I thoroughly enjoyed the article, “If I wanted to be a Trash Man,” my classmate had written. I enjoyed it solely because it was very informative and filled with numerous amounts of facts. I liked how the author brought attention to the bag ban, and the dangers it can ultimately have. The author of the article explains to people, the dangers of not washing your bags after you have had raw meat in them.  The author expresses that not a lot of people know that they must wash their reusable bags, leaving a whopping majority of 97% of people being susceptible to bacteria, such as e.coli.  He claims that if you wash your bags, you are eliminating 99.9% of bacteria.

In this article, the author expresses his/her resentment towards the new bag ban, and honestly I can’t blame them. With the hard on facts they provide such as, “There are also no environmental benefits to banning plastic bags — but there is potential harm. Compared to cloth bags, plastic bags require less energy to produce and less energy to recycle and produce less municipal waste. Plastic bags generate fewer greenhouse gas emissions and require less water to produce than paper bags. Cloth bags need to be used 104 times before there is any environmental advantage over plastic bags. But most cloth bags are used half that amount. Reusing cloth bags can also lead to cross-contamination and disease." I find these explanations to be solid and valid reasons as to why they are not for the bag ban.

What is my stance in all of this? I am not for the bag ban, because I honestly miss grocery stores giving me bags. One positive to the bag ban I have noticed though - especially in my apartments, there are no more bags lying around haphazardly like they used to be. Although that is one positive, like the author explained, there are many downsides to having this law in place. Like the author, I find that having this ban on bags is overall, inconvenient. Furthermore, I loved their article because it will remind me to wash my bags, because of the potential harm of not washing re-usable bags can cause. 

Legalizing and Implementing Casino’s In the Great State of Texas!

In recent times and in the past, there have been great debates on whether or not Texas should legalize gambling in this great state.  I believe that Texas should legalize gambling because it would be beneficial for the state, primarily financially. Currently, an estimated 3.1 billion dollars is going to our neighboring states. This money, which would be at least a billion dollars in revenue, can go to things such as for schools, college grants, and roads. The money that could help many, would stay in Texas and help the economy overall.  In terms of the economy, I believe that it will be even better, because of the money it will bring. There are many points to consider as to why Texans should be allowed to gamble, these include but are not limited to: tax revenue, job, and huge tourist attractions-leading to business. My main point of focus is the money. Why not allow Texans to gamble? People are already putting billions of Texas dollars into other states economy; why not help our own economy by legalizing it? So, if this is such a good thing, why has it not been implemented? There are two difficulties that stand in the way of the legalizing of gambling to pass legislation. One being Rick Perry and the other complication are the religious Baptist groups. The reason as to why the Baptist groups are not for gambling is because, they think it is unmoral for people to gamble, solely because they believe it may cause addiction. Suzii Paytner who is the director of the Baptist Christian Life Commission says, “…it preys on the poor and caters to impulse…” As for Rick Perry it has been noted that he is opposed to the idea of the legalization of gambling in Texas. While this is their belief, my belief is that people should have the right to choose. As former State Senator John Montfor believes, “We feel like the people of Texas are smart enough, educated enough and certainly savvy about what’s going on that they ought to be able to decide this issue for themselves.” Maybe in future legislative sessions, many will have the option to say yay or nay to gambling in Texas. One way that may encourage the legalization of gambling in Texas would be by petitioning. On the website   www.lettexansdecide.com, one may represent their wants and beliefs by petitioning the legalizing of gambling in Texas. Few may ask the question, does petitioning really work? My opinion on this matter is yes, it does.  Petitioning works because politicians want to know the public’s opinions  and also petitioning on certain matters allows for the general public to get involved and know what is going on. So, get involved and let your voices be heard on your beliefs by petitioning.  In a poll done by  KXAN, out of 500 people statewide, 64 percent of respondents said they have traveled to other states to gamble while living in Texas. All bordering states - Oklahoma, New Mexico and Louisiana – have casinos. That is a lot of people leaving the state and putting billions of dollars into other states economy! Isn’t it ironic that we Texans have to go to other states just to play Texas Hold ‘Em? So, let’s end the irony and allow gambling in Texas! Furthermore, I think we should all get involved in any way we can to help make Texas a greater state by allowing people the right to choose whether or not gambling is right for them.

     Honestly, I do not like to bring up racial issues, even though I know they exist, but I would rather like to tackle a different aspect to the issue that my fellow classmate whose blog is called, Texas Politics of "Todayand Tomorrow" had brought to my attention and maybe to many others, without discussing the issue of race. What I do want to bring to other people’s attention is that lives are taken away every day and being taken away at gunpoint while the other is unarmed is not right. I want to acknowledge the fact that things happen and when they do, they should be punished accordingly and fairly. One thing my classmate’s blog had discussed was a young teenaged boy named Marley Lions. He had expressed that Marley Lions was killed, just like Treyvon Martin, but was given no media attention or coverage, like his supposed somewhat same case counterpart, Martin. These teenagers are alike because they were both the same age and were gunned down, while being unarmed. Unlike Lions, whom again, I had never heard of before my classmate had mentioned him, had died at the hands of a grown man, but had no media coverage. I wanted to point out my opinion; my opinion is that I hope that Lions receives the justice he deserves, because at the end of the day, he was a young man with so much to live for. And, just like Martin, I believe he had a life to live, many may disagree but as the saying goes by Oscar Wilde, “every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.”  Although, my classmate has a different outlook on the verdict of the Treyvon Martin case than I do, I hope that with Marley Lions’ case, his case and family will receive the justice that it deserves.  Because things like this should never happen to any child whether it receives the wrong or right kind of media attention or not.

     Overall, I loved my classmate’s blog, it was very informative and I loved the fact they questioned why Martin had so much media coverage and the other victim did not. I believe the reason for this is to stir up things in our society, and stirring up things, it did. On a lighter and happier note, I also believe this case brought a lot more people being aware of our political system and even more wanting to get involved with the political system trying to understand our laws, such as the stand your ground law, and many others, in the hopes that situations like these do not happen again!