex-governor George Bush back in January of 2001.  Every student was required to read and do math at their required grade level.  According to the article by the Austin American-Statesman on July 19^th regarding House votes to replace No Child Left Behind Law, the Obama administration found this stipulation to be unattainable and allowed waivers towards the law.  They stated how the teachers were too busy focusing on “teaching to the test” and that there were entirely too many standardized tests trying to meet the law’s quota.  Instead of focusing on testing each child, Texas needs to invest in their early education.  How a child performs during single testing doesn’t exactly dictate their individual skill sets.
 

Texas should contribute more towards Head Start programs and individuals meeting the poverty standards should not be the only ones allowed access to these programs.  I am a veteran to the Head Start program, and recall my mother having to cheat the system because she didn’t fall within their poverty stricken guidelines.  My grandmother was willing to take guardianship of me so that I could qualify under her poverty status and receive an early start at an education.  I recall how much of an impression it made on me, and I too cheated the system so that my children could attend Pre-K because my income level was not low enough to qualify.  Just because a child is born into poverty doesn’t mean they should be the only ones privileged to a free start at an education. 

SOB: Strengthen Our Border

The massive amount of money that is being spent to oversee the Texas Border crisis is drastically draining our government funding.  I completely agree with author Nick Eckert’s Texas Glimpse blog about Illegal immigration: fiscal issue, and how the issues occurring at our border are costing Texas taxpayers unnecessary expenditures.

He points out the fact that Texas tax payers have already been “fiscally burdened” by illegal immigrants each year, and the recent border catastrophe is only adding to our past existing fees.   Texas could save an enormous amount of money if we focused more on protecting the border with a long term solution.  I agree too that we should build a wall or permanent structure in order to safeguard our border.  Our governor sending National Guard troops is only a short term fix, and Texas officials need to absolutely look at the future of where our weak border is beginning to drain and diminish our state.  I would support paying higher taxes if our state would look at building such a structure.  It would not only be a deterrent to the immigrants trying to cross, but it would also free up our Border Patrol allowing for them to effectively protect the border.

Our Texas border crisis has become a political platform for all political parties.  Our local and national government officials need to work together on this controversy.  We should not just be looking at it as a crisis occurring in our state, but a crisis that’s detrimental to our entire nation.

Driving is not always Priceless

The major issue that continues to lie within our state is taxpayers having to additionally pay for roads that should already be free.  The SH I30 and 45 toll roads are entirely too expensive for any Texas residents to have to pay for, and to be forced to have to withhold an account with a minimum of a forty-dollar threshold is preposterous.  The fact that our lawmakers are even looking into making I-35 a toll road is extremely unsettling.

The toll roads SH 45 and I30 that run through Austin are not attracting the revenue or volume of users they anticipated.  The privately managed roads cost taxpayers an unnecessary amount of money and can be easily avoided if our lawmakers would conform to the population growth like cities such as San Antonio.  The city of San Antonio conformed to their population growth and were intelligent when it came to building the major free highways known as I30 and 410.  Austin to this day doesn’t care to consider the continuous population growth, and would rather make it an inconvenience by charging existing residents for their lack of planning.

Texas residents should not have to pay in order to access a road, and especially the only major highway in Austin.  I myself boycott the toll road because their system is antiquated, and they actually wanted to charge me for sending a new Toll Tag when all they needed to do was add the existing Toll Tag number to my account.  Texans shouldn’t have to pay for any road or major highway, that’s what taxes are for, and I would much rather pay a little more in taxes than having to provide a credit card or bank account for the private sectors to drain from.

More Like Uh-oh...

Hopefully by now we are all fully aware of the crisis that is taking place at our Texas border with the flooding of Central American minors illegally crossing.  This catastrophe has led our Governor Rick Perry to deploy about 1,000 Texas National Guard troops.  The liberal blog titled Oops! by Juanita Jean’s posted on July 22, is her critical opinion for Perry’s “Executive Order.”

The author blogs in attempt to negatively expose Republican’s Rick Perry and Greg Abbott with hopes of shedding light and brining attention to the non-supporters of the GOP.  Her credibility lies within her lack of support of the Republican Party and her continuous simplistic transitions of “here’s the deal.”  Her claim is that Governor Rick Perry is making an enormous mistake by deploying the Texas National Guard, and that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is ridiculous for contemplating on suing the federal government in attempt to reimburse Perry’s decision.  She is able to effectively bring evidence to both Perry and Abbott’s actions.  She reminds her readers the limited functions of the Texas National Guard and how they are “Darth Vaders” who will basically “be trained to stand there looking tough and babysit.”  Her proof against Abbott is calling out his “frivolous lawsuits he’s filed against President Obama,” and how the loss of money could have resulted in “lower taxes by about 70%.”  She brings awareness to her logic by stating Perry and Abbott’s movements are mere underline meanings of “political posturing.”

I agree with some of the valid points Texas blogger Juanita Jean’s has made on this topic.  Sending troops as a tactical scare and suing the federal government are not the answers.  It sadly does appear that several politicians are using the border crisis for their own political gain.

Phil Collins' Gift to Texas

It comes to no surprise that several native Texans are not aware of the historical significance for what it means to “Remember the Alamo.”  A recent opinion on July 9^th from the Editorial Board of the Austin American-Statesman’s brought awareness to the residents of Texas with their article “A Generous Gift for the Alamo.”  The authors write about how a famous musician born in England, Phil Collins, keeps inside his Switzerland basement the world’s largest private collection of Texas Revolution artifacts. 

Collins has recently announced the donation of his collection to the Alamo, and the authors believe this will make him “an honorary Texan.”  The authors place importance on the artifacts belonging in Texas, and sadly state how the original owners are mere “defenders forgotten to most people.”  They discuss the restoration of the Alamo site being “decades past due,” and how Collins’ collection will be crucial to bringing the “Alamo myth to its historical reality.”

I agree and disagree with several points within this editorial.  There is a disheartening realization with trying to understand how historical Alamo artifacts are not only owned by a US citizen, but are residing in another country.  Just because Phil Collins took it upon himself to possess the historic Alamo collection by falling in love with Disney’s version of Davy Crockett as a child, doesn’t make him an “honorary Texan.”  I do firmly agree that restoring of the Alamo is important and extremely long overdue and I also agree with the authors that most of us have forgotten the Alamo.

Perry's Orphans

There has been a huge controversial uproar over the massive amount of Central American children that are migrating their way to Texas.  The American Statesman article is our Gov. Rick Perry’s plea to the President that a solution needs to take place for what Obama is referring to as a “humanitarian crisis."  Obama’s resolution consists of dishing out over $3.7 billion in new spending, and Perry’s quick fix is to send 1,000 of the National Guard troops in order to alleviate the Border Patrol.  Their meeting last week in Dallas resulted with Perry refusing to lobby for funding Obama’s spending plan.  Texas officials from both the Republican and Democratic parties implored Obama to visit the border during his recent trip to Texas.  Instead of the President visiting the border and single-handedly approaching this crisis, he chose to visit Franklin’s BBQ instead.  I found this article extremely interesting and worth reading because throwing money at this issue is not the solution for our state.