Commentary on Laboratories of Democracy

In a compelling argument made by Vanessa Hendricks in her blog Laboratories of Democracy, abortion laws in primarily Republican states has gotten out of control.
Vanessa's blog is well written and informative. I also agree with Vanessa when she says that republican laws about abortion have gotten out of control. Many of these laws, as she states, are just made to perpetuate stigmatisms about abortion and create more scare tactics for people who may be uneducated in the matter. I also appreciate that she suggested looking at these laws not only at a local level but also at a national level. These laws are turning into an epidemic that is plaguing out state and nation alike.
The only thing that I wish Vanessa had added to her blog is how these laws relate to women's rights. For example, these laws don't only scare people but that also limit women's health rights by controlling their bodies. By limiting how, when, and where a woman can have an abortion, lawmakers are choosing for women how they treat their bodies. Like Vanessa says at the end of her post "Most abortions after 21 weeks are performed for unviable pregnancies", lawmakers are not only making a horrible decision harder but that are putting the mother's life in danger.
Overall I think that Vanessa's post was informative, accurate, and well-written.

Gun control in America is a very heavily disputed topic, but it feels like it is especially prevalent in Texas. Maybe it is because of the high concentration of conservatives that live in the Texas area, 26% of Texas republicans say they want less strict gun control and 58% of them want gun control regulations to stay the way they are. This is a staggering amount of people as compared to the 80% of Texas democrats that say they want stricter rules on gun control. 
Personally, I believe that if Texas, and America, doesn't make a change when it comes to gun control, that our problems  about gun will only get worse and conflicts will only escalate. There have been "23 incidents where there were deaths of injuries" during a school shooting in 2018 alone! (BBC News) This is an insanely high number that could have been lower if there were stricter rules about how was allowed a gun. This isn't to say that all shootings would be avoided, but it would greatly diminish this tragic number.
To lessen the possibility of gun violence a few ideas have been proposed that I strongly agree with. If the age limit for buying guns increases from 18 to 21 this is lower the possibility of young, mentally disturbed kids from buying guns ans threatening to shoot someone, including themselves. Another possibility is updating and improving the background check system. As of now superficial background checks are preformed before someone buys gun, but this check is not deep enough. There are multiple instances where if someone had been thoroughly checked out before purchasing a gun they wouldn't have been given the gun and mass shootings wouldn't have occurred.
These two simple idea would drastically improve the gun control issue that faces us today. Texas Legislators need to push these agendas in our local government and with our National Government as well.

Commentary

Morgan Thatcher wrote a blog post about how Texas needs more diversity in the Legislature. I think her post was very comprehensive and convincing. Our Legislature is composed of mainly white, rich, educated, older, males. This causes a problem because people of this sociodemographics cant relate to people of another. This is a real problem because Texas is a very diverse state, made up of more than just pale, stale, males.
Morgan Thatcher also poses a solution which I also agree with. She suggests that Texas increases that salary for the Legislature because the current salary is not livable for normal citizens. To diversify the Legislature we need more women, ethnically diverse people, and people who aren't rich. Statistically these groups of people don't get paid as much as the old, white, males elite enough t only get paid a $25,000 salary.
Overall Morgan Thatcher's commentary was well written and argued.

     Gun control in America is a very heavily disputed topic, but it feels like it is especially prevalent in Texas. Maybe it is because of the high concentration of conservatives that live in the Texas area, 26% of Texas republicans say they want less strict gun control and 58% of them want gun control regulations to stay the way they are. This is a staggering amount of people as compared to the 80% of Texas democrats that say they want stricter rules on gun control. (http://texaspolitics.utexas.edu/archive/html/poll/features/gun_control_feature/slide1.html). Personal I believe that if Texas, and America, doesn't make a change when it comes to gun control, that our problems  about gun will only get worse and conflicts will only escalate. There have been "23 incidents where there were deaths of injuries" during a school shooting in 2018 alone! (BBC News) This is an insanely high number that could have been lower if there were stricter rules about how was allowed a gun. This isn't to say that all shootings would be avoided, but it would greatly diminish this tragic number.

Responding to the real crisis at the border

In the article Responding to the real crisis at our border, author Annie Hartnett claims that despite what Trump says is the "border emergency" the real crisis is how people fleeing southern nations are treated. Hartnett's argument is that instead of paying billions of dollars for a wall Trump could increase aid to southern countries in need like El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. This would increase their governments budget thereby helping them lower rime, poverty and war which would cause less people to flee and come to America. Hartnett also says that we should enhance security and deploy and army of immigrant judges (not troops).
I agree with Hartnett and believe that we should be solving problems with the border instead of just closing them off with a wall. If America out forth the effort, we could help decrease the issues in South America and help millions of people instead of just throwing them in ICE detention center for trying to find a better life for themselves and their families.

Hartnett's intended audience is people who are unaware of the struggles people who live on the border face.She is trying to inform people that what Trump believes is the emergency pales in comparison to what is really going on at the Mexico border. 

Harnett is a reliable authoer becuase not only does she often spend time at the border and sees what the border is really like, she "is a volunteer with the Sierra Club Borderlands Team. In 2017 on behalf of the Sierra Club, she lobbied in Washington for border security solutions and comprehensive immigration reform."

Texas Education, Extend or Fix?

According to an article from the Austin American Statesmen, called Commentary: More school days? Not unless we address these areas first, Texas lawmakers are considering extending the school year by 30 days. The author David DeMatthews there are a handful of goof reasons that the lawmakers are considering this including, allowing low-income student to stay on track with their fellow high-income students, reducing the loss of information over the summer, and increase "school-contentedness" which lowers the chance of students becoming delinquents. But DeMatthews points out that these problems they are proposing be fixed are somewhat low-grade compared to the long-term problems we have like a lack of mental health professionals at schools, low  funding for the special needs programs and teacher's low salary.

I trust DeMatthew because he is director of the Texas Principal Leadership Academy and an associate professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Texas so he clearly has intimate knowledge of the Texas school system. His intended audience is people voting on, or people who have a voice in the new legislation and he is providing an educated opinion on the matter at hand. 

I agree with DeMatthew because these long term problems, from the perspective of a former student, have been left behind, neglected, or halfheartedly solved. Although I agree with all of his statements, I think that the mental health and special needs funding are the most important and most immediate needs that should be addressed.

The Texas Monthly's article "Governor Greg Abbott Calls for Significant Reforms on Complex Issues Like Property Taxes, School Safety", describes a gentle but some what hard hitting state of the state speech given by Governor Greg Abbott. Abbott describes school finance, teacher pay raises, school safety, mental health, property tax reform, and disaster response as critical agenda items for Texas in the coming months. Abbott takes such a gentle approach to such important items because of Texas' growing and diversifying landscape. Texas is ranked the highest job creating states. With this new group, Abbott must tread lightly as to not scare the new citizens but he must also set out to make a change for the old citizens. Abbott only momentarily mentioned the border control despite Trump's depute in El Paso. Some people are apprehensive of Abbott speech and promises because of the complexity of some of the issues he set out to fix.

This article is worth reading because Abbott's proposed plans affect all Texans. Some of his reforms are would be influential and helpful to younger generations, like school safety and mental health.

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