Response to Just Do It Already

I have to totally disagree with Ms. Elizabeth on a few points she made on her commentary on "Legalization of Marijuana". First of all true alcohol and marijuana are two totally different ballparks, I really don't see a comparison. One inhibits you from function and the other just makes you lazy. I am against drugs 100%, I personally have NEVER tried any drug or plan to. As far as the making you happy part I guess if you find happiness sitting on a couch stuffing your face with chips then good but life has so many other great things to offer and do with ones precious time as we only live once. But back to the topic, if this drug was to be legalized crime would not go down, it would only increase. Think of all those drug dealers that you have put out of business, all they have known is to sell illegal drugs. They are probably poor individuals with no education finding an easy way out, so what are they going to do now??? Commit more crimes, I'm sure theft would increase, mugging, fraud, and so on. This will increase the obesity in our children, slow the brain and prevent children from learning. More dropouts for sure as this drug is not by far a simulant for focus or learning. As far as the economic issues yes it might help but in the long run that money will probably end up going to the overpopulated jails filled with the criminals that we thought we took off the street. I think its a horrible idea and I hope "weed" never gets legalized and I will fight for it as much as I can. But overall I think your blog was good but I personally do not agree with you at all.

Blog 8

I totally agree with you on your argument, its sad that education is this low in Texas. We moved from California thinking well Texas is full of cowboys and not thug cholos. Thinking that my parents thinking education was way better than California.. Well to a certain point it was. But I totally agree with you on the teaching to pass instead of teaching to learn! For example my cousin, average "B" student great attendance but had a problem with with standardized tests. Well during her senior year of High School she was placed in a TAKS class that was to prepare her to pass and not learn so she tried 2 more times and failed the math portion. Graduation day came she took the test one last time and failed and this prevented her from walking. She then was given other chances after graduation. Well she finally passed and obtained her diplomas 2 weeks after her actual graduation. Which was horrible because you go to school pre k - 12 only to let it all depend on a stupid standardized test that determines your fate. Its ridiculous and I think that this should been seen more as a measure of knowledge and placement not for a hold on you graduation. And I am planning to be an educator in my near future, and yes teachers are under paid I am not doing it for the money yet for the opportunity to possibly change a child's life, and in turn maybe one day have that individual come back and tell me i impacted their life in a way that possibly changed their outlook in life. Pay is poor and it is a major problem and i can definitely see where the frustration would overcome the purpose and decline the teaching due to the salary not being competent with the cost of life today. All teachers are a very important in our children's life its a vital part and if we don't do something in our generation the numbers will keep dropping. I will make a difference and that's a fact and i cant wait to start! Overall very interesting and thought provoking article.

Gay Marriage and Divorce in Texas

Reading this article on Kxan where a born man now woman marries another woman in San Antonio, they had tried to obtain a license to wed in El Paso but were denied. Now this person was born a man and according to the Texas Constitution marriage is between a woman and man so why so much havoc? Why didn't El Paso just grant them the license and avoid this legal man and woman couple from marrying. Now I am open to any type of marriage as long as your happy after all its your life, I just think Texas should swap around rules from county to county if San Antonio approved this that so should of El Paso. I understand Texas is a conservative state but in the rare cases like this there should be no issue. I hope that in the near future all people can do as they please and marry which ever gender they decide. Also there is another case where two women married in Massachusetts, and wanted a divorce in Texas. At first it was granted by the Texas attorney general but then appealed by Greg Abbot. This is funny to me and it was also mentioned in the article by CBS news if in the Texas constitution it states marriage is only between woman and man like mentioned before then initially Texas did approve this viewing this as a marriage then taken back which is totally hypicritical. I just believe we should give gay couples equality all around. After all they are human and deserve every right !!

Religion

I totally agree with your statement about religion. I believe there should definitely be a separation between school and church. A child should not be pressured with religion on top of academics. It should be evoked at home, I also totally agree with the commentary on if you want your child to go to a religious school than you enroll them in one. But again I do not agree with religion in public school. I do agree teaching about it as I learned it minimally in my History class growing up. But nowadays it seems like they are taking more and more out of our textbooks because its not important enough. If I had a child id want them to be well informed of other cultures and religions. And I have to agree with the pledge of allegiance keep the "under god" part, its American and if people don't like it they don't have to say it. I think it should remain in schools and not rebuttal should be placed on it. But overall I totally agree with you :)

This Thing Called " The Immigration Reform"

Immigration, one of the biggest topics in President Obama's campaign, that and of course the now infamous Health care Reform. It seems though that this Immigration Reform keeps getting extended and pushed back. Now Texas is the second largest immigrant populated state right under California. So this reform has been a reform people have been patiently waiting for since it first arose in the Bush presidency. Well now since the Health care bill has passed and all the commotion that was attached to it, seems to me that it would be a smart move for the Democrats to wait it out before bringing it up. Seems that people are starting to become inpatient.To me this reform seems to be great, and would greatly benefit the state as well as benefiting the nation.
Now it we were to get these illegal aliens to all contribute and do things the right was, for example paying taxes and follow our rules like we all do in a daily basis. This leads me to the Census that just occurred, I really wish that all immigrants would fill this out to give the state an idea of the much needed funding for the education of their kids. Instead they don't fill it out because they are scared that the government is coming after them. I can test to this personally, being a first generation citizen here in the states, growing up I witness the fear in my families lives on a day to day basis. My parents were immigrants at one point but did things the right way and eventually obtained their citizenship. But I do have several friends that are illegal here and are looking forward to the Immigration Reform.
But what does piss me off personally is that they are here in the states illegally, not paying taxes, and yet using my tax dollars to get an education for free. Which to me is not cool; I bust my butt everyday I work a full time job, so I can have health benefits and pay for my education. And this person has no job , school is free, and still has the nerve to ask me if I happen to know anyone that has a spare social because they are thinking of getting a job with someone Else's identity... REALLY.. But hopefully with this reform (if it ever happens) someone can look into this and fix it. I'm just tired of people living off of me I really look foward to reading this bill when released and seeing where they are going with this.

Concens About "Spillover" caused by the Mexican Drugwar

Reading through blogs this one really caught my eye, Concern about 'spillover' from Mexican drug fighting belated, naive this blog is written by Scott Henson. This is basically about the sudden concern with the drugwar in Mexico, that really isnt anything new. And Henson makes many valid points to back this up. And I can actually relate to him on an example he presented , stating how his friends just traveled into Mexico for and had no issues. I personally was in Del Rio (border town) for a week, literally 5 min away from good ol Mexico and not once did I fear anyone or felt insecure while I was there, I even took an afternoon jog and went to the lake where as a matter a fact the have an open gate to Mexico that sometimes has border patrol and other times does not from what I hear, so how perfect is that for our good ol mexican drug lords right. But I did feel alot safer in Del Rio than in Houston or even in my apartment complex here in Austin, funny but true.
Seems like the media just wants to scare people away and I totally agree with Henson's allegations. I believe that if you are not inovoled in the drug buisness than theres nothing to worry about espescially safety when in Mexico, but if your already involved then good luck! But drugs have been here for a while, the drug lords are well established its no secret or anything new. He does a great job in not only quoting the DTO (drug tafficking organizations) but also the Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan that the United States is fully aware of whats going on and does not take a genius to realize that yes there are drugs around us everywhere and no this did not happen from day to night, eventhough Gov. Perry speaks of a spill over as if our borders had never had these issues before.
Henson does a wonderful job with his evidance to back up his findings, as far as statical numbers and also towards the efforts of border towns alongside of law enforcement working together without DTO in the mix. This is a great article, Henson is very passionate and oppionated about his stand and I couldnt agree with him more there are drugs in America, everywhere, can we get rid of them ... Not a chance.. but can we reduce it.. possibly..

Gov. Perry wanted to clear his name!!

After reading this article on KXAN, about how Governor Rick Perry granted a posthumous pardon (posthumous meaning: event after someones death) to falsely accused Tim Cole. According to this article this is the first posthumous pardon in the state of Texas;

Tim Cole had been sentenced for 25 years of jail for supposed "aggrevated sexual assualt" on Michele Jean Murray back in 1985. Cole had served 20 years in prison for a crime he didnt commit. On Dec 2nd, 1999 he died of an asthma attack at the age of 39 while still serving his sentence. Yet later his DNA proved he was innocent of the crime he had been incarcerated for several year. Then in Febuary of 2009 the real rapist of Murray turned himself in, Jerry Johnson admitted to having had assulted Texas Tech student in 1985 and also too the resposibility for allowing Cole to take the blame. And now a year later Gov. Perry decides to offer pardon for this injustice.

Well the primarys are tomorrow, why do this today a day before?? Is our governor maybe trying to pull some last minute votes, by showing fellow texans that he does have a heart along with his great hair? Sounds fishy to me... and a little bit to late in my opinion. Not only was the pardon given but Perry also signed the Tim Cole Act, law that will go into force later on this year increase the amount to $80,000 for each year they were wrongfully accused.

But why not do this a year ago?? Regaurdless of if it was for the pull of the votes this goes to show us that there are many lose ends in our law enforcement agencies. Seems like they just want to find someone to pin the fault on and close the case , not caring if they have the right guy. Sen. Rodney Ellis (D) also admitted in his statement that our investigative produres fell short, "Tim's wrongful conviction was due to the use of faulty eyewitness identification procedures, the most frequent cause of wrongful convictions in Texas and the rest of the country. Every law enforcement agency in Texas should have written eyewitness identification procedures based on best practices, but unfortunately only 12 percent have any written procedures at all."

This is truly sad that an innocent individuals life was cut short because of lack of following proper procedures, Cole was 19 when he was sentenced. He never lived life, because it was taken from him wrongfuly. And makes us think of the possibility there might still be of innocent people sentenced in error. Hopefully this opens the eyes of a lot of people and opens doors to correct these error and save innocent lives.