Commentary on "What to do when it's harder than you thought?

I chose my fellow classmates blog "What to do when it's harder than you thought?" and felt more informed after reading it. I have found myself agreeing with the blog to where it shows how Trump has held up since he has become president, and the little he has done or accomplished since doing so. Even more so, how he didn't realize how hard it would be once he won, and that he stated "this is more work than my previous life."

That last statement to me is just alarming to say the least. As my classmate Kelli states, our president needs to lead our nation by example, and not be all talk per say. Of course leading the nation is one of the hardest jobs there is, and so I believe President Trump should of really taken account of that before he decided to run for office. He should of always had the mindset that everything would be more chaotic and more perplexed once he took office, and that it's a huge responsibility for our nation.

I think overall Kelli explained his first 100 days in office beautifully, and that our president needs to really step it up and take responsibility for everything he said he was going to try and fulfill, and that hopefully he sees it through because our nation needs to be in the best hands possible to get us back on track.

Judge Trump by his Actions, not his words?

I looked over the article from The Washington Post and was surprised at how much I agreed with the philosophy of it overall.  No president is perfect by far, and I personally know of a ton of people who dislike Trump and how he could of ever been in the running for the presidency, as well as I know people who think it was the greatest decision ever made. With that said, what this article coveys over the duration of it, is how we shouldn't judge our president's by their words, but more so by their actions.

Within the first 100 days of Trump's presidency, he in other words, hasn't been very popular as the president's before him. With his reputation of saying one thing and then months later saying another, and also endlessly being irrational and saying whatever is on his mind at any given time and causing a stir within Congress. But what his actions say is another. Referenced in the article is an example: "In 2013 he tweeted a warning to President Barack Obama not to attack Syria — “There is no upside and tremendous downside” — but of course in 2017 launched missile strikes on Syrian soil in retaliation for a chemical attack that involved no U.S. assets. During the campaign he labeled China a currency manipulator, but backed away from the claim this month. And so on." This goes on to show that it can be difficult to tell what the president means of what he says at times, and what he is going to do next, but if we learn to not judge solely on words, but by the actions which the article summarizes, I think we would be better off.

Maternity Leave

I chose the blog Paid Maternity Leave as I absolutely agree with the statement made regarding expecting mothers having to go on maternity leave, and not getting paid for that time off depending on the employer. I heavily believe that a law needs to be set in place that requires all employers to grant their employees at least 6 weeks paid leave, or up to the 12 weeks stated in the blog referenced. 

Trump indeed has expressed his plans to help women with the issue of childcare in America and still states that he supports six weeks of paid leave for mothers. His plan would give women whose employers don't offer paid leave the ability to collect six weeks of unemployment when they have a child. And according to the Labor Department, only 14% of civilian U.S. workers have access to paid parental leave.

So, with the author of the referenced blog, I truly hope President Trump does stand by his work and hope we can reform a better system of making sure all expecting mothers are taken care of, and are able to raise their children without having the immense stress of having to figure out how to make ends meet financially, and focus on the most important thing: FAMILY. 

Planned Parenthood

I found a really informative editorial in the Los Angeles Times regarding the ongoing crusade against Planned Parenthood. I was not familiar with this topic in the government right now, so it was very eye opening. The bill is essentially set up to try and defund Planned Parenthood financially.

I consider myself a Republican, but I in no way agree with this bill that they are trying to pass. Absolutely every woman out there needs preventative care for things such as cervical cancer screenings, breast examinations and so forth, Health insurance can be costly and in this case, the federal government, and healthcare providers such as Medicaid, help make these services affordable for low-income individuals. Now, before disagreeing with this, I did assume at first the federal funding covered abortions there as well, and I personally am against abortions. Although after seeing that the federal dollars in no way covers that, it made me rethink the bill, and in turn I thoroughly disagreed with it. I hope Planned Parenthood can continue to be federally funded and can help woman everywhere be cautious in their health and proactive.

International Women's Day

After reviewing the different blogs, I stumbled upon one from Think Progress about International Woman's Day. The commentary in the Blog by Immigration reporter Ester Yu His Lee is directing this specifically to women all over our country.

International Women's Day in a nutshell, is women everywhere take off from their jobs, to shop only at women-only or minority-owned businesses, and wear red in solidarity. They want to send a message to others about women's power in society and women's rights. But, while thousands, if not million of women can participate and skip out on work, there are millions of women that depend heavily on their paychecks to provide for family, bills, and could risk being fired if absent and therefore cannot attend.

A particular woman she mentions is named Maricela. She is an illegal immigrant who has to provide for her family back home in Mexico, and can't attend the event today due to missing even one day of work could jeopardize her families finances. She said she is in fear of Trump and does not feel safe due to all the possible deportation going on right now. I do find myself agreeing with the author and Maricela in the article on how Trump is putting fear in all of the immigrants in America with his recent actions, because all that a lot of these people are trying to do is just work and make a living for their family here in the United States. I can only hope that we can strive more to work together for the sake of our country.

Donald Trump vs Abraham Lincoln

I particularly chose to critique an opinion from The Washington Post titled Five things Donald Trump could learn from Abraham Lincoln. I believe the intended audience is any American, looking at the comparison of our new president versus the great Abraham Lincoln himself.

In this opinion by author Donald Nieman, he urgently claims that their are 5 Lessons that President Trump might learn from Abraham Lincoln. To summarize these 5 lessons are listed as follows:
1) Grow a thick skin, 2) Engage your critics strategically, 3) Be informed and ask questions, 4) Adapt, change and grow, and 5) Use words carefully. Mr. Nieman brings evidence from past history of President Lincoln and how he handled his time in office, and how our now 45th president is holding up to the high standards. I think his logic behind the article is a very clever one, because it shows just how much Donald Trump's approach differs from presidents before him, but also how he needs to not let critics become the center point of his focus when there is so much more important things at hand to address for America.

When Mr. Lincoln was hassled and attacked verbally by critics, he didn't take the bait, he simply said, "No man resolved to make the most of himself, can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including...the loss of self control." You see, I agree with Mr. Nieman's claim of how Trump can learn from Lincoln, because Trump can be so temperamental and combative with the issues he's faced with or criticism that he receives from others, that if he even remotely learned 1 of these 5 lessons, he would understand that less is indeed more.

On Monday February 6th, 2017 Houston Chronicle published an article about Texas Police failing to follow the law that requires them to report shooting incidents. In this article, the headline speaks for itself, and gets straight to the point of the unsettling facts of a law that should be abided by, but is being severely overlooked.

At least 14 Texas law enforcement agencies are failing to report both civilian shootings and or deaths, as well as officer shootings and or deaths.  As shootings should be reported within 30 days under the law which was established in 2015, there is still currently no consequences for violators. While most shootings that result in injuries or death are being reported, there is still several not being accounted for, and the legislator who authored the reform hopes to change that with putting penalties in place for those failing to do so.

This is so eye opening not only for me to read as I was unaware of this currently happening to civilians or officers all within our law enforcement system, but I think for all others would find interest to be informed of this issue. I'm pleased to see the legislator trying to ensure that repercussions are put upon those who don't obey this law.