Jackie Mays - Texas Meningitis Vaccine

Jackie Mays makes an interesting point about the required Texas Meningitis Vaccine taking away people’s rights and freedoms. I have always gone with the rhythm and gotten my vaccine every year without thinking that other people may have an issue with it. I concur with Jackie in that some people might argue the rule requiring people to get the shot is taking away their freedom. Unfortunately, I strongly believe the shot is absolutely necessary and is very important – since it after all keeps people from getting sick. Although Jackie makes a good point saying that there are other diseases that we are not required getting a vaccine for, I still think the Meningitis Vaccine is necessary and the rule should not be taken away. The fact that there are other diseases that do not require a vaccination shows that health consultants consider Meningitis a serious disease that can do major damage and should therefore have a required vaccination. 

Unemployment.. Arggg!

Very high unemployment rates all over the United States have been a major issue ever since Obama became President in 2008. Although a number of jobs have been created throughout the nation, there is still a noticeably high unemployment rate. In June 2012, Texas was reported to have an unemployment rate of 7.0%. Although other states are worse off, such as California with a 10.7% unemployment rate, Texas still needs to some major help to reduce this large percentage of people not working (http://www.bls.gov/lau/). The problem however is that Obama does not offer any explicit examples on how to solve this huge problem. President Obama talks about how something needs to be done – as if Americans could not figure that one out on their own – but does not offer actual examples of steps that need to be taken.

Although it is easier said than done to bring down the unemployment rate, Texas still needs help, and since Obama does not seem to be helping that much, Governor Perry needs to step in. Perry needs to help Texans find jobs to reduce the number of people unemployed, which will in turn help our Texas economy. One big problem with our economy in Texas is the huge budget deficit. Perhaps Governor Perry should create a board that specifically addresses the budget deficit and works to make the budget shortfall lower. This would not only give more people jobs, but could also potentially help the Texas economy.

Additionally, the unemployment rate in Texas has doubled under Rick Perry. This illustrates that even though President Obama does not seem to have any bright ideas as to reduce the unemployment rate, Governor Perry does not seem to be doing that much better. If Governor Perry does not want all Texans to despise him by the end of his turn, he really needs to look deep into the eyes of Texas and come up with a plan as to help all the unemployed. I am no political expert; in fact, I am sadly probably one of the least educated when it comes to politics, however, I believe others would agree with me in that Governor Perry needs to come up with some plan to help our Texas economy and bring down the unemployment percentage. 

Public Transportation in Austin - By Christopher Pelletier

I completely agree with Christopher Pelletier’s thoughts in his article, Public Transportation in Austin - Austin really does need to come up with a new plan. Just as Christopher said, when I look at a map with all the colorful lines showing bus routes and more, it looks like a painting that has no connection to a map. I therefore try to avoid using Austin’s public transportation, such as the buses, and in fact, have only ridden on the city bus once in my life. Although people who are not as fortunate as me to have a car may look at me as a snobby girl who does not have to rely on public transportation, however, even if I did not own a car, I would always be looking to carpool with friends rather than taking the bus – that is how much I do not like public transportation in Austin. Furthermore, even though I agree with Christopher a lot, and would like Austin to someday have an underground rail system, I do not think that will happen in Austin anytime in the near future. Putting in an underground rail system will be very expensive, and as the majority of us Texans know, Texas is currently under a lot of debt that is causing them to cut expenditures. As a result, Texas does not have the money right now to be putting in an underground railroad in Austin. Therefore, the question still remains… if Texas does not have the money to be helping Austin’s public transportation, but yet the transportation system is awful, what should the city do? I believe the city should have certain lanes on the road that the buses are only allowed to drive it. This will allow cars to not be stuck in traffic due to a bus occupying every lane on the road. For example, if a bus were limited to the right lane only, cars would be able to pass the buses in the left lanes. Austin might even consider making more roads for buses only – not for cars to drive on, but solely for city buses to get around. This would make it easier for both the buses and cars. I realize this would obviously take money to build also, however it would not be as expensive as building a huge underground railway system in all of Austin – after all, Austin is a very big city. 

The Difficulties of Public Education

Who knew Texas public education could be talked about so badly? I went to a high school, Anderson High School specifically, where the principal always told the students how smart we were, how great of TAKs scores we get, and how highly ranked our school is. I of course new that my high school was ranked higher than McCallum High School for example, but naïvely assumed that just because my high school was very good, that all public high schools not just in Austin, but in all of Texas were as good as the one I went to. It was a harsh reality when I found out Texas education is actually suffering dramatically.

In 2011, Bloomberg News stated that Texas’ ACT and SAT scores were lower than the national average, and that the state was in the bottom 10 of states in estimated graduation rate. I had mixed feelings when hearing this, but mainly was just shocked and embarrassed. Because I had these feelings, I decided to look up some reasons that might help to explain the bad connotations Texas education is associated with. The first thing that I saw was that Texas currently has a $27 billion budget deficit and is partly trying to balance the deficit by making huge budget cuts in schools (http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/school-daze). When I read this, I immediately remembered that in my senior year, the principal was forced to cut one teacher from each department (English, History, etc). Although the principal was not happy with what she was doing and did not want to be cutting teachers, it was not her decision – the government was forcing all schools to cut back.

This made a large number of Texans associated with the education system furious and were demanding that the government stop the cuts since it is obviously not helping Texas to have a good ranking in estimated graduation rate. Although it is unfortunate to be cutting education expenditures, Texans need to realize that we still have a $27 billion deficit, and have to figure out some way to fix that. The government just decided to fix it partly by cutting on schools.

I therefore started thinking of all the other things the Texas government spends money on that they could potentially reduce not just to reduce the deficit, but also to reduce the school cuts. Although the government spends money on an enormous amount of items, the first thing that I thought of was something currently happening in my neighborhood. I live in the Allendale neighborhood, and the local government is thinking about putting up a wall in order to block noise from MoPac. There are mixed feelings about this of course – some people think it will be great because our neighborhood is currently too noisy, and yet others believe it will not reduce the amount of noise significantly and will therefore be a waste of money. I happen to agree with those who believe it is a waste of money. It will not be a cheap project and I do not think that a wall which will be a maximum of 20 feet high can reduce a lot of noise.

My point is that government spending on things such as walls should be considered with great thought before spending thousands of dollars because that money can go to a better cause – helping our schools to providing a better education. 

Can Texas really become a swing state when it is obviously majority Republicans right now?

In the commentary Texas Burka Blog, an article titled “Politico: In Austin, Obama Predicts Texas will be a swing state,” posted by senior executive editor Paul Burka suggests that for many years now, Texas has been a Republican dominated state, but in the near future, Texas will switch over to become a swing state. Although this blog was not written by Paul Burka but he rather reposted it to his blog website, the unknown author is not siding with Republicans or Democrats but rather making a point that Obama’s statement about Texas becoming a swing state is very probable.

President Obama’s audience is all of the Democrats in Texas because he is saying for them not to give up when voting for the Democratic Party because soon Texas will be a swing state rather than an obvious given Republican state. The author’s audience on the other hand is all of Texans in general because he is not agreeing or disagreeing with Obama but rather letting Texans know what Obama has to say and what he (the author) has to think of Obama’s statement.

In the blog, the author both agrees and disagrees with Obama to some extent. The author agrees with Obama in that there is in fact a good chance that Texas will someday become a swing state. Nonetheless, the author disagrees with Obama because President Obama thinks Texas will be a swing state in the 2012 Presidential Election, and the author does not think Texas will become a swing state until around the year 2020.

Overall, I really enjoyed this blog because the author was not extremely liberal or conservative and therefore the blog was relatively unbiased. Although the author was not as blunt about his opinion as some authors are, I still think the author had an argument which was that Texas will eventually become a swing state and Texans – especially Republicans – need to be ready for that. The author stated that “Hispanics accounted for 65% of the states…new residents over the decade 2000-2010.” This illustrates Texas will become a swing state because the Hispanic population is growing remarkably fast, and the Hispanics are known to be Democrats.

I really liked that the author gave an example explaining why Texas may potentially become a swing state, however I also wish the author touched up on one more subject. Part of the title of the blog is “In Austin,” which makes me curious whether Obama only thinks Texas can become a swing state because Austin is so liberal. Even though I am still curious about that, I think the author wrote an interesting blog, and I do agree with the author – I do not think Texas will be a swing state by November 2012, but I do believe in a couple years, Texas has the chance of becoming a swing state. 

The difficulties of health insurance

In an editorial article from Austin American Statesman published on July 14, 2012 titled “For better health, pay Perry no mind,” an anonymous author provides his thoughts on Governor Rick Perry’s decision not to expand Medicaid in Texas. Although the author’s name is not provided, the website states that the person who wrote the article is part of the Editorial Board from American Statesman. This illustrates that the author is a respected member of American Statesman because he wrote not just a pure news article with facts, but a report with his opinions in order to persuade his audience.

Although I imagine the article is aimed at all Texans to some extent, I believe the author’s main audience is intended to be Republicans who support Perry’s decision on Medicaid. The author says that “more than 6 million Texans lack health insurance...[which] represents about 25 of the state’s population, giving Texas a dubious No. 1 ranking: the highest rate of uninsured residents in the nation.” This exemplifies the author is disturbed by how many Texans are uninsured and therefore believes Perry should have agreed to the Medicaid program in order improve our health insurance. Unfortunately for the author, Perry rejected the proposed Medicaid program and as a result, the author is trying to persuade Republicans to change their viewpoint on Perry and agree with Obama’s Medicaid program.

Even though this article was an interesting read, I do not think the author went into enough detailed information about why Perry rejected the proposed health care policy. With my parents working in the business field, I tend to hear a good amount about politics and have therefore heard that Perry rejected the Medicaid program because the state government, with its current level of income from taxes, cannot handle the monetary burden that would have been caused by the adoption of this program. If I had not known some of the reasons why Perry rejected the program, I may have been persuaded by the author and wanted to agree with him in that Texas should have indeed accepted the health insurance plan. Nonetheless, being brought up in a very Republican family, I cannot help but retain my conservative views. 

Hospitals agree the Medicaid program is severely flawed. However...

On Monday, July 9, 2012, Texas Insider published an article titled “Hospitals agree the Medicaid program is severely flawed. However…” The article points out that both hospitals and Governor Rick Perry agree that there is something wrong with the Medicaid system. Even though the Governor has stated there is a major problem with Medicaid since many people in Texas are uninsured, Perry also “made clear his opposition to…the expansion of Medicaid” due to financial reasons. This illustrates that not just Medicaid, but politics in general is blemished. This is because Perry acknowledges that there is a problem, but does not actually try to resolve the issue. Furthermore, the title of this aritcle has “However…,” illustrating that even though politicians are very aware the Medicaid program is flawed, and know that something needs to be done to fix it, no actions are being taken. Overall, this article exemplifies that whether a person considers themselves conservatives, republicans, or something else, there will always be some type of flawed structure within the government.