annexation

Should a city be able to annex an adjacent area without the consent of the residents in that area?

When buying a house, location of one of the most important parts of your decision. The realtors will stress “Location, location, location”. Whether you buy a house in a city or in an ETJ might be an important part of that decision for some. But when a city annexes an area without the consent of its inhabitants, the inhabitants lose say in where they live and they are now being taxed by a city they did not chose to live in, by officials they did not elect, and by laws that you had no say in. “No Taxation Without Representation” A city should not be able to annex an adjacent area without the consent of the residents of that area.

Coppell Government

The City of Coppell is a great place to live. Coppell is run in a Council-Manager format in which we have elected council members and an elected mayor, who is the head of the council, they then hire a city manager who runs the day to day operation of the city. The Mayor of the city of Coppell is Karen Hunt, and the City Manager is Clay Phillips. The mayor is elected in a general election, in which everyone in the city votes for one mayoral candidate. The City Manager is appointed by the Mayor and City Council.

Yes the city has a sex offenders list, but it was very difficult to find, and navigate. The city website is somewhat difficult to get around and it took some digging to find the things I was looking for. In the past, we have had issues with the flood plain behind our house and did not find any useful answers until we finally talked to the city manager.

I did not vote in the last local election because I was not able to. From my point of view I really don’t see much of the decisions that the city council makes, but everything that I do see, it seems like they are making good decisions. One thing that I really appreciate that the City Council decided long ago is the sign and building regulations in Coppell. I love the fact that all of the commercial buildings in Coppell are red brick, with similar styles. It is also very nice that businesses are not allowed to have large signs; all of the signs are less than 5 feet tall. There have also been some bad things that the City has done. One of the biggest mistakes that they made was concerning the North Lake property. It has kind of been no-man’s land since the power plant has been there, but once the power plant shut down, the land went for sale, and many Coppell residents wanted for Coppell to buy the land so that the lake could be used for boating once again. But Coppell was unable to purchase the land and Dallas decided to allow thousands of town homes to be built on the land (Which is under Coppell ISD but not the City of Coppell) causing Coppell ISD to have to build more schools and bringing lower income housing to the Coppell area. I will most likely not vote in future local elections because I will be at college in Waco.

I think that in most cases Local government has a much greater affect on us then national government does. Local government can affect your day to day life immediately while the national government, even if they do something that can affect me directly, it seems to take ages for anything to actually change.

Social Awkwardness

The formation of one's identity in a social environment is a problem that teenagers across the globe face. The drastic change from the sheltered niches of the elementary and middle schools, adolescents in general have difficulty in identifying social standards and merge into the established social hierarchy. The desire to not be left out of the loop, teenagers find it pertinent to purge their drawbacks and hide their insecurities. However, the degree and ease with which this process is carried out ultimately places teenagers at different levels in the social ladder. Those that cannot identify themselves with a given clique or have trouble with identifying with the prescribed interests and values, are thrust in the "social outcasts" group. The term itself "outcast" denotes that the victim had committed an act that so revolting that it calls for expulsion, or even biological disparities as evidenced by the exploitive nature of imperialist countries over the span of several centuries. So to see this term to be used to describe the exploitive nature of the conformist society towards the individual illustrates the shallow mindset of society as a whole. The issues of deindividuation and conformity are ones that many high schools and colleges grapple with, as this seemingly ignorant social behavior contradicts the very purpose of education, enlightenment. The pervasiveness and the intensity of the conformity in high schools is evidenced by the magnitude of victims that are included in bullying statistics. According to the 2009 issue of "Indicators of School Crime and Safety", nearly one-third of all students have been bullied or harassed at any one point in their lives. About 20% had been publicly humiliated, 11% had been physically injured, 4% were engaged in coercive activities, and another 4% had their personal belongings robbed or destroyed (Bullying Statistics 2009). Given the small sample size, specified population, and few measures tested, these estimates cannot be representative of social behavior of conformists, as the statistics underestimate the psychological and even physical damage inflicted upon victims. The other various dynamics that factor into society such as technological advancements and increased diversity in ethnic groups, that have usually been associated with cultural diffusion and appreciation, when taken with the statistical evidence concerning the rising number bullying statistics, provide new mediums for a more socially segregated society, as opposed to a more unified one. With internet and social networking groups came cyberbullying, with an influx in foreign immigrants and cultures, came the stereotypes and heightened racism. We begin to see that society, despite the various reform movements towards the development of a harmonious utopia, still retains some "nativist" notions on the local level, that prevents it from reaching this goal.

Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter exemplifies the negative effects of a conformist society on an individual The Scarlet Letter focuses more on the rise in individualism and realization of inner truths as opposed to the mainstream criticism of a sin. Its theme is unique in that, on the path of repentance, Hester begins to develop into the ideal character that the citizens aspire to be. In this way, Hawthorne emphasizes the importance of absolution than the magnitude of the sin itself, which is upheld through the seemingly mindless followers in society.  In this situation, Hester has to bear the burden of being criticized for her faults, however, even though the critics themselves have numerous faults and insecurities. It presents an ironic situation that exists in the Scarlet letter, as Dimmesdale, a high ranking clergyman, does not accompany Hester to the platform, in which they branded her for adultery, even though he “took it very greviously to the heart” (44) .  This scene is representative of social conformity, where social opinion, truth, and justice are shunned to comply with society’s prevailing attitudes. In which case, the victim, due to the alienation of society, is forced to contemplate on social organization, hierarchy, and certain ideals that uphold society. This idea persists in the typical high school society, where one’s alienation forces contemplation upon the social organization. The social pressures of those both in the ingroup and the outgroup, give rise to the social phenomenon known as deindividuation, for those accepted into the established cliques are forced to comply to prevailing attitudes, and those who aren’t are forced to comply with the establish hierarchy, which is exemplified by social behavior depicted in the film.

More Bryson...

In this chapter, “The Lonely Planet” of the book A Short History of nearly everything, Bryson discusses the many different ways that the Earth is so small. He explains really how small the chances of a habitable Earth existing are. For me this really affirms my belief that God created the Earth. It seems that, the chances of our Earth existing are so small that I believe that the only way it could exist is through the power of a greater being, God. It also puts it in perspective how small and unimportant our planet is. It is really hard to imagine how big the universe is when the only thing we can see is what is right in front of us. Earth is so tiny but it seems so big from our view.

Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything

In Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bryson explains the beginning of the earth in an easy to read way. It seems like it was written for the person who does not know much about science or the big bang theory. The way he uses examples and explains things are really helpful to the reader. While I was reading this chapter, I kept thinking of all of the holes in the big bang theory. It seems like most cases science is false until proven true, but with the big bang theory, they just pretend like its true because they can’t prove it true or come up with anything better. I don’t particularly have a problem with the overall theory, it seems like it could work, and that it could be the way that God created the world. But, at the same time there are really only a few small details that could, possibly point to something somewhat like the big bang theory, and people just kind of accept it as fact. I think that Bryson does a good job of explaining his thoughts, but for someone who has the natural instinct of false until proven true, it does not really give any facts.

9/11

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2011. Many believe that the Twin Towers were collapsed due to extreme fires and heat, but when you really take a closer look, that theory is not supported by the evidence. The Twin Towers collapsed due to explosives that were placed at the corner supports of both the North and South towers.

When you take a close look at the collapse, the building(s) actually collapses at close to free fall speed. Scientists have calculated that with air resistance the actual speed would have been about 64% of free fall speed, interestingly enough when 64% of free fall speed is lined up with the collapse, the only thing that keeps up with that speed is the massive ejections of material that seem to resemble explosives. Also, if the above floors were collapsing on all of the floors below, floors that had no structural damage, the speed of the collapse would have been greatly slowed down .

When you look at the North Tower collapse, it gives you another interesting point to look at. When you watch closely, through the clouds of smoke, you can see a few of the support beams still standing up, before they fall over sideways. This is interesting because, if there was such intense fire, then how would some of the main support beams of the building still be standing after the collapse started?  The only reasonable answer would be that explosives separated the support beams from all of the other support beams and the concrete floors in between.

The collapse of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 was caused by explosives that broke the main frames of the building, in turn, the towers came crashing down. This is because there are many videos that prove this theory. Some people belive that the World Trade Center Towers fell because of the intense heat from the flames being fed by the fuel from the plane; but, that is not logical when you look at the evidence. Many people believe that because there was so much fire, the heat became so intense that the steel beams melted. Well, when you add logs to the fire does it get hotter? Maybe to an extent, but it does not alter the temperature to a significant enough amount to melt steel. Going back to the video evidence of the towers falling, you can specifically tell that there are puffs of high pressure coming out of the corners of the buildings and there not even windows on the corner panels. This is why we believe that all of the World Trade Centers were collapsed by charges.

Bible in Public Schools

I believe that the Bible should be taught in public schools. The Bible “…has had a profound impact on the history and development of the United States and remains a vital part of American life and culture. Yet, Americans are less biblically literate now than ever before…”(csmonitor) Our nation was founded on the bible, yet many don’t even know the simplest stories from it. Now I am not saying that we should all have to memorize verses or something, but simply that the bible should be used like any other historical reference (ex. The Odyssey, The Iliad) “The Bible is the most influential book ever written. Not only is the Bible the best-selling book of all time, it is the best-selling book of the year every year.”(time)
I understand that everyone has a constitutional right to practice whatever religion they want, but that does not mean we have to ignore everything in history that relates to religion. I also see the point that if the bible is taught then everyone else will want their religious texts to be taught as well, but the matter of fact is that the Bible is important to the history of our Nation.