Blog Stage 4

A commentary article titled “Commentary: Texas -- all of it -- belongs on the U.S side of a border wall” by Becky S. Jones  was published to the Austin American Statesman on October 14, 2017.

This intended audience for this article is aimed at Texans, specifically ones who are in support of building a wall along the Texas/Mexico border. The purpose of the article is to inform them that if the building of the wall takes place that much of Texas’ land and even some small town along the border will become part of Mexico because we can not build a wall in the middle of the Rio Grande River.

In my opinion, the author of this article has little to no credibility, other than the fact that some of their family has land that would be affected by the building of the wall. There is no evidence, facts, or research that was put into this article, and if there was it was not included. Another thing that makes me question the author's credibility in this article is that even though she somewhat supports the building of the wall, she questions the congressmen who are in support of the idea stating that they “need to go to 7th grade” it makes no sense to support an idea when you are questioning the people who are proposing it.

The author’s argument in this article is that all congressmen and government officials should rethink the building of the wall along the Texas/Mexico border because parts of Texas would end up on the Mexico side with the way the wall would have to built. The other argument that is made in this article is that the money that would be spent to otherwise be spent building the wall should be used for boats to ride along the river and be used to stop immigrants that way.

My personal opinion of the article is that it is selfish. Our reasons for not building the wall should not be based on part of our land being on the Mexico side, we should not want to build the wall because it is wrong and people who want a better life should be given the opportunity to come to America for that if that's what they feel is right. The same way Americans should not be denied opportunities and citizenship if we were to go to a different country.

Blog Stage 3

A commentary article titled Commentary: Texas has a labor shortage. Who will rebuild our state?  was posted to the Austin American Statesman on October 4, 2017.

In this article, the author's argument is that the shortage of Labor caused by Hurricane Harvey is calling for more and more undocumented immigrant workers to step up and help with construction, electric, bricklaying and other types of construction, along with healthcare, social services, and education jobs. The author suggests that by allowing them to keep their jobs and not supporting the idea of deporting them will only make our communities stronger and more understanding about the situation. The intended audience is anyone who disagrees with giving work to the undocumented immigrants in the United States or who is questioning how we are going to put out state back together after it has just suffered devastating losses. The evidence the author uses to support this argument is by giving statistics for how much percentage of the population immigrants taking up, and what kind of jobs they have that contribute to our workforce. The authors credibility, is questionable in this article. He does not state where he gets his statistics from or how he knows this information. The author also does not have any links to sources from where he might have gotten his information.  I completely agree with the author that the labor storage can be filled by the undocumented immigrant workers, and that by uniting as one community and supporting them in doing so, we can minimize the idea of deporting them and become more understanding to their lifestyles and hopefully make some changes in the way the world is viewing undocumented immigrants in this day and age.