Sharing a Common Opinion

I was really interested in the topic that Cheris chose, and I agree with her in many ways. I would like to see our politicians in general open up a page in the social network and be able to answer any doubts, complains or just simple questions we as citizens may have. I think it’s an awesome idea because we will be able to see our Politician’s real point of view towards any topic because they will be put on the spot.

I personally need an extra push towards my political views and I will totally be interested in getting this experience through a page like FaceBook or Twitter. I will get the chance to think of my questions and get answers quickly unlike we do now; because most of us don’t send letters to our politicians addressing our concerns. I think it will bring up the voting rate for any elections because we will get the chance to chat and be friends with the candidates running through the social page. Unfortunately the down side about this idea is that many angry or upset people may comment or argue a topic in an ugly manner and it will be posted on the open Net. Also politicians may not be the ones answering the questions but one of their secretaries, and this will defeat the purpose of the whole idea. I believe that in the future more politicians will be encouraged to open up their own social network page and we, the young adults, along with the rest of the world will be able to follow them.  

             

Are they going to learn what I learned?

One topic that really catches my attention is education for the fact that I want to teach. I am actually studying to be a history teacher for grades 8-12. I believe that we all need history in order to learn from our past and implement what we learn towards the future. I was really concerned when reading the article Exclusive: Texas Textbook Wars Would Affect All of Our Nation’s Students in Family Security Matters written by The Editors. The article talks about how History Textbooks are going under dramatic changes about what is going to be written in them and what is going to be omitted.  The changes are considering to be over ; the Vietnam War, the Korean War, the Civil Rights movement, the Cold War, Reconstruction and the Great Depression. I have to say that I totally disagree with this idea. We should all learn and have knowledge of what our great Nation has been through and be proud to say we have been able to recover from the worst case scenarios. I want to be able to teach everything that has happened in the past without leaving anything behind. All the subjects that are being debated were crucial to our forming and form part of what we Americans are.

On top of my educational preferences I am a parent. As a parent I would like for my child to learn History as it was and not as certain groups would want them too. I would like for my child to learn that Christopher Columbus was not who discovered America, as I was taught, but Indians that already had settled lives in this land.  Personally I am really concerned with this issue and hope that it comes to a good ending or more that one are going to be upset. We need o learn and teach EVERYTHING from the past.

Peers and Opinions/ Cutting the education budget

As reading this post I was so interested and totally agree with her opinion and points. Rebeca has allot of strong points and good examples. She provided us with the amount of money that is though to be the total cut, which is alarming! She also has the consequences of the short fall like it is to have 40 kids in a classroom and the use of old textbooks, which sets Texas back. Her concern for the community is real honest and I really liked that. I would have wanted to see a bit more writing and for her to go deeper on what some educators think of the budget short fall and what measures they can take and to explain her point of view a bit more. Over all I liked the information. :)

Going deeper on the subject and my point of view:

Just like Rebeca, I personally feel a concern because I am currently studying to graduate in the field of education to become a History/Government teacher and have a daughter that in a couple of years will need to attend school. I would hate to go through these four years of school studying something that I love and not be able to obtain a job. Education to me is very important and do not understand how our representatives expect teachers to give a high quality education and students to learn the material on an extremely short budget. I as a parent want my daughter to get an excellent education that will set her intellect standards high. We all need to understand that in order to become a better state we need communities with the best education.

My mother in law and I were talking about this subject over the week end, because she had just come back from a meeting with officials from the board of education for the county of Travis. She work for an elementary and the meeting consisted of making the teachers aware of certain changes that were going to occur next school years; budget cuts, employment reduction and a possible change in the school year classes. Teachers were told to save on what they could, this included copies, text books, supplies and to take care of items that could be reusable.

We all know the budget cut is coming, and not much could be done to avoid it. One good thing would be for our representatives to sit down and brainstorm of ideas of were to do the cut instead of education and health care because they would definitely hurt our future.    

We Qualify? Really?

The new health care law was a win win for children and adults but a lost to insurance plans. The new law requires for all states to insure dependents under their parent’s employment insurance,Medicaid or CHIP until age 26. I was happy to hear the bill had passed because I have an 18 month daughter; she currently is under Medicaid but also qualifies for a private insurance. I had so much trouble when my daughter was 6 months because the insurance would not cover her due to the therapy she needed, so I then had to apply for Medicaid and getting her approved for the needed therapy. My daughter is now starting on speech therapy and I was so glad to hear that she qualified without problems and happy to hear that the bill covers dependents incase my daughter needs therapy at an older age.

The bill will help families that are in situations similar or worst than my daughters. Now allot more children will be insured and continue to be insured until they are able to be financially responsible for their medical coverage. The problem the insurance companies have it is that with more dependents insured the more bill statements they will be subjected to pay. Although the focus or purpose of this bill is to insure all the uninsured; legislatures are hoping insurance companies will start providing preventive care instead of focusing on the high cost of maintaining dependents healthy.

I guess for most was a huge surprise to hear that our legislatures have finally agreed on a subject. I honestly hope Texas continues in a good path and passes laws that benefit instead setting back Texans. As whole, Texas is doing much better in meting the needs of their residents and their take on this bill for me requires a thumps up.

Opinion on Our Long Time Governor

The Article is in The BurkaBlog, it was written by Paul Burka, and it comments how Rick Perry may be uncomfortable of a debate with a Libertarian, Kathie Glass, instead of the Democrat Bill White. He goes on to say the issues that Perry is mostly trembling, like Border Security and Eminent Domain.

I really liked how he puts out the real facts of what Perry is weak or afraid to take action on, and who is one of the few people that is able to give Perry a real race. I totally agree with him towards picking on Perry but I really think he could have gone deeper on why he thinks that Perry refused to take part in the debate and not only giving big examples.   He also could have given Glass more points on being the challenger and explaining her views against Perry’s  and put a bit of spice to the blog.

The one thing that I like is Burka being able to comment in favor of the Libertarian instead of the two major parties. The fact that he is not afraid to give his opinion and too speak of difficult aspects like Politics puts out some of his views.

An Opinion...

     The purpose of  The DREAM Act. was to give an opportunity to undocumented immigrant students to obtain conditional permanent residency then legal permanent residency and then being able to apply for United States Citizenship. All this was going to be possible only if the immigrant had entered the United States before the age of 16, had lived in the U.S. for 5 consecutive years, had graduated from a U.S. high school or obtained the GED, the immigrant also needed to be between the ages of 12-35 and have a good moral character. After the immigrant had qualified he/she had to attend college or enroll in the military for a minimum of 2 years and then wait for a period of 6 years for the approval to earn conditional residency.
     The Article was in The Statesman and it was published by Alberta Phillips on September 25, 2010. She was giving her opinion and personal view on The DREAM Act. She basically said it needed to be revised and make the legalization of undocumented students more difficult. The DREAM Act unfortunately did not pass and millions of students were very much disappointed.

     I agree with Mrs. Phillips in that we need to fix the DREAM Act. and find other terms for immigrants to obtain legal residency but disagree with her in making it more difficult. Attending college is not easy to an average citizen now imagine to illegal immigrants that have to work full time to support their family economically with a minimum wage. As it is they rarely have money to spend or save and attending college is expensive. The other and only option was to enlist in the military which I do not agree with. Joining the military should be only done when it comes from the heart and not as one of your two options; soldiers willingly risk their life to protect our life not because they are forced.  I think giving citizenship to those who are at heart Americans and have proof to be great citizens deserve to be count, it is the fair and correct thing to do. At last immigrants are only increasing in the U.S. and will with time be the majority.

In And Out of the Country...

     Immigration to me and the rest of the country is a major issue. The reason being that both my parents were at some point illegal immigrants in Texas. My parents migrated from mexico and established a legal living in El Paso 20 years ago. They bacame residents through a reform along with thousands of immigrants that were only seeking a better opportunity.
     The article in Texas Tribune pressents both sides of the controversy which is real interesting if you have an open mind and do not lean republican or democrat. Everything started in 2006 when the U.S. Congress opened up a debate about illegal immigration. Now in Texas the state's immigration policies became the subject matter, the noun in the sentance. Anti- immigration advocates like the republican Leo Berman say, "that the state pays too much to provide services to undocumented immigrants and thier children." Along with this they proposed a set of bills that discouraged illegal immigration. After this proposals immigrant advocates and business groups joined and are working against the anti-immigration proposals. They argue that immigrants are the fuel for Texas economy.
     In my point of view we need a reform for the immigrants and solve thier situation. This controversy is now affecting and destroying families all around the U.S. We as a whole are immigrants and need to look out for the people that are taking on our hard labor jobs.