Sunday, September 25, 2011

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 10th 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.  

Saturday, September 10, 2011

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.