Commentary on "No More Excuses!"

On Friday, April 26, 2013, Let Me Speak! wrote an article titled "No More Excuses!" which I made the following commentary on:

Dear Let Me Speak!,

I enjoyed reading your article titled, "No More Excuses!" and highly respect your point of view on this controversial issue. With that being said, I have a slightly different point of view.

While I do agree that everyone should have the right to obtain proper identification in this state, I do not agree with allowing illegal aliens to obtain such licensing. My main issue with this new law you are writing about, is that we are reinforcing illegal behavior. Yes, in one hand it will help everyone because they can be identified more easily. On the other hand, they are here illegally.

Instead of passing a new law to license the undocumented illegal aliens, Texas should be reforming our immigration laws. My entire point is that IF they had come to our state/ country LEGALLY, they would not have an issue getting documented.

I am an advocate for human rights, and definitely see where this new law could benefit Texans. I agree with your comments that it will help in situations of car accidents and insurance needs. My question to that though would be, why should we allow an illegal alien to have a valid driver's license and automobile insurance? I guess I can see the point is that they will drive anyways, so why not just allow them to drive legally.

I also completely disagree that this will help our Texas economy. These undocumented people do NOT pay taxes, own homes, use financing and pay interest, and so forth. These are the things that stimulate the economy. If we pass this law, we are basically saying that coming here illegally is OKAY, and there's no need to do it the right way.

In conclusion, I have to say this is a very poor solution to our immigration problem. Yes, there are a few benefits to this new law, but overall there are more negative attributes. Before we begin to enable illegal behavior, we need to find easier solutions for undocumented aliens to become citizens.

Commentary on "Texas Social Services (or lack thereof)"

On Friday, April 26, 2013, Texas Government blog wrote an article titled "Texas Social Services (or lack thereof)" which I wrote a commentary on.

Dear Texas Government Blog,

I appreciate your blog article titled "Texas Social Services (or lack thereof)" and enjoyed reading about your experience with this issue. I have never personally felt the the negative effects of our poor welfare system, and am grateful you broadened my opinion.

I can definitely see that Texas' welfare system is flawed by reading your article, but I am curious to know how we rank in other areas of assistance. Meaning, are we educating our needy persons to help them succeed without the use of government funding? Also, what percentage of people are staying on welfare indefinitely, and how many people are using it to get back on their feet?

I firmly believe that instead of giving people money, we should reform our government spending to reflect a more "teaching" approach to poverty. As the old saying goes, "give a man a fish he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime." I hope that instead of our government spending more money by simply giving it away, that they will provide needy families with schooling and knowledge on how to succeed in our society.

I agree with you that Texas needs to re-evaluate our welfare system, but I hope they utilize education in doing so. Another good way to help our poverty level is to have routine check-ups with people receiving benefits. This would help to take away money from people misusing it, and give it those that actually need assistance. I come from a small town and can tell you firsthand that a good percentage of people receiving food stamps misuse them.

Overall, we seem to have similar attitudes on this issue given that we dive a little deeper into the waters of welfare. I will continue to research this issue to get a better understanding of the situation.