Commentary on classmates blog II

In response to the blog posted by Kosi:

I think that the statement made above is not as true as it may seem. Although it may be true that people have been working a little bit more and are starting to get back on their feet, but it is also worth noting that people are unusually cautious of how much money they spend nowadays. With the way things have been lately our economy is sitting on very thin ice and can surely take any number of downturns at the drop of a hat. With companies like McDonald's just feeling the effects of the recession with a drop in last month's sales figures it is still very possible for things to get worse before they can get better and stay that way. Our economy still has a very long way to go before it is back in the green; it's worth noting that almost anyone would tell you that "you've got to spend money to make money," and right now there is way more money being spent than made. Until we the all of the money that Congress has been shelling out at work people aren't going to spend the money our economy needs to get that much needed jolt we've all been waiting for.

Original Commentary II

I was recently looking over the Austin-American Statesman for a subject I should comment on. It's safe to say that there are a plethora of activities our government has it's hands in with the various policies and decisions being made. It was then that I happened upon an article about President Obama specifically. It seems that the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are very unhappy with the President's lack attention to unemployment in minority communities. Of course, it's understood that as a whole the President is expected to deal with these issues indiscriminately and equally across the board, but when the unemployment rate is at such a disparity within the black and white communities some would argue that measures should be taken to help the areas being most effected. I thought that it was significantly shocking to find out that Obama has encountered such opposition from the group of people that a lot of us expect to be in most accordance with the decisions made by our president. Is it possible that the president has considered this but decided not to act in favor of minorities specifically to avoid public scrutiny? It's definitely a possibility, but I don't think it's the real reason. I personally think that this is something that could have easily been overlooked with all the commotion going on in Washington. The Obama administration may not have been expected to deal with such issues based on race when unemployment overall is at an all-time high, but that's not to say they shouldn't be more focused on the areas where unemployment is most prevalent. Whether this is a subject that President Obama should address because he is expected to lift his people or because he should deal with unemployment where it's presence is most heavily felt; this is definitely an issue that should draw some attention in the White House.

Comment

This is the comment i posted on Allisons commentary of reliance on oil and impact on the environment:
I definitely agree to many points that Allison illustrated in he post. However, before I can go into that I have to disagree with her reasoning as to our presence in the Middle East. Now, this is a topic that can be discussed forever but my main point is that our initial presence was a direct result of the attacks on September 11th, 2001. Whether we are in the right countries today or if we are abiding by our initial goals over there, finding Osama Bin Laden and other taliban leaders, is another topic all together. As a resident of Austin and its surrounding areas for most of my life and the past ten years all together I have seen the drastic increase in construction. When I first moved from Austin to Pflugerville I thought the growth in the suburban areas was a good thing Now as I pass places that used to full of trees and other vegetation and see subdivisions put up in such a weak housing market; I see it more as a waste. We should all do our part to give back to the environment and I believe that cities should play a big part in starting up organizations that go out and replant tress. Hybrid cars don't seem to be so popular because few companies have put out models that intrigue us as buyers. Aside from the hybrid versions of popular Honda models and the TDI versions of Volkswagen models, its been only up until recently that we've seen hybrid models of popular SUVs such as the Escalade and Tahoe. Allison made an interesting point at the end of the blog. I think that it's a result of this greed and effects on the nation lately that have caused some companies to open they're eyes and try to undo some of the damage. Unfortunately for us, the working class, there aren't enough companies that have begun to work towards a better economy.

Actively Involved

What is there REALLY to say about the government? I, myself, am a nineteen year old student taking a government class at my local community college, and still is not able to explain to anyone what it is or what exactly the government does on a regular basis.

I understand the roles of the major players and more frequently mentioned members in Congress such as our senators, Representatives , the President and Chief Justice's in the supreme court. The aforementioned member of our government are all very important parts of our nations government that help create, enforce, and interpret the laws of our country, and are all elected to their positions by the people, but this is where it starts to get tricky. Senators, representatives and even state governors are all elected by popular vote, but the President is chosen by an electoral college. This institution is designed to vote according to the will of the people; when you live in a red state like Texas you soon learn any votes placed in favor of a Democratic candidate or soon short-lived and in a sense, wasted. The President is then given the duty of selecting a Chief Justice to the supreme court is the need ever be. It turns out that when everything is said and done we don't have any direct control in two-thirds of our federal govern,or the most popular part anyway, and then we all wonder why there are so few of us actively involved and knowledgeable to our government's agenda.

In order to write this blog I decided to do a bit of Internet research and happened upon our governments main website, http://www.usa.gov/index.shtml. Upon my arrival to this site I began to do a little browsing and at first saw a host of links that all seemed to be offering information of government services something like a FAQ or reference page you would find on almost any other site listing various services being offered. Then I made my way towards the part of the site that lists the government by its organizations according to level of jurisdiction: federal, state and local. I was slightly aghast by the multitude of organizations, departments, agencies, and courts that make up the various levels and branches of our government. It makes me begin to wonder how some people got to be in charge of something like Health and Human Services without knowing.

I start to wonder how many of these people got their jobs. Even members of Congress whom we directly elect can be seen as out of touch with the true need of the people when 44% of them are millionaires as opposed to a 1% of the general population. To me its just things like this that make me wonder if it is truly worth voting for any major official or whether they will be honestly working in favor for me and my community. I believe that our government was created with good intentions but times have drastically changed, and some it wouldn't be to far fetched to say that some things in our government, like the electoral college, need to be revisited or maybe even reconsidered.

Lack of Ambition?

In a commentary written by Marisa Treviño in USA Today, Treviño adresses the issues of Latinas pursuing higher education by referencing statistical reports that reflect the "pathetic" educational future of these students and they're preformance compared to their peers of different races and Latino counterparts. She then delves into the efforts taken by many organizations such as Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE) and the National Hispana Leadership Institute that have both helped Latinas better prepare for college by improving their skills and lending financial support as well.

Where it seems that the Latinas are faring well with the added support, Latinos are still lagging far behind when pursuing higher education. As Luis Ponjuan stated, this comes from the lack of societal involvement with these young men's educational career and credits the interest in Latinas education to a long-running societal neglect that is now being acted upon.

I, as a Latino pursuing higher education, find this commentary as a major wake up call and I feel that there should be more involvement with Latino students to ensure the success of my people (pardon the heavy expression.) However, at the same time I feel that the involvement should not be heavily placed on outside organizations but an active involvement from within the household, and while there are many Latino parents that strongly encourage the need for education many that are immigrants from their home country spend a large majority of their time working to keep up with the bills of the house and leave alot of their children to take care of themselves and each other. I believe it goes without saying that children raising children will never fare the same results as each child having the chance to looked after by their actual parents, and if many of these children were enrolled in extra-curricular activities it would prevent them from watching t.v., playing video games, or even getting pregnant and spend more time and attention on their school work where it truly deserves to be.

Is it really worth not doing?

Sex, it's something most of us, if not all of us, have experienced by this time in our life, and is one of the most controversial topics in society today. In the editorial "It's just addition by subtraction" written in the Austin-American Statesman it is stated that there are 1.3 billion dollars spent nationwide focused on sex education centered exclusively around abstinence. The author then goes on to state that the majority of this money is being wasted or misused as is seen in the high teen pregnancy rate in our state and nationwide as well. I for one agree with this article and believe that teenagers ARE in fact going to continue to have sex either out of general curiousity of "what all the ruckus is about," peer pressure, or just simply relieve physical tension (as I'm sure more than a few of us have done as well).

One of the main points the author is trying to make here is that teaching teenagers sex education based soley on abstinence is in a sense leading us down a path of self destruction because if and when these kids choose to have sex they will be ill prepared, uneducated, and ignorant to the proper use of contraceptives to help prevent not only unwanted pregnancy but STDs as well. It is when the author makes this statement when I find myself coming to a slight disagreement with what is written. I can say that from personal experience there can be people that are fully aware of proper contraceptive options and still choose to have unprotected sex either because they feel that "pulling-out" is a safe alternative to using a condom or any other contraceptive, which it really isn't, or that one of partners doesn't want to use a condom due to lack of sensation. It is usually these couples that run a risk of getting pregnant because they choose not to wear a condom or sometimes can't talk to their parents about other forms of birth control such as the pill to avoid being chastized or even emberassed for engaging in sexual activity.

Overall I believe the author does indeed make a valid point in their editorial and I for one truly believe that sex education should most definitely include information on various forms of contraception including abstinence, but believing that all teenagers can practice abstinence is an idea that I think has been long gone for decades.