Tuesday, April 20, 2010

I found an interesting blog posted by Sohil Rojani titled, “Texas has worst record of prison sex abuse.” I thought this was interesting because it’s not something that you think would be discussed on a daily basis. The first thing I learned from this article was, “Five of the 10 prisons with the highest rates of sexual abuse in the country are in Texas.” This is a very important and serious issue and I don’t understand why this issue wasn’t taken care of before. Now, I know prison is an unsafe place, but now this makes it sound worse. How can this be stopped?

It says in the article that they are trying to reduce the problem by video cameras but I don’t think that’s going to have a big affect on the situation. Another solution suggested investigating the allegations of sex abuse, but I don’t think finding some of these people is going to stop it overall. The police stationed at these prisons need to buckle down and really look at what the issue is and how to prevent ALL of it. This is a sticky situation that seems very difficult and personal to deal with so I understand how hard it may be to stop this. But one way or another, I believe that the sexual abuse rate needs to drop dramatically to get Texas out of the top 5 prisons with sexual abuse.

I think my colleague did an excellent job with this article post because it’s definitely random and not something that would normally be discussed. I think they got all the right and interesting points across and I agree all the way with my colleague. This is a very serious issue and it’s going to take strict changes and rules to fix this problem.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

The time has come around to fill out census forms this year and it won’t take anyone more than ten minutes. So far this year in central Texas, we have been slow in filling out and mailing our forms back in. So far, Travis county response is 7% and Williamson is 10%. All the census asks is basically who lives at your residency currently.

The census forms affect the government and the people in the House of Representatives. This is because there might be more available seats open based on the census results. Also a big part of the census is money because, more people the more money the government will need to bring in.

I believe that the census form isn’t difficult, so everyone should fill it out. The government needs to know this important stuff so they are able to generate more money for the Texas government and people. The census form isn’t harming anyone, it’s just helping out our government. The consequences are simple, if you don’t fill out the form and return it, the government will come knocking on your door. And, the government will save $1.5 million if they don’t have to come knocking on doors.

The Texas government is trying to help our state out by getting the correct information. The government is doing a good job about putting word out about this because they are trying to save money, not spend money. Also, they are only asking for simple information, it’s really not that private. I think if our Texas government continues to get word across about threatening to come knock on doors then maybe people will fill theirs out and mail it back as soon as possible. This will also help the government out because it’s making more jobs available in the House of Representatives which means more jobs for some people. The government I believe at least has every right to know how many people are in a household also because it helps determine what kind of money they should be bringing into Texas based on the number of people in Texas. I think if our government continues to do this it will be helpful toward saving money in many ways because they are doing the right thing. And, something this simple shouldn’t be this difficult. So stop holding a grudge against the government and turn in your form, it’s not that hard and in the end it’s also helping you the people out.