Blog Stage 6

Article by Eduardo Lara, mentions the importance to exercise our 1^st amendment. On September of this year, president Donald Trump takes it to the extreme to show how discontent he is about NFL players taking a knee as a symbol of a peaceful protest. During this period players took a knee to protest police brutality in the African American communities. As Lara mentions in the article, “These players have received threats from their organizations, their fans, and even their president”. Anyone and everyone have the right to take action against things that they don’t agree with. The president made harsh remarks to point out that they are disrespecting the American flag; he also said that he would like to see the protesting players to be fired. The president should not be making comments like that; he should be applauding them for exercising their right to be heard. There are other important issues in the world right now and he should have that kind of attention towards progressing America forward.

Blog Stage 8

Article written by Austin Smith “Legalizing Marijuana UnderFederal Law for a Prosperous Economy” he states the slow process of legalizing marijuana. I totally agree with his comment “rip the band-aid off now to get it over with”; the legalization of marijuana is slowly changing. Many vendors are having a hard time trying to deposit ‘unlawful’ money in banks due to the fact that is was earned by selling cannabis. It has been proven from time to time that cannabis brings more jobs and helps stimulate the economy. As mentioned in the article, members of congress are afraid to have their re-election jeopardized. They should be thinking for what is better for the economy not think about them. Legalizing this substance will not make a negative impact; eventually it will be legal within the next coming years.

Violence in the NFL

Article by Brian T. Smith explains that the “NFL needs to look into curbing excessive violence in games”. In the NFL there are countless amount of injuries happening frequently. In modern American football players are getting faster and stronger, and the officials aren’t imputing more rules on them. Some say, “Pro football must return to its heroic, old-school, hard-hitting ways?” in the “old-school’ football is was less probable to receive a big injury. In the NFL today, a player from the Pittsburgh Steelers, Ryan Shazier was carried off the football field after suffering a spinal injury during a game with the Cincinnati Bengals. J.J. Watt from the Houston Texans tweeted after Shazier’s injury; “So much more important than the game is the life. Wishing for the absolute best for you brother.” Helmets and padding protection has significantly improved since the start of football in the early 1900s but is it enough to protect them? In football, evolution leads to bigger, stronger, faster players launching themselves into other bigger, stronger, faster players with unimaginable force. Officials should be more vigilant on tackles and even establish stricter rules that limit unnecessary roughness in the games. With this placed into motion fans will be disappointed, “When did the NFL become a child's game?” it is a fun sport to watch but will it still be fun when we start seeing players in the field getting seriously hurt more constantly? A player’s strength can be described as a weapon because of the history of injuries caused by collisions. At the end of the day, playing and watching football is fun, but having severe injuries isn’t worth it. There needs to be a demand for safety and needs to be done before more and more injuries happen.

Blog Stage 7

During hurricane season many U.S states where affected by the damage that nature brought. In the article “Volunteers are tired. Where's our government in Puerto Rico?” by Dr. Jennifer McQuade explains how the U.S lacked in providing assistance to Puerto Rico’s affected citizens. In this article Dr. McQuade cries out to the government for assistance “To be honest, I'm tired. We are all tired. This is not the job of volunteers or donors. These are American citizens who are suffering. This is the job of our government.” Volunteers often have limited amount of resources, but when you can invite a whole government it can really speed up the recovery of Puerto Rico’s people.  The Government quickly rushed to help the citizens affected by hurricane Harvey on the east coast of Texas, but why wasn’t there any assistance for Puerto Rico? There are countless amount of volunteers giving away their resources and time to help a needy community, the government outreach is disappointing because it is part of U.S territory, not officially but the government has a responsibility. Puerto Rico deserves as much priority as the states in the county. Just because the president visited them doesn’t mean that they will stop needing help, they will continue to need help as mentioned by Dr. McQuade. Volunteers are outreaching to social medias to help spread the awareness of need of more medical supplies, volunteer medical professionals to meet the needs of 10,000 or more people. Not enough is being done, this deserves attention from our government and this should not be something that should be ignored because at the end of the day our government looks like we are mistreating the citizens rather than sending immediate aid to the affected.

Irrelevant Issues

U.S Border Patrol Agents need to draw their attention away from a 10-year-old immigrant girl with cerebral palsy. Border Patrol agents detained immigrant Rosa Maria after surgery because she was traveling from Laredo to a children’s hospital in Corpus Christi on October 24^th, where she was scheduled to have an emergency surgery.  After surgery, Border Patrol agents followed Rosa Maria and the cousin to the hospital, then after the surgery she wasn’t allowed to go back with her family in Laredo but was transported to a facility in San Antonio under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The government shouldn’t have to detain an individual from recovery after an emergency surgery. It is not a humane treatment to keep a young child away from family in her conditions just because Customs have to enforce ‘laws’. Border Patrol agents had the option to follow and detail this sick child; it was unnecessary to treat her as an extreme threat. The sick child had no intentions to run away from agents, instead they followed her from the start to end of her surgery. No one can’t begin to imagine the worry that the parents where experiencing when she was detained. A child after surgery should be supported with relatives not with people who think you’re a threat. She should’ve been freely released to her own family, and then the government could take further actions to justify her citizenship.

A child should not alarm the U.S. governments security system, attention should be drawn on the immigrants who brings drugs, and weapons. The government is spending time and money on issues that are not as distressing as other situations.

People Bring Evil

On October 4, 2017 the Dallas News published a commentary by James Ragland, 'If guns aren't the problem, then it's us and how we worship them'. Ragland delivers to citizens that are allowed to practice the second amendment and the people who have been affected by it. Ragland states that “Guns didn't march themselves to Sandy Hook Elementary School, to a baseball field in Alexandria, Va., to a nightclub in Orlando or to a hotel in Las Vegas.” Ragland supports his arguments about gun control with evidence that the US has witnessed. Throughout his early childhood years he was taught to respect the power of a gun by learning how to use it and by limiting it to its intended purposes. He justifies that guns are to be used for sport, self-defense, and for survival. Any other practices other that these should be banned from the individuals who claim injustices. Throughout the commentary he continues to emphasize on the fact that guns are not the problem, people are misusing the second amendment by utilizing more guns than they need to, ‘Seriously, who needs 49 guns?’ Ragland stresses to inform that there is an issue with the control and that congress needs to fix these problems immediately. He continues to inform that the actual gun does not bring evil but the one who possesses it brings evil. It is impossible to predict if a major catastrophe is about to happen but it is possible to have stricter regulations on gun control. Assault weapons that can possibly kill numerous amounts of people do not belong in the hands of everyday people; laws have to be put in place to limit the public from purchasing unnecessary weapons.

Hurricane Harvey

On Friday September 22, 2017 the Dallas News published an article ‘What's happening with Hurricane Harvey repairs and the state’s rainy day fund’. It is important to stay aware of damage caused by hurricane Harvey, many people right now are in need of help getting back up on their feet, and anyone is able to help in some sort of way. Even though Dallas didn’t get a direct hit from Harvey, the hurricane brought heavy rainstorms to the area that resulted in serious flooding damage. City of Dallas is working hard on trying to recover, and one of the ways to rebuild is thinking about where to find funds to cover all expenses to pay first respondents, and contractors to remove debris from roads. Not only is Dallas worrying about removing debris, the biggest issue right now is finding funds to continue to operate schools along the entire city. Events like this should be understood by local cities such as Austin, we are a city that can help with donations and help volunteer in any possible way. It was reported that Austin residents where in the radar for more potential damages caused by Harvey, fortunately the storm didn’t take a turn further.