Comment to Lien Fon Chi

After reading the blog post by Lien Fon Chi, I have to agree with his point in that parents may think that they have their child’s best interest when opting them out if the vaccination and that this can come with severe consequences that will harm the general public. I feel that his by bringing in historical evidence such as how measles and whooping cough have come back supports his argument and shows how dire the situation can be if people continue to opt out of vaccines. I feel that parents should not have the option to opt out of vaccines because of how many places make them mandatory and more importantly schools. Why should children that could be a potential disease threat be allowed to attend the same schools that children with the vaccine? I feel that this would anger many parents if they knew that their children could be in danger of catching what children have. Lien’s comparison of the banning of peanut products to banning children with diseases is a little over the top but it’s not so much that it changes how solid his argument is. I feel that Lien’s conclusion of making getting vaccinations a standard of being a member of society is the single most important point of this blog post. I believe that many would conclude that getting vaccinations to prevent diseases would help the general public overall, and I cannot see as to why anyone would want to opt out of lifesaving vaccines. I believe Lien’s argument is strong, to the historical evidence and the research of increasing diseases, it is hard to find a way in which to form a counterargument.

The Representation of Texas

Throughout Texas' history, Texas has been predominantly white. However with recent changes in the demographic, there has been a change and there is no majority race in Texas. I do not think that the majority white male Texas Legislature can represent the state that Texas has become. Too many people are stuck in the past of how Texas use to be, as a white majority state and are not willing to face the growing minority races in Texas, including the upcoming Hispanic plurality.

When looking at the current state of the Texas Legislature’s ethnicity one can see that the white are still the majority but with Hispanics begin the closest at 21%. With these percentages the projected Hispanic plurality may find trouble in being able to be represented equally. This can be problematic to Hispanics because of how Republicans have generally been the party that has been against immigrants and have put forward anti-immigration laws. So how can a party that is against immigrants even hope to be able to represent them without trying to change their ideology just to stay in power. Looking at the ratio of males to females working you can see that the people that primarily work for the Senate are white males, which can lead to unequal representation of the new Texas. With so little women in the Senate, we can begin to question if white males can really have the best interest to represent women equally. The most recent case of unequal representation would be the current case with planned parenthood and how the benefits that it brought to women have been cut short and with the harsher regulations make helping difficult for planned parenthood.

Not only is there no majority race but the current way in which Texas Legislature operates creates a gap between the average person that may want to represent the people but cannot afford to work only 140 days in two years and have the low pay that results because of their time working. This leads to the only people that are realistically able to run for office being none other that the rich people of Texas and the rich are certainly not an accurate representation of Texas as all types of income levels have different ways to look at politics.

I feel that Texas must work on their representation in order to better their government that should be run for the people by the people that make up Texas.