Texas Strict Voter ID Law

In 2011, Texas passed one of the nation's strictest voter ID laws, which left around 600,000 citizens lacking proper identification. People could get election certificates free of charge, however you must obtain your birth certificate in order to purchase one, which costs anywhere from $2-$47 to search for and purchase a copy. This decreased minorities chances of voting, thus clouding the definition of US citizens' right to vote. 

Proponents of the law stated that the law was passed in order to prevent voter fraud. However, the court found a lack of evidence proving that this was actually effecting the elections' outcomes. Besides, how many people REALLY care enough to show up and vote with a different name a hundred times. 

The law took effect in 2013, until on August 5th, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law has a "discriminatory effect," which violates federal law prohibiting racial discrimination in voting. Now, people may vote if they have identification, whether they do or do not have a photo ID. However, this still poses an issue, considering some cannot easily obtain such identification. In addition, studies show that even those who did possess a valid ID felt discouraged or unsure of voting in the 2014 election due to the law. In my opinion, if you're a citizen of the United States, and of age, you should be able to vote. And not only is it our right to vote, but the current state of our voter turnout is so dismally low that we should be working to get more people to vote rather than passing laws confusing and discouraging them. 

Cited: Brennan Center For Justice

           The Texas Tribune

No One Knows What To Do With the Confederate Flag...

I agree with this post in Voice of Texas to a certain extent.

I think that recognizing our mistakes as a country and still respecting it's history are important. I completely agree that statues of men who did a lot more for our country than support slavery should stay up, next to those who didn't. I agree that censorship is not the answer.

However, I don't believe that that is what we are doing by taking down the Confederate flag from public places. I think the point is that Americans who condone the symbol of the Confederacy are very proud of it, when it really was not our proudest moment as a country. While we fought for much more than not abolishing slavery, it was a greater issue of the war. I think that to take down confederate flags and put them into our history museums is not to censor our mistakes, but rather to make it known that they are history and not still happening in the present.

In addition, our country unfortunately is still dealing with racism.

In my opinion, the best way for our country to push past racism is to eliminate confederate symbols as an existing symbol of pride, and make it more of a symbol of the past. After all, this generation did not fight in the Civil War. Our African American peers were not slaves. It is time for us all to learn from, and live a separate, more united history than our ancestors.