Plastic Bags

First off, I feel that you made a strong argument overall. However, you need to work on following up on your opening statements and not making so many assumptions when it comes to preferences and lifestyle. In the opening paragraph you asked about those who want to take the “middle ground”, but then never elaborated on what this middle ground would be. Try harder to make sure you cover all of your points made in your thesis. Also, you tended to make assumptions about the general public’s thoughts and actions, solely based off of your own opinions, so try not to generalize the public in your arguments, not everyone thinks the same way. I also don’t believe that your argument for convenience is backed up enough by factual evidence to be valid. You tend to be quite choppy and repetitive in your writing, work on assembling a smoother flow to your blog post. Other than that, I think your blog is very strong.

Dealing with the Border

Are you okay with the amount of illegal immigrants trying to slip into the United States through Texas? How easy is it for cartels to smuggle drugs across our border?

A big problem in Texas right now is the struggle to keep the 1,200 mile border with Mexico protected and secure. Governor Perry’s recent announcement that he was deploying 1,000 National Guard troops to the border has generated widespread attention. I think Mr. Perry and state officials are doing the right thing to defend the border by the show of force even though it is costly because it is a necessary effort to stop the smuggling of people and drugs into Texas. This will prevent criminal aliens from filling up Texas jails unrelated to their immigration status. This has resulted in tens of thousands of arrests and tens of millions of dollars of drug seizures. Mr. Perry says “my citizens’ safety is what is foremost here.”

Many people and programs believe that patrolling the border is the federal government’s job and not the state’s. I agree with these people however, I think it is fair for the state government to step in if the issue is becoming severe and action needs to be taken. Texas has spent a lot of money on border security relative to the other states that share a border with Mexico but that is understandable due to the fact that the border Texas shares with Mexico is bigger than the others all put together. If people say that the federal government should be in charge of the border problem then they should do their job and take action or pay back the Texas state government for the actions they have already taken for them. Texas government is acting instead of the federal government because communities are at risk and we cannot afford to wait any longer. Officials with the state’s top law enforcement agency, the Department of Public Safety, say dozens of killings, assaults, shootings and kidnappings in Texas have been directly related to Mexican drug cartels. “There can be no national security without border security”.