Austin's Growing Traffic Problems

Everyone who lives in Austin knows the worst part of this growing city, its traffic. Traffic in Austin can become very annoying for everyone, especially those who have to commute to downtown. My classmate Colin McNelis, stated his concerns and ideas on how to improve the traffic in Austin. His blog post is very simple and gets to the point which I really like. We both share the same opinions on the traffic problem. I also agree about the government being unable to fix this congestion in Austin. If they were able too, it would have been fixed a long time ago. Building an underground railroad or highway is a great idea especially if it is build in way that can help people reach downtown much easier.
In the post it says that we need to find solutions fast before Austin grows even more. The solutions that my classmate provided were excellent but I also believe that while the government takes their time to find solutions, we as individuals can reduce the traffic by a little. People can start to carpool with people nearby or encourage college students to take the Metro bus. People should also avoid peak times. One way to do this is leaving the house earlier than one normally would do to get to their work or destination. By leaving early the person will have more time to prepare themselves for a long day at work and students in UT could take this time to study for their classes. Another important way to get yourself out of traffic is planning which route to take to avoid construction or any car accidents.
These are just a few ideas to add to the list that my classmate has provided in his post. Combining the big solutions with these small solutions can really make a difference with Austin's terrible traffic.

Voting IDs are Unnecessary

The freedom we have in America is a blessing that everyone would love to enjoy. I am lucky to be able to live here in Texas and know that I have the right to state my opinion with out any charge. My classmate Saamiha Kenkare, wrote an excellent editorial on her belief that voter IDs should be required to vote. The post gave very good points and reasons to back up her argument. The use of voting history made the author much more credible. Also the list of having to use IDs for airplanes and opening a bank account really got me thinking. I believe that voting IDs are not necessary and aren't an important topic to be debated. 

The editorial didn't convince me to change my opinion on voting IDs but I do believe the editorial made some valid and reasonable points. It was written well and made the argument clear to understand. 

In my opinion I believe that voting IDs cause less people to be interested to vote. In Texas we do have a problem of getting people involved in voting and voicing their ideas. This is a major problem and making voting IDs a requirement will cause people to be discouraged. It makes it so much easier to be able to go and vote with out having many requirements at all. Voting is a right for all Americans that should not have any discrimination towards those who don't have an ID made. IDs that are required for alcoholic beverages or for airplanes are necessary because it helps put a limit on those who might abuse their right to have alcohol and hijack an airplane. But when it comes to voting, we have the government to make sure that nothing extreme goes. If we didn't have IDs for alcoholic beverages then people would become drunk and cause harm to themselves and to others. In simpler terms all I'm saying is that voting is a safe process that wont bring any harm. If the people vote for something unsafe and extreme we have the Legislatures to make sure that only safe and helpful solutions are passed. Voting IDs are unnecessary and don't compare well to IDs needed for alcohol, medicines, airplanes, and opening a bank account. 

Waking Up in Texas to Clean Fresh Air

Living in Austin has always been interesting. For an example the weather is always bipolar. The morning might be sunny and bright and then out of nowhere it starts raining and becomes sunny again. In the winter we would have half a week with warm weather and the other half with almost below freezing temperatures. And the worst part is that it didn't even snow one bit this summer which caused no schools to cancel in the Austin area. The only explanation for this bipolar weather is global warming. The Obama administration has a solution for a decrease in the environmental toxins, the Clean Power Plan.
This plan aims to decrease the greenhouse gas emissions from America's power plants by 32 percent by the year 2030. This plan will be very expensive but I think the cost will definitely be worth it.

I believe that Texas should accept the EPA's (United States Environmental Protection Agency) Clean Power Plan. We see movies showing people what will happen because of pollution for their entertainment, but we rarely see anyone actually make a huge difference about it. There are people and small community programs that do things together to make the environment better but it seems to me that its only decreasing the pollution by a little. We need a nation wide plan that all states will use together. Here are my main reasons of why Texas should adopt this plan and become part of it:

1. The plan has been revised and worked on for a long time and the final plan is more flexible and fair. 
2. It will strengthen and move the programs that are trying to achieve a cleaner environment faster and better. 
3. If all states in America adopt to this goal, it will motivate other countries especially China to come up with ideas to make our home, Earth healthier. 
4. The plan's commitment and dedication is shown by having customized goals for each state to decrease the air pollution. 

Although these are just a few benefits from the Clean Power Plan, it will make history if more and more States decide to accept this plan. Texas is a big state and with fracking and producing oil, we should be one of the first states to sign up for this plan. If America as a nation doesn't move forward with this plan, I believe Texas should raise taxes for this plan and adopt it. The cost of this plan will be hard to pay in the beginning but the environmental changes that will come for it will be worth it. People will enjoy it even more to live here in the Lone Star State.

Save the Sanctuary Cities

On July 26th, my classmate Angelica Nyoman submitted a post titled: Congress crackdown on Sanctuary Cities. In this post she talks about how punishing cities who protect illegal immigrants will cause more harm than good. As she explains what the government plans to do with this bill, I think that she should have focused more on the harm that will come from this event. From her article I did learn about a bill that I have never heard about before that if passed will most likely impact me and my community. However I think there should have been more examples of what kinds of harm will come from this bill.
I totally agree with her opinion and  I came up with some reasons why this bill should not be passed. The first reason touched my heart, families will be separated. No one wants to ever have to part away from their children or their partner. They came to America for freedom, not to make their living conditions even worse.  Another reason is that it will cause the cities being punished to riot. And in America's past we all know that never ends well. Angelica also mentioned about violating the 4th Amendment when it comes to questioning the illegal immigrants. I believe that this is the most important reason to why this bill should not be passed. It will not fit into the American democracy and will defiantly cause outrage all across Texas.
In conclusion I think that this post brought out awareness of something that will most likely not end well when the bill is passed. I think that this post was very reasonable and organized well. I do however think that when I was reading the post I didn't quite understand what the harms would be. But after some research I began to understand more and am against the bill to be passed. It will make the whole community being punished to suffer.

Texas's New Education Goal: Can We Do It? Yes We Can!

As a student, growing up to me was always competing to be the top student. People all over the world compete in many different fields such as sports, technology, medicine, and so much more. Because in the modern days in order be successful one has to be the best. Education is the key to having a successful community and as Texans, we aren't ranked as number one, we really need to step up our game. Therefore I believe that the Texas state government should continue the 15-year strategic plan. This plan includes a goal to have 60 percent of Texas residents ages 25-34 to have a certificate or a degree by the year 2030. This plan started taking place last Thursday and the state government should try their best to make it successful. This is very important for our government to take the time and money to help the future generation to push Texas to the top. 

There is currently only 38 percent of people aging 25-34 who have already met the requirements for this plan. This makes the task very difficult. But if you think about it, the hard work put in to this will help Texas and the U.S to have longer lasting results that could change Texas forever. With Texans being pushed to achiever more in education, it will cause people to build new technologies and bring more ideas and good to our state government. Texans will have better ideas of how to run our state and local government. They will help bring out better solutions. And for this to happen, we need the citizens' educated input and participation to bring solutions and concerns to the legislatures of Texas.

Is Charlie Baird the Right One?

All around the world people live in crime and poverty. It is a concern that needs to be fixed in almost every area, even here in Texas. Blogger Rachel Farris describes this problem in her post: An Endorsement: On Problem Solving and Criminal Justice. She gives numerous scenarios of situations that everyone has seen in their life. This really helps connect the readers to her argument. In the last paragraph it is clear that she is trying to reach out to those who live in the Travis County. She seems credible for the situations that she lists because she claims it happens around where she lives. Since she is reaching to the people around her, they can easily relate to the situations that she claims to have seen. However when she jumps into saying that she supports Charlie Baird for the Travis County District Attorney's race and says that he is someone who can fix these problems. I think that she could have said that about anyone, it didn't really make me want to support him in the race at all. She needs to give evidence that he will fix the problems in our area. Maybe give examples of what he has already done and his own personal life showing how he is the right person.
Although Blogger Rachel Farris grabbed her intended audience's attention, her argument didn't seem to be strong enough to convince me that her choice to support Charlie Baird is the right thing to do to help make the community a better and safer place for everyone.

We need to be healthier

As I was scrolling though the opinion and commentary section on the San Antonio Express news website, I found a commentary by Esther J. Cepeda called Pay attention to what you eat, which talked about changing and become informed in what you consume. For many months now I've been trying to become a lot more healthier by replacing sugar with other natural sweeteners. This commentary is focusing on the average person who just like me aren't very educated in the food that we consume. This commentary appeals to everyone except for those who are already healthy and educated about things such as how to count your calorie consumption. She gives real life examples that are relatable to many people who aren't living a healthy lifestyle. She starts off by grabbing people's attention by listing scenarios that relate to the people she is trying to attract. The author seems to know what she is talking about. She gave many facts that support her claim and argument. She gave statistics that opened my eyes to the reality of what an unhealthy diet is doing to many people. I think she could have added one major experiment or research done by scientists on how the body is being affected to really convince the audience. I think her argument is valid. The suggestions she gave to a healthier lifestyle are very true. Many people are becoming obese and it is something that we need to take care of especially here in Texas. As people usually say "everything is bigger in Texas" is sometimes a bad thing. Especially in carnivals that take place in Texas that stick with the logo about having everything big in Texas. They usually have unhealthy carnival foods with twice the size they should be. Texas might not be the state with the highest obesity rate but it is one of the top states with obesity. Cepeda's argument should be a reminder to all of us to eat healthier and to remind us the positive effects that come from it.