Reflection on “Paycheck to Paycheck – The Life and Times of Katrina Gilbert” Documentary

“Paycheck toPaycheck – The Life and Times of Katrina Gilbert” is produced by HBODocumentary and represents the story of Katrina Gilbert, who is a single parent of three children. Her husband, Jeremy Gilbert, was addicted to pain medication and used all their income during their 10-years of marriage to support his addiction. Fortunately, Jeremy stops his addiction after getting a divorced and is able to find a factory job. Earning just $9.49 per hour as a nurse in the care home and feeding three children, Katrina lives under the poverty line which makes her think twice on every single check. For example, she cannot go to see a doctor to cure the thyroid disease, as she cannot afford the bill. Moreover, she needs to pay the rent of the trailer part by part, and sell her dog for $40 in order to get some money for living.

I think the government should help these people. After researching on the internet, there is a way that the government can actually help them a bit, but not spending much extra money, which is sending the family life educators to understand each circumstance to help them in maximize their resources in order to make their lives easier.

After watching this documentary, I feel sad for those who are living under the poverty line, as life is so tough to them. For me, $40 is just enough for me to buy a video game, but on the other hand, $40 is important for their survival. And I remember what she says about her tattoo, “She flies with her own wings.” Therefore, I think I should try my best to do everything by my own ability in order to know the difficulty and learn how to cherish the things I have.

Views on classmate Alexander Bainter's Blog

       On Monday, April 28, 2014, my classmate Alexander Bainter published an article which discusses about the participation of the residents in the government voting and it is kind of related to my previous blog. Therefore, I choose his article to leave a comment.

        First of all, I agree with what he said. From the data he provided, with only 38% of the registered Texan voters showing up to vote in the 2010 Gubernatorial election and 58% of them showing up in the 2012 presidential election, Texas deserves a 45^th ranking for voter turnout among all the other states. It is really bad for Texas because people living in it do not care much about the state government. Although people are forced to study 6 credit hours of government in the college, it seems like people may not learn the importance of government deeply from the courses, and I think that is also the reason why people do not want to get involved into those "annoying" elections as people do not know how important they are and are not willing to spend some extra time on those “unimportant” voting.

        To conclude, I think we need to improve our civic consciousness in order to make Texas have a better ranking in the voter turnout and a better state.

Students in Texas must study Government......huh?!?!

It is almost the end of my Texas State and Local Government course, so I am going to talk something about the Texas Education Agency which makes me study this course in ACC.

The Texas Education Code §51.301 states that students who study in public community college or university in Texas must take 6 credit hours of government or policy course in order to graduate. I think most students do not want to take those courses if it is not required because it is kind of boring or wasting time to study something not related to their major. But for me, although I would not take it either as it is quite complicated for me to study the government of a foreign country, I still think that it is a good policy to force students to have a brief understanding in it, for it benefits the United States to become a better country. For example, since the American president is voted by the residents, so if the voters do not have any knowledge of the government or background information of the candidates and the parties, they will not be able to make the most educated and informed decisions in regard to their vote. Therefore, although it is just a brief introduction to the United States government, I think that it is better than nothing for us to know more about the country that we are living in.

Views on classmate Zhimiao Jin's Blog

     On Wednesday, April 2, 2014, my classmate Zhimiao Jin published an article which discusses about gay marriage in Texas and I agree with him because I think that gay marriage should not be allowed.

     In my opinion, gay and lesbian are immoral as marriage should be a union of man and woman. Moreover, it is incompatible for the traditional and religious groups. Besides morality, I think the most important thing that it affects is their descendants. As they cannot produce their own children, they will adopt children from the other families or organizations. And those children will grow up in a same-sex family, which may make them feel guilty and weird because of having two fathers or two mothers while others have one father and one mother in the family. Additionally, children living in a same-sex family will have a higher chance of engaging in homosexual behavior because their parents may teach them about the wrong concept of love and marriage.

     In conclusion, people should have their right to love who they want, but it is immoral and leads to more and more homosexual behavior in the future. Therefore, gay marriage should be banned in Texas.

Views on "Capital Punishment" in Texas

     Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is a legal way to put the criminals to death in order to punish what he has done. Many states in America started the death penalty in the past, but some of them have already abolished it. Nevertheless, Texas still has capital punishment. I think it should be banned in Texas.

     First, Capital punishment would not help if the government put criminals to death. For example, a criminal was arrested because of murdering someone. It is a fact that the victim was dead and things cannot be changed. Therefore, the dead penalty does not have any benefit for either the victims or their family. 

     Second, some opponents may argue about the cost of feeding the criminals, but in fact, the cost of the death penalty is much higher than feeding them for 50 years. Additionally, people think we are just wasting money on those criminals, but actually we should give them a time to have reflections on the crime they did, although they do not have the chance to come out from prison anymore. 

     Last but the least, we do not have the right to put someone to death, no matter what he has done. It is immoral to kill him because we are just doing the same thing as him if we use dead penalty. 

     In conclusion, the dead penalty is immoral and cannot help the case at all. Therefore, I affirm that capital punishment should be banned, not only in Texas, but also the whole world.

Critique on "The Stars at night are BIG and Bright... In Texas"

     On Tuesday, March 18, 2014, the TexasFred Blog published an article titled "The Stars at nightare BIG and Bright… In Texas." It talks about how Texas was “screwed” and what people should do for their country, America. The author uses the good news of Texas, which is a leader in job growth and the development of an important resource - oil, to start the topic of the negative effects to the reputation of Texas brought by the resource. He states that we had been screwed by Liberal politicians, tree huggers, Greenies, anti-oil people and by those that control drilling and exploration, but actually Texas is just developing what we should. Therefore, he suggests people not to concern too much on the other nations and do what is the best way for American development as we are living in America and the citizen of the United States.

     I think this article is a good reflection for us to remind ourselves not to follow what the others say blindly as we should think about it deeply and do what should we do in order to make America in a better place. Like the author said, “WE are the catalyst, WE ARE AMERICA and we MUST place America 1^st in ALL we do!” 

Critique on "Guest Column: Why Texas Should Expand Medicaid"

     On Thursday, February 19, 2013, the Texas Tribune published an article titled "Guest Column: Why Texas Should Expand Medicaid," and it discusses the importance of Medicaid in Texas and why the government should expand Medicaid. Texas has the nation's highest rate of uninsured people, so if Medicaid is expanded, more than 1.5 million Texans will be benefit. However, Medicaid currently benefits children and some parents (pregnant women and adults that reach 100 percent of the Federal Poverty Level). Therefore, the Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce, Texas Medical Association, Texas Hospital Association and many others organization are advocating for the expansion. On the other hand, opponents cite that there are flaws in the Medicaid, and no additional funding should be given.

     After reading this article, I learned more about Medicaid in the United States, and I agree with the author, as Medicaid is very important for the state. Additionally, I think we should try to expand Medicaid because the federal government will cover the entire cost of expansion for the first three years, so it is worth for giving a shot. To quote what Cindy Mann said, "There is nothing Texans can't do if we work together and this opportunity is too important, both to public health and our economy, to be lost." Therefore, the US Government should really give second thoughts about Medicaid Expansion.