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.