Death to the Urban Tumbleweed

Davis explores legislation regarding the plastic bag ban using the article “For Texas City, Plastic Bag Ban Brings Controversy” as his reference published on the Texas Tribune May 9, 2011. The Texas Tribune article discusses the proposition for Brownsville, which Austin recently adopted on March 1, 2013. Brownsville was the first Texas city to implement the bag ban in Texas, and Davis alongside many other Texans, believe that the legislation is “outrageous”. I disagree with Davis’s opposition to the bag ban and I feel that his article “Plastic Bags” focuses on the wrong issue regarding the law against plastic bags. Davis argues that it is an unreasonable dictation that is largely revolved around money. He also states that Texas is the only state to implement these laws which is false: California, Oregon, and North Carolina have cities that adopted similar legislation. The bag ban is not an issue of cushioning our economy, but preserving our city, and by proxy our planet. I find that there is no real argument against the bag ban with most people complaining that it is merely inconvenient, in which I will agree. I am outrageously forgetful and as a repercussion I am constantly forgetting my bags when I go grocery shopping. Yet instead of griping about the lack of a plastic bag, I push the shopping cart to my car and unload the groceries. If I am in a hurry, once I arrive home I will get a laundry basket to carry them in, but that’s it that is the end of my inconvenience, and to me it seems like a rather small price to pay in order to help reduce pollution. 

If there is any major frustration I find regarding the plastic bag ban it is that with it, many shoppers have decided to push the carts to their cars AND LEAVE THEM THERE! We shouldn’t allow these hooligans to run amuck in our civilized society, what if it hits my nice new Hummer and destroys the paint? I mean, I realize it’s a huge inconvenience to walk a maximum of 5ft to put it in the return lane, and after an exhausting trip of unloading my groceries in the car it seems unreasonable…

Trick or Treat Yourself to Some Inequality

"At what point must a female senator raise her hand or her voice to be recognized over her male colleagues?” 

-Senator Leticia Van de Putte

Late this past Thursday night, while many across the state were celebrating Halloween with frights and fun, three Republican Texas judges did more to horrify Texas women than ghouls or monsters ever could. The three overturned a Federal block on HB 2, the bill that would, through a loop hole, shut down a vast majority of the state’s abortion care facilities. The Texas government needs to listen to its federal counterpart and strike HB 2 from the books. There are hundreds of women in Texas are confused, angered, and in need of medical care. It’s no surprise that even after Wendy Davis’ filibuster drama that the law is continuing to be debated. 

I both understand and respect the argument that is primarily religiously fueled, the argument that wants to protect the grace of life, but being unable to separate personal opinion and natural rights is the precise reason our country “vowed” to “seperate church and state”. I can not comprehend how it is still lawful to ban life choices that are denied by the church on the basis of it being unholy? Are those not the same principles our founding fathers fled England? 

Even ignoring the religious angle, the bill is still wrong. It is unconstitutional and vastly outdated that women are being told what to do with their bodies, yet try to take away a Texans right to gun laws and the government would be overturned. Both the arguments for owning firearms and being able to receive adequate abortion care hinge on a right to privacy, but for some reason state lawmakers care less about caliber a Texan man carries in his truck than they do what a Texas woman carries in her womb. It’s no secret that our society has a double standard when it comes to the sexes and their freedoms, but this is ridiculous.

Texas lawmakers need to respect all Texans’ right to privacy, not just those of Texan men. They need to, for the first time in the state’s existence, treat Texas’ men and women as equals. They need to listen to their female constituents and kill this bill.