Childhood Hunger

My colleague, Allison wrote a post about “Childhood Hunger”. She brings up the Texas campaign which is a part of Share Our Strength’s national No Kid Hungry Campaign.

Since Texas is one of the states with the highest food insecurity rate in the nation, so the state should do something better to solve this problem. Texas also has the high percentage of uninsured children and birth rate in the nation. Therefore, “The purpose of the campaign is to end food insecurity in children by 2015. Food insecurity is when a person consistently faces hunger or lives in fear of starvation.”

I agree with Allison that this is an amazing program Texas is joining. This is something we can do to stop children hunger. Hunger is a problem to the children in our state. “More than 1.8 million children in Texas are at risk of hunger” Ludwig said. That’s a really big number so No Kid Hungry Campaign must be doing well to stop before that number increases. Kids need nutritious meals to survive, to learn well. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially to children. Children need breakfast to develop their brains, and to have better standardize test score, better behavior at school.  Therefore, the campaign will provide food to all kids from incomes levels at school and even at home, which is very good program to support all poor families with low incomes.

The program is not only providing kids healthy meal, but also teaching them about nutrition goes along. Kids need to know how important a meal is. Breakfasts, lunches and snacks are provided at school and even during the summer.

I think this is a very helpful program so far since it helps all hungry children in our state. To make this project even better, they ask more people to get involved in distributing meals to more children. Texas is a growing state. There are a lot of people moving in, so we should solve this problem before many more problems occur.

Of course, No Kid Hungry Campaign is not like the best solution to solve the problems; but at least, it helps Texas to reduce the number of uninsured children and families who have low incomes and are not able to afford it. Texas is doing a great job to help children right now and builds a better future for our children.

Austin School Board approves facility master plan framework

I read an article from statesman.  The article is about Austin school board approves the framework to the district’s facility master plan. According to the article, the framework provides long-term facilities planning, annual information on the conditions, use and capacities of facilities, an annual academic and facilities recommendations and an annual multi-year view of possible facility and bond proposals.
Meanwhile, the board members also ask the state for a waiver, which excludes the new state mandated test scores from student grade-point averages this school year. Even though the students, also the parents don’t know how the exam will be graded but they are concerned about how the exam will affect grades and class rank. Therefore, schools request a waiver for the test will not count as a part of students' grades.

In my opinion, I will not approve or accept the waiver request until all students have taken the new state mandated test. Since this will be the first time for high school students to take the test, so it is better to see how they’re doing after taking the test. What if a lot of students do really badly on this test, the score might affect a lot on their grades. Some students already have low grades in classes, if this test will be counted as a part of their grades, then I feel really sorry for those students who don't have a good grade. All parents and students can’t avoid/stop worrying about the test. Right now, we don’t know how hard the new state test will be, so my first suggestion is that the state should grant the request for this school year. The state might consider this matter again later on whether the test will be counted or not. It always depends on the Texas Education Agency.   

“Since the state law prohibits such waiver, it’s unlikely the Texas Education Agency will grant the request”. If the waiver is prohibited in the state, then I think the only solution is to encourage all students take the test seriously and do as much as they can. Since this test is the state mandated test which is called State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness or STAAR, so high school students are required to take it. Students need to put a lot of efforts to study before taking the test in order to get the best results. Even if the waiver will not be granted, but at least the state should let all teachers know all the materials are to be covered on the test, and make sure they review all those materials with their students. I think this is the way to help students to do well on their test. Whether the states will grant the waiver request or not, all students need to show what they have learned throughout the year and try their best to do on this test.

To Educate, Not Teminate

I have read a commentary from my colleague’s blog, Cassia. The post is titled “To Educate, Not Terminate”. She brings up the issue of unplanned pregnancy is the societal problem that reflects the lack of knowledge of the general public. Instead of allowing abortions, Texas should focus on teaching the youth how and why to prevent getting pregnancy, and to truly explain the consequences of it. I always oppose abortions without exceptions because I also think abortion is just inhuman. Therefore, I totally agree with my colleague about this matter.

“According to the Texas Department State Health of Services, the ages of mothers start as early as ten years old, and father’s as early as twelve!”  I think it is too early for kids to become parents at these young ages. They even still need to be taken care of. How can they raise a child at their young age? It’s just impossible. This is also the reason why school and also parents should get involved into this matter, since they all have a role to educate/teach their kids how things might happen, how to prevent pregnancy and clearly explain the consequences of doing it. Even so, abortion can’t be the only way to solve this problem. “This data is the evidence that Texas should implement a permanent program in schools to deal with unplanned pregnancy.” Cassie said.

Texas currently has the third-highest teen birth rate in the country. It also led the nation in the amount of government money it spent on abstinence-only education-the primary program to reduce teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases-that was to be presented in schools and other community-based agencies. Unfortunately, this program was ineffective and not working. “According to Cassie, the only way Texas can reduce its birth rates and avoid the outrageous early pregnancies is to educate the public. The focus should be on how to either prevent or plan a pregnancy, instead of terminating it.” I totally agree with her that the education is the only way, since Texas is not doing a really good job on teaching teens how to prevent and minimize the risks if sexual behavior occurs. Even when I was in high school, my school didn’t talk about sexual behaviors, therefore kids don’t know much about it. I also think parents should get involved; they have to teach their kids how to avoid pregnancy. Once it happens, there is no ways to solve the problems other than abortions.

The abortion sonogram bill has passed the Texas House and Senate. This bill allows women to have abortions. Truthfully, I really don’t like any programs that abortions get involved in because I think it’s very cruel to do so. Since this is the only remedy that Texas has, it will be working well that way. At least, this program gives a woman a chance to make her ultimate decision before she has an abortion. During the sonogram, the doctor must describe the fetus; the woman can choose whether she wants to see images from the sonogram or listen to the heartbeat. The woman will have to make her decisions after all, whether keep it or get rid of it. "In such rare cases, an abortion is understandable; however, for most cases it is just inhuman." Cassia said. I agree with her that abortion is just inhuman, but to me, the abortion also shouldn't be done without any exceptions. The action is just like killing an innocent child.

The only best way to the issue is to educate the teens at school. Parents need to look after their kids, tell them to do right things.

State increases aid request

I got an article from statesman. The article is about Texas State asks for money to create temporary jobs for wildfire counties. “Responding to damage caused by wildfires, the Texas Workforce Commission has requested $1.4 million in Disaster Relief Employment from the U.S. Department of Labor to pay for 60 temporary jobs in the area, up from the initial request for about $700,000.” reporter said.

Because of the drought in Texas, therefore many wildfires occurred in many counties. The central Texas fires have been devastating to several of our communities and church families. Houses and many acres were burned. The fires have consumed 36,000 acres, destroyed nearly 1,400 homes and killed two people in Bastrop.

All the fire victims still have to face hardships; they need our help and our comfort/support to them. Even today, some people still need jobs to provide their own needs. Since the wildfire happened to their families, they have nothing left, not even a shelter to stay.

Therefore, state increases aid requests in order to create temporary jobs in the areas. I agree with the State of Texas' request for Disaster Relief Employment from the U.S. Department of Labor. I think the state should do that to help the victims of wildfires. Since the money will be used to provide wages, jobs, other support services, it is a good cause to do so…This request should be approved by the Disaster Relief Employment to help all people who are in need of help. All the victims will be eligible for state funding that will pay for their temporary shelters as well as cover essential expenses. Especially all the low-income families and renters without insurance who lost their homes and possessions, and also workers whose employment was lost, they have no shelters to live. What can they do for their living? How can they survive through these hard times? Their lives really depend on the help of government and also other people who help them.

The fire victims need help not only from the government but from our fellow Texans. What we can do to help those people? There are many ways such as donations, charities, volunteers,...There are many locations that you can drop off your donations, and your donations can be food, clothes,…and other stuffs. If everyone lends a helping hand, then all the fire victims will be back to their normal life very soon.

Right now, there are still people who really need to a job to earn money for their families. Therefore, the Texas’ government should seek more aids from the national government in order to help the victims.

The Perry ad campaign

I got a commentary from BurkaBlog. The article was called “The Perry ad campaign: sign of strength or sign of weakness”. It was written by Paul Burka on Monday, October 10, 2011.

The author is trying to talk about the Perry ad campaign. This campaign is an attack ad against Mitt Romney. According to GOP source, Perry intends to spend $20 million on an ad that goes against Romney, his primary opponent. Burka argues that Perry should not have done this ad when he has been declined in most polls. That's why Burka thinks this ad campaign does not help Perry in the election at all, plus it is just a waste of money and time. Since the ad is going to be negative about Romney so I think it is not a very good decision to launch this ad. Do you think the ad is going to help Perry in the election? No! A lot of people will even think negative facts about Perry. “Worse, it runs the risk of being a distraction. If he is going to spend $20 million on an ad campaign, wouldn’t it be better spent if the message were how Perry will create jobs in America?” Burka said.

Who should be the one listening to Burka’s words? I don’t think everyone should be convinced by Burka. Burka just put his own options about Perry’s advertisement into this article. Everyone has different options on this campaign therefore some of people might agree with Burka, some might not. Everyone can be his audience since Burka is not telling anyone individual.

I agree with Burka. I think his evidences are logical. Instead of using $20 million on an ad, why isn’t he going to spend on something more meaning such as health care, jobs…? I don’t know if this is a helpful ad for Perry or not, but spending a lot of money to promote oneself and criticize others is not a very good thing to do so. I think people will vote for a candidate who can win on his own strengths and not try to win on the perceived weakness of others. One thing that Perry should be doing right now is to prepare a good debate performance and how to make it better. What he needs is a strategy for winning the election, not just doing negative things to win over his opponents. Voters always have doubts about the candidates make negative things. Therefore, all the candidates must be doing right things to make people believe in them and vote for them. The best candidate will eventually be elected.

Keep ACL free – of smoking, fires

I got my "Keep ACL free – of smoking, fires" article from statesman.com. The author of this article is Jay Janner and the article was published on Thursday (September 15, 2001). In this reading, Janner tried to talk about how The Austin Parks Departments has banned smoking at all parks in order to keep everyone safe. 
This year, all the attendees at Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACLMF) were not allowed to smoke or doing anything that could start a fire such as grill, barbecue.  Because of the drought in Austin this year, grass, weeds, and trees are dried out so it is really easy to spark a fire. "It will take only a small spark from an ash or ember to ignite an area. We're trying to be proactive.” Austin Parks Director Sarah Hensley said.
Who should be reading this article? Austin people are the ones. The author is trying to convince everyone to keep smoking away from all the Austin parks. The attendees at the ACLMF were also audiences as well since the event happened at the Zilker Park. In order to keep everyone safe and to have a better environment, we all should do what we think to make it better and listen to what the author has said in this article.
“The ban against smoking and burning should be taken seriously. Those who do ignore it are playing with fire”, said Janner.
The author has stated some good evidences to show that all Austin parks should be banned smoking. One of those evidences that Janner has mentioned is that the wildfires happened in Bastrop County not too long ago, and also in many other places around Central Texas. Many houses and thousands of acres were burned. The most reason that causes about one fourth of those fires is cigarettes. Therefore, I think Janner is writing to convince everyone, especially the ones who get addicted to cigarettes might be more careful when they are around inflammable places.
The ACLMF was a special year for music festival this year since people celebrated its 10^th anniversary, but cigarettes, cigars, pipes or whatever one might be smoking were not allowed to be seen at the events which ran from Thursday to Sunday. “Unfortunately, the ban lacks teeth because it is a directive issued by the city parks department — and not an ordinance passed the Austin City Council.” Janner stated. However, the ban should be taken place in order to protect Austin from fires.
I totally agree with Jay Janner, the author of this article. Since we all are living in the same place, we need to do what we should do to prevent all of the bad things might happen to us. Just look at what has happened to the people in Bastrop County and their situations right now, they all are in need.  I think on one wants things like that happen to their life. I agree with Janner because his thoughts are so similar to mine. I also don't want anybody to smoke at parks because it seems dangerous more than it looks. Once the fires start, it's really tired to stamp out the fires. I guess we can imagine how the parks look like after they are burned.
Janner claimed: “We believe that Austin needs greater protections in place next year if the city faces similar drought-like conditions. That requires action from the City Council, which should look at the benefits of passing an ordinance to prohibit smoking and burning in all Austin parks.” I think this is a very logical solution to prevent fires because the ban must be an ordinance passed the Austin City Council in order to be enforceable, so that people will stop smoking at any environments that can easily cause fires, or else the penalties will apply to anyone that resists doing so.
I think the author is a convincing speaker, since he has explained why everyone should not smoke at any Austin parks, especially when ACLMF is a big event/place with a lot of people come to have fun. We, people should try to do everything to prevent fires as possible as we can. The readers who are reading this article should know how bad smoking is in this drought. Therefore, any form that causes fires will absolutely not be allowed to do so.  

Emotions spill over as impact of fires sinks in

Emotions spill over as impact of fires sinks in

I got this article on stateman.com. The article’s about Texas wildfires in Bastrop. The fires have consumed 36,000 acres, destroyed nearly 1,400 homes and killed two people. Nearly a week after wildfires broke out in Central Texas, emotions - sadness, disappointment, frustration, gratitude, hope - are as ubiquitous as charred pine trees.  A lot of people are impatient to get back to their homes but what’s left of them. All the victims will be eligible for state funding that will pay for their temporary shelters as well as cover essential expenses. The relief funding is provided by Texas Disaster Relief Fund…and also President Obama signed a disaster declaration for Texas that will make grants and other aids. Meanwhile, a fire in Spicewood burned 6,400 acres, destroyed 45 homes and damaged five others has been fully contained. I think this article is worth reading because we all need to know how the condition in Bastrop is. Every fire victim needs a helping hand to support them as much as we can right now. Therefore we all should do some/all kinds of donations and charity events to help them through difficult times.