Colleague’s work Blog #8

    On Tuesday, August 11^th, 2015 my colleague LoBeau posted a blog titled “Texas Strict Voter ID Law.” In her article she starts off by mentioning that in 2011 the state of Texas passed the nation’s strictest voter ID laws and apparently left about 600,000 citizens without proper identification documents.

     LoBeau then points out that citizens may obtain a free election certificate. We are required to have a birth certificate or current photo ID to apply for jobs, to get a driver’s license, engage in social programs i.e. welfare, unemployment, Medicare, etc. According to LoBeau’s blog it costs about $2-$47 to search for and purchase a copy, which isn’t an unreasonable cost for a vital document. Doing further research on Usa.gov, you can obtain your birth certificate in the state of Texas through the vital records section online, the cost is $22.00, takes about 10 business days to process, and can be sent out overnight and paid with a credit card through Texas.gov. It also does not decrease chance of voting, it just means that every individual has to go through the same procedures as everyone else, regardless of race.

    To answer LoBeau’s question “how many people really care enough to show up and vote with a different name,” the places it would affect would be smaller communities with low voter turnouts. To commit voter fraud on a small city level can be done via hundreds of votes, and an organized group could use voter fraud to place undeserving candidates in office in smaller cities and counties.

    In LoBeau’s last paragraph there was no sort of evidence when she says “studies show” to back up her information, so it leads me to take her words in confidence. Overall I feel as if she has a good viewpoint but her research lacks supporting evidence and should be looked over once more. 

Investigation on Planned Parenthood

     On August 5th, 2015 KXAN posted an article titled, “Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick requests criminal investigation into Planned Parenthood.” Lt. Governor Dan Patrick requested Harris County District in Houston Texas to open a criminal investigation of Planned Parenthood in Texas. In this article KXAN added an undercover video of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast Director Melissa Farrell discussing the process and price of harvesting fetal organs for research. In the undercover footage Farrell says “our organization has been doing research for many many many years.” Planned Parenthood could be breaking the federal law known as the “Born Alive Infants Protection act,” an act that requires abortion clinics such as Planned Parenthood and other places that do abortions to provide appropriate medical care for a baby born alive after a failed abortion or birth to quote on quote “let die.” After all that commotion Heather Busy, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice group from Texas defends Planned Parenthood saying that this is all a fake scandal made just for political gain and to take away access to safe legal abortion care.
     In my opinion I would have to partially agree with Lt. Governor Dan Patrick when he says “we should not be dismembering aborted babies. We should not be selling babies fully intact.” It is one thing for a woman to abort her child but to sell aborted babies for profit is unethical. If these allegations are true, it is not right for Planned Parenthood to potentially induce abortion just so Planned Parenthood can make a profit from selling to research foundations. The act of performing abortions should not be a profit-driven system, and these allegations could be extremely damaging to Planned Parenthood and what their organization stands for.  The decision to either should be entirely based upon the patient’s choice, and no monetary gain should be had.

Colleague’s work Blog #6 "Texas should ban texting and driving"

       On Monday July 27, 2015 my colleague Guangqing Zhang posted a blog titled “Texas should ban texting and driving.”  In her blog she makes the readers wonder by saying “Texas is the second biggest state behind Alaska,” she also added that Texas is indeed the state with the most oil and natural gas production that helps with our states economic growth. Everyday our population grows and grows, in 1980 the state of Texas had about 14.2 million people and has grown to 25 million people and counting. We have grown rapidly, and growth is projected to continue for years to come.
       Texas should consider banning texting and driving, when people text and drive it causes people to slow down and cause traffic and if unaware, can lead to awful accidents and death. Have you ever noticed that everywhere you go groups of people are on their phones? Cellphone usage has become one of the most popular tools used on the daily basis, not only in the state of Texas but the whole world. According to the National Safety Council at least 1.6 million crashes occur when the driver is texting and driving. 1 in 5 of the crashes involves “driver’s distraction” and most crashes are from young and middle class people. Unfortunately, many families have lost loved ones from just texting and driving. In the past the state of Texas has attempted to pass a bill about texting and driving but that bill died in the Senate.  Texas has initiated a city-wide ban on texting while driving but I would have to agree with Zhang that Texas should make it state-wide. We all know that no matter what bill has passed about texting and driving, people are still going to do it while knowing the consequences. Everyone has one life, why lose it due to something so small such as texting and driving… it’s not worth it. We all have to be aware of our surroundings and should wonder if it is worth replying to a friend while going 65mph is worth the cost of our own life.