RE: E-Cigs: To Regulate or Not?

I'm providing my commentary on Amanda's post.

After reading through Amanda's post on E-Cigs, I came to really agree with Amanda. I also believe that E-Cigs are a healthier solution to real cigarettes. I agree with Amanda when she states that E-Cigs have helped long-term smokers quit, because I have experienced many of my friends switching from cigarettes to E-Cigs and I can concur that they seem healthier.  Also, I believe E-Cigs will help with the current situation of second hand smoke.  With all the toxic coming from actual cigarettes, I believe E-Cigs will help the innocent bystanders who don't smoke be in a healthier environment.

I also agree with Amanda when funding needs to be provided on the long-term effects of E-Cigs.  Since E-Cigs are the "new thing," I believe that proper funding should be required and furthermore testing should be done.  I also agree that E-Cigs shouldn't be sold to minors as further research has not been done.  Labeling the "Smoke at your own risk." on E-Cigs and vapors is an excellent solution as they progress on the research on long-term effects.

Texas needs to ban plastic bags.

Texas, not just Austin, needs to ban plastic bags. Why? Plastic bags are a source of many, many problems in Texas.  Plastic bags are known to cause problems everywhere; they cause problems in almost every areas.  Environmentally, people litter and throw away their plastic bags instead of reusing them.  This causes major pollution and danger to many of the wildlife that Texas homes.  According to this website, it has been proven that plastic bags are not only the second-most common type of ocean refuse, but plastic bags are very toxic as they are still toxic even after broken down. Also, plastic bags are very expensive.  According to that same website, plastic bags costs retailers about $4 billion a year! If only .3 to .5% of all plastic bags get recycled, we might as well ban all plastic bags and initiate a bring-your-own reusable bag system across Texas.  This system will help not only the environment, but it will also allow Texas to save a lot of money.

I believe that through this new law of banning plastic bags, we as Texans will be a role model to other states across the nation or maybe across the world! I believe that through this process, we can eliminate a lot of the problems that are ruining our environment and we can really create healthy discipline to Americans. I believe by eliminating plastic bags and enforcing reusable bags, we can protect wildlife and help Texas save money.

The Confederate License Plate

I've come across this blog written on July 21st, 2014 by Paul Burka of Burkablog in TexasMonthly.  It's called "The Confederate License Plate." The intended audience Paul Burka is reaching out to are the citizens of Texas, and/or members of the Confederacy during the Civil War.  Paul Burka's main argument in this blog is to express his disappointment in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled in allowing Texans to display a Confederate emblem on their license plates.  Paul claims that memorializing America's past on the Confederacy is terribly wrong, and he also criticizes Jeff Patterson for being the lead advocate for memorializing the Confederacy.  Paul cited a picture of Jeff Patterson's license plate as a source of what he's arguing about.

I completely, without argue, agree with the author of this blog as this is quite honestly a terrible idea.  I mean, it's great to acknowledge history and remember what has happened in American history, but it's another thing to memorialize a terrible event.  I believe that allowing the Confederate emblem on license plates is going to cause many problems among citizens, and I believe that allowing the Confederate emblem will further increase racism in America.

It’s a complicated situation on the Texas border

"It's a complicated situation on the Texas border" by Cynthia M. Allen, provides another insight look on today's current situation with the Texas border.  The author's main audience is the citizens of the US, not so much generally for the citizens under Texas, because immigration extends everywhere in the nation.  The author provides an abundance of sources and citations throughout her article and the author provides research.  The author's main argument in this article is to reach out to those who are in favor of being charitable to immigrants coming in from the border.  She starts by claiming that immigrants have difficult times trying to succeed because many of them come to this country with little education, a huge language barrier, poverty background, and not much contact with friends or family.  She also continues to claim that many of the immigrants become future gang members. The author goes on and explains why being compassionate to immigrants is only helpful for only a short amount of time. The author makes a great point when she explains that allowing immigrants coming in from the border can only bring more problems to the current situations of sex trafficking and drug cartels.  She makes another great point by pointing out that it shouldn't be necessarily the protester's job but it needs to be our elected leaders enforcing the law.  I agree and disagree with the author's claims.  I agree that our elected leaders should be the ones enforcing the law and I agree that we are putting ourselves at risk of further complicating our situations with sex and drug trafficking. However, I disagree with her claims that many immigrants turn to gang violence and that charity only benefits immigrants for a short amount of time.  I believe that everyone has the opportunity to succeed with or without the proper education or through a language barrier.  I believe it's through the determination of whether you want to succeed or not. I believe everyone has the equal opportunity to become successful in their lives as long as they put in the hard work.

First armed school marshals trained in Fort Worth.

Has Texas gone too far? Fort Worth Star-Telegram has recently released an article on the first armed school marshals. School marshals are very identical with air marshals. As air marshals are inside airplanes, school marshals are in schools. Any full-time school employee, ranging from the superintendent to a normal school teacher can operate the duties of an armed school marshal.  To be eligible as a school marshal, a school employee must own a concealed handgun permit, pass the psychological exam, and follow the requirements of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. Only then can the school employee undergo training sessions. However, the training session is only 80 hours long. Although they stated more training will take place in August, I feel as though that is not enough time for any ordinary school employee to commit to protecting hundreds or thousands of lives. This article is worth reading because of the many school shootings that has happened in the past few decades. School shootings are an important situation that has been ongoing for years and I was actually pleasantly surprised that something like this would start to occur.  I believe the idea of having school marshals is great but I don't believe that anyone as ordinary as school employees should be qualified as a school marshal.