BLOG #6

Earth Day and what it means to me

Today is April 22, 2012 otherwise known as Earth Day!! Recognized and celebrated in almost 200 countries worldwide by billions of earthlings, Earth Day has become a global tribute to the planet we live on. It also brings issues such as conservation of natural resources, pollution, global warming, greenhouse emissions, and preservation of wildlife and plants to the forefront. Earth Day began in 1970, as the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson (who is known as the founder/father of Earth Day) from Wisconsin (Helmensteine). “Inspired by the "teach-ins" held by Vietnam War protestors on U.S. college campuses, Senator Gaylord Nelson announced his idea for Earth Day. It would be a large-scale, grassroots demonstration against the degradation of America's natural resources” (Vincent).  In 1970, Senator Nelson proposed a bill designating April 22 as a national day to celebrate our planet. The bill passed and Earth Day has been celebrated on this day ever since; not to mention every Earth Day has had a theme such as: the global youth (1988), clean energy now (2000), lighten up (2011), and the 2012 theme- mobilize the Earth (Vincent).

There are so many things we can do to help the environment; there are the common things like recycle, take public transportation/ride a bike/carpool, cutback on water usage, and buying in bulk. But there is something so simple that we as college students can do to give mother earth and ourselves a hand-embrace technology. Instead of buying multiple paper books in stores or on line, buy an e-reader and get them electronically. This will save you time, gas, and a lot of unnecessary waste from books that will only be good for a couple of semesters. You can also take online classes; this will cut down on air pollution from driving back and forth between campus and home. It will also cutback on paper supplies you would have to buy for that class. Taking notes on your laptop instead of writing them down on notebook paper will help save trees (and you’ll be able to understand what you wrote!), and if you have to use a printer, print out on both sides of the paper.  

I think Earth Day is a wonderful concept. I wish we could all remember to embrace it year round, and consider that we only have one planet so we have to take care of it.

Works cited

Helmensteine, Anne Marie. “What is Earth Day?” About.com .Web 22 April 12

http://chemistry.about.com/od/environmentalchemistry/f/earthday.htm

Vincent, Wendy. “A History of Earth Day” Ledyardpatch.com. 21 April 12. Web 22 April 12

http://ledyard.patch.com/articles/a-history-of-earth-day

BLOG #5

Who is your Texas Representative & Senator, what is a Texas issue of
concern that you'd like them to address?

My Congressman is from Congressional District 31 and his name is John R. Carter, and Texas' two current U.S. Senators are- Senator John Cornyn and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (stateoftexas). I would like to ask both Senators, and my Congressman to support more educational bills for our State. Texas’ public schools, community colleges, and public Universities are in dire straights at this time and something needs to be done about it quickly. We are ranked “47th in the nation in literacy, 49th in verbal SAT scores and 46th in math scores.” according to the New York Times. Despite high dropout rates and a low number of high school graduates, the state can still afford to “cut the number of teachers, increase class sizes, eliminate scholarships for underprivileged students and close several community colleges(Collins). It becomes apparent that there is a major problem when certain schools have to hold a lottery for students that want to attend it because it offers more than the rundown schools they are currently attending. Parents have to take off work to go to these raffles that only have a certain number of slots open for the hundreds of kids that want to transfer. We also lead the nation in teen births, due to Texas educators not getting the funding they need or the laws passed to teach sex education courses properly (Collins).  Per Collins, “The birth rate here is the highest in the country, and if it continues that way, Texas will be educating about a tenth of the future population” (Collins).

Meanwhile, our trusted officials are not doing the job we elected them for. They are voting down bills that would help, and backing others that hurt or make no sense. Senator John Cornyn has a terrible track record when it comes to education reform. He has consistently voted against bills that would “shift money from corporate tax loopholes and fund it back into schools”, or for money that would “give billions of dollars in grants to local educational agencies” (ontheissues).

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has also voted against the same bills as Senator Cornyn, but she has been more flexible on some educational issues that have nothing to do with education. She voted for “75 million dollars to be given to schools for abstinence education”, even though they already teach abstinence and it’s been proven ineffective, (hence the high pregnancy rate). She also backed a bill requiring schools to “allow voluntary prayer, and a bill allowing more foreign languages to be taught and more exchange students allowed to study in Texas” (ontheissues). I want to ask Senator Hutchison the following questions-How is allowing people to pray in is school going to help boost attendance or test scores? Who is going to teach these additional foreign languages if schools keep shutting down and teachers laid off? How does this help with the literacy rate if kids can barely read or understand English as it is? What government is going to want to send their children to the lowest ranking educational state in the USA to get them schooled?

 The worst offender of this trio is Congressman John Carter. He voted no on “giving $84 million in grants to minority colleges” (who lead the state in dropouts and pregnancies), and no against a bill that would “provide $10.2 billion for federal education and HHS (human and health services) projects” (ontheissues). I’m extremely dissatisfied with the job these three are doing, and I plan to vote against them in the next round of elections.

They seem to have no idea how important education is in every aspect of life. Education can cure or drastically reduce so many of our problems as a state: dropouts, teen pregnancy, crime, poverty, low graduation rate, school closings, teacher/instructor layoffs, etc., we just have to elect politicians who can get the job done.

Collins, Gail. “Mrs. Bush, Abstinence and Texas”. Nytimes.com 16 Feb. 2011. Web. 1 April 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/opinion/17gailcollins.html

Onetheissues.com. Web. 1 April 2012

http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Kay_Bailey_Hutchison.htm

http://www.ontheissues.org/TX/John_Carter.htm

http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/john_cornyn.htm

StateofTexas.com. Web. 01 April 2012
http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/find-your-representative/