Commentary Review, Public Restrooms!

I’m reviewing Jennifer Silva, “Taking Culture Wars to the Toilet”, article. Her blog focused on Target's new policy allowing transgender to choose which restroom they think it’s right for them. Jennifer mentioned that customers are worried for their kids and how a grown adult man could probably do harm to their child. In which she agrees with a man and a woman to have their separate restrooms. Jennifer did a great job saying what the issues were and what were her opinions about gender restroom. And while I agree that a man or woman not transgender being able to walk in the opposite sex restroom may look weird, it still doesn’t take away from the fact that why shouldn’t a transgender go in the restroom they feel they are meant to be in. We all know what a transgender means, it means that they don’t believe that they are the sex they were born to be. So why should a transgender men or woman have to go to a restroom where they don’t feel like they belong in! Restrooms are a place to go in and come out, that’s it, why think more than that! To those parents that fear for their kids, they have two options in my opinion. One, is leave the restroom and go to another one, or second, if you fear for your kid just lookout for them. Transgenders are going to restrooms for the same reasons as me and you. So why make it a big deal for someone who believes to be a woman or a men to use the bathroom to the gender they believe to be. At the end of the day, transgender man and women will always be given a second stare. If a transgender man walks in a men’s restroom dressed as a woman his not going to be wanted, so why not let her pee in the place where she feels comfortable in.? And if someone pretending to be a transgender wonder in the wrong restroom, that can be taken to court. Why punish other peoples rights and equality because of fear of something that might not happen!

What Could UT Do To Be Safer.

In this blog I will be expanding on the Haruka Weiser blog, on how UT can be made safer. In blog 5 I wrote of a UT student who was killed on a Sunday night while heading to her dorm after dance practice. UTPD worked with the Austin Police department on finding a black male on a bike who appeared on the campus camera and later appearing by the football stadium with a backpack not worn before in the first video he was seen in. Due to this tragic event, students and faculties were shocked that one of their own had passed. But with the fear of one of UT student being murdered, the university did all it could to make sure students and faculty felt safe and knew of the incident. The university sent out texts and emails explaining every step of the way of what was occurring throughout the investigation, they increased patrols, and offered escorts to anyone who felt unsafe around the campus. But was that enough? Could UT be made safer?

UT being the largest university in the country with 50,000 students and over 24,000 faculty and staff, overall is a very safe place to be in. With the last on-campus tragedy being over 50 years ago, when Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the tower and gunned down 49 people, killing 16. This type of tragedies make people wonder what could off been done to prevent it or prevent it in the future. In my opinion a good way to start is setting metal detectors on every important building, so what happened 50 years ago could never happen again. In Weiser's case, increasing officers at night to walk around the each build, and adding more emergency call boxes around places were it might be dark and no cameras can reach to see, could make UT a bit safer. Time wrote an article called, Can We Make Campuses Safer? ,were it said that some schools have done what is called a prox card were its used to track the comings and goings of individuals students and gives buildings the control access to the dorms to electronically open the dorm doors, which was made to prevent sexual assaults and other incidents. Other ways to make UT safer is putting up a message board on each classroom so when something happens, it will appear on the small screen making it faster to reach those students who are in class. Adding "smart" video cameras around campus to detect suspicious activity. "This will alert a security officer if it films someone climbing up a fence, walking down the alley late at night or lingering by a windowsill." This type of technology will be pricey but all worth it at the end. Some schools like Princeton "train professors how to spot signs of depression, and access to metal-health services," this will be a great resource in UT's life. Lastly, adding more self-defense classes for woman weekly will also be a great way that UT could be made safer. But there’s a point where you can’t make a school too safe because than you'll be making, prison 2.0.  

Commentary Review, Toll.

I'm reviewing Grabriela Guadarrama, "Toll talk, we need a small loan of 30 billion dollars" article. Guadarrama's article focused on tolls and how Texas is wanting to build more even if it means being 30 billion dollars in debt, or more. Guadarrama focuses her view on how she doesn't agree with adding more tolls because of how costly it gets for us who pay weekly for them. She did a great job stating her opinion from the beginning and keeping that opinion throughout her blog. This story interested me because i never really thought of tolls as a bothering thing, but more as a better choice to skip traffic and go at 85mph. Although i agree with tolls being pricey, and the option of less stops, i don't quite agree on removing all of them. Mainly because if we decide to remove them and open them to everyone for free, tolls will be another I35 and honestly i wouldn't want that. Tolls have been a life saver for me in the sense that it only takes me 30 min to get to Buda and visit my pregnant sister on rush hour, instead of an hour and a half in I35. For this, i wouldn't mind paying my 11 dollars a month for the 6 trips back and forth to Buda.

This blog was great in teaching others of the pros and cons of tolls and where the toll money that we pay each month go to. I agree with there being enough tolls and how tolls should lower on how many times we should get charged on for one road.

Murder of Haruka Weiser on UT campus should shake us all.

On April 7, 2016, Statesman writer Tara Trower Doolittle, released an article mentioning the freshman UT student who was murdered on April 3, 2016 near Waller Creek on Sunday night. The investigation was turned to the Austin Police Department on Wednesday who notified the victims family and publicly named the victim as "Haruka Weiser, an 18-year-old dance major from Portland, Ore., was murdered on her way home from the Winship Drama Building, according to police." Her information was given out in hopes of identifying a man on a bike in a video taken nearby.

This tragedy that happened to the female victim "was likely to rock the feeling of safety and security on the Austin campus." Although a lot hasn't been said about the incident the university called for an "overall security evaluation of the campus by the Department of Public Safety. The university has also increased patrols and is offering escorts for anyone on campus who feels unsafe moving around on campus."

The University of Texas and Texas overall did a good job in warning its students through text, email, and UT website of what was happening. I remember being with my cousin when she received a text from UT saying that one of the student was murdered on campus. The next day they followed with another message saying they're working with UTPD and other law enforcement agencies to locate the suspect. Having family members work and go to UT made me sick to my stomach to think that someone's life could be taken so easily. UT's president made sure its students were aware of all time what was happening as well as making sure they felt safe. I loved hearing that the university increased patrol for those who needed escorts who felt unsafe while on campus. As well as adding shuttles wo take dance students to their destinations, which is were Haruka Weiser was last seen.

The Austin Police Department did a good job themselves by giving a statement warning the students to always "walk in groups, specially at night. Don't walk distracted by your phone, and be aware of your surroundings at all time." Although UT didn't mention this but the Statesman post did, mentioned that this kind of stuff distressing lot of women, who must look over their shoulder's in dark places. Statesman stated, "Although this particular incident represents a first for the University of Texas campus, it only punctuates the grim reality that women, in particular must always be on their guard." I would of liked UT to have included this but besides that, Texas did a good job informing the students and its faculties of new evidence as its being presented.

He's good for something.

On March 22nd, 2016, Charles Kuffner posted a story called "More on the rush to naturalization" in the Off the Kuff Blog. In his blog Kuffner writes about the increase of permanent residents in Texas applying for citizenship. Due to this presidential election focusing heavily on immigration, "thousands of legal residents in Texas are applying for citizenship in hopes of securing their place in the country." Kuffner posts a cartoon picture making fun of Donald trump, letting his readers know who Charles is talking about while he writes about a new president who is pushing immigration laws. Charles writes that many wonder why legal residents haven't already applied, and the reply will vary from ''‘we didn’t have the money’ (it costing $680) to ‘I am afraid that I might lose my status.’'

Immigration nonprofit workers as well as Obama are helping residents apply for citizenship saying that the numbers of applications are only growing.  "Its jumped almost 14 percent in the July to September 2015 quarter compared to the same period in 2014." Kuffner writes that this is only happening because the people are scared, Trump has provided a boost in applications since he began his campaign saying Mexicans are drug-traffickers, rapist and that he will deport 11 million immigrants including children that are here illegally." According to the Pew Research Center, almost 8.8 million legal residents in the U.S. are eligible to naturalize with about 2.7 million of them hailing from Mexico. With 1.3 million legal residents living in Texas, the state ranks third among states with the most legal residents eligible for citizenship.

"In general, encouraging green card holders to go through the naturalization process is a good thing. I just hope we’re doing some of this here in Texas."

I love the way Charles adds in a bit of humor into his writing that not even Republicans could get mad about. He made sure to let us know what he was trying to teach us, showed evidence to how applications have increased since Trump started running for office and the logic behind why residents have never applied to become a citizen and why they are doing so now. He tells us of different states like Colorado and Washington and people who are helping those residents become citizen. I like that Charles writes for any side but you can tell that his audience is mainly to democrats.

Do what you're told!

On February 18, 2016, Columnist David Dam from the Daily Texan Online published an article titled, "Anti-police brutality is not anti-police".  David argues that ideas of anti-police brutality should not be confused with ideas of anti-police. He starts his article saying that police brutality has been around for decades, mainly focusing on black individuals. He tries to convince us that blacks and others of colors should join together and spread the movements of those like Black Lives Matter. And mentions that "Black Lives Matter does not mean police lives do not."  He gives an example of a naked 17 year old boy killed in Austin just last week by a black police officer. David goes on to believe that officers should get more training but this cant happen if people don't recognize that police brutality towards blacks is real.

David does a really good job trying to convince us that police brutally is wrong, which i agree, but does a really bad job explaining the other facts behind why stuff like this happen to people. Or in Davids article, why things like this happen to black people. In the case of the naked 17 year old, David doesn't explain how everything let to Joseph, the young black male to be killed. Freedman the police officer who had received a disturbance call saying that witnesses who said they saw a man chasing another man through the complex. When Freeman arrived he saw the boy naked in the streets. As the officer went to approach him, Joseph charged at Freeman, and the officer opened fire.

So here's is the point I'm trying to make and why i don't agree with this article. Every cop has a time where they have to make a split decision. Some make the wrong one, and there are consequences for that, but "If an officer is wrong, that officer was wrong. But you shouldn't paint every cop as bad" - Officer Sewell. A lot of the killing that I've seen in social media happening to black people always involves someone resisting arrest and not doing what is told by the officer. You better believe that if an officer tells me to do the chicken dance i will do the best chicken dance he/she will ever see. There's a reason why an officer is trying to speak to you or arrest you and just because you hold your hand up doesn't justify the fact that you're not listening to them as they tell you to get on the ground. This officers are regular people and every time they put on a uniform they fear that they might not make it home because of an idiot who couldn't stand still while being told to do so. Any officer will do what they have to do in order to get the arrest without being hurt. If i was an officer and i believed that the person in front of me is a threat, i will do what ever necessary to get home to my family safe.
These are the men and women that we are supposed to look up to. They are supposed to protect us and make us feel comfortable. But when social media is telling us other wise, its like a domino effect. Many will follow and agree that police are being racist, but the full story of every death is never told.

To sum this up, i believe that when someone sees that a killing was done by a police officer, that person is going to be anti-police because they will fear that what happened to Eric Garner will happen too them. But people don't realize that yes, this was a sad story, yes he had his hands up to say he wasn't going to do anything, but the officer who's trying to arrest you believes you're doing something illegal and they are telling you do get on the ground and stop resisting arrest. And that is exactly what everyone should do, listen, get on the ground and put your hands behind your back if told. It's that easy.

With Clean Power Plan Ruling, Texas Dodges Climate Action

On Wednesday, February 9, 2016 TEXAS TRIBUNE published an article titled, "With Clean Power Plan Ruling, Texas Dodges Climate Action."

The article states that on Tuesday the U.S Supreme court granted a request by Texas and 26 other states to halt the Clean Power Plan. And Texas is in no rush to sign Obama's Plan since they haven't tried to "shift from coal-fired power to natural gas, as would have been required by Obama's rule." The reason that Texas and other states are against Obama's Plan is because they believe that following the Clean Power Plan would "cost the states jobs, push electricity costs too high and threaten reliability."

While the Supreme Court ruling has helped Republicans dodge action on climate change, there are those Environmental groups who are calling this a disappointing surprise.

The Clean Power Plan will stay pending for review. But "had the regulations stayed in place, Texas would have had until Sept. 6 to submit a final plan or apply for an extension."

This article is worth reading and following up with because i believe climate change is a serious topic and we only get one planet to live in. So why damage it more with Coal power being already being the main cost for pollution when we could just pay a little extra money to save the place that we need to survive. Those who try to scare us with saying that electricity cost will rise never mentions how much it would be. After all, those politicians only say what they want us hear.