What do you consider your most important issues?

[Droopy]

Mine are foreign policy and health care. We have to change the way we interact with the world and we have to take care of our own.

The health care issue is personal to me now. I've gone almost a year without decent health insurance and it will probably be September before I get it. If anything were to happen to me now health wise, I'd be up shit creek without a paddle.

[Nicole]

1. Civil rights, poverty & the environment. n/t

[boilerbabe]

2. Let's hope you never need the health care

Even when you get it. I think there are so many issues that it's hard to prioritize them, but definately our disastrous foreign policy and lack of universal health care are biggies. I feel that all those billions of $$ wasted on an unnecessary war could have funded every worthwhile initiative that we could ever come up with to end poverty, revamp our energy infrastructure to make it greener, etc.

Instead, our tax dollars go to waste, salaries are not keeping up with the increasing cost of living (I should be living the American Dream with what I make---then I wake up...)

Some other issues: Animal Rights, Equal Rights concerns (GLBT/Women/Racial/Immigrant etc)...

[LaraMN]

25. In no particular order:

health care, education, ending the war, foreign policy, civil rights issues.

[SeattleGirl]

3. Voting rights, civil rights, and poverty.

It's kind of interesting you posted this, because the other day, I was thinking about issues that DON'T really capture my passion. For me, it's environmental stuff, though before I get jumped on, I do things that are environmentally conscious, because while it doesn't get my passions up as much as the three things I listed, I know it's a very important issue, so I do what I can, and look for more ways to be better about it.

[Nicole]

4. I won't jump on you

about the environmental stuff.

To be honest I would probably be the same way if I lived in the land of abundant rain. The drought conditions here is what first sparked my interest in the environmental stuff. Growing up in a rural area I learned at a young age how much it impacts everything. We had to conserve water & energy because they weren't as readily available as they are in the city.


We are at the same place on the other issues. :hi:

[SeattleGirl]

5. King County, where Seattle is located, has made recycling mandatory.

At first, I was not happy, because I remembered when I first moved here, over 20 years ago, my roomies were into recycling, and it was time consuming. Cutting the bottoms (along with the tops) off cans, cleaning everything, bundling newspapers, etc. At the time, I was working full time and going to school full time, so had little time for anything else. I did the recycling stuff, as my roomies did it, but ugh.

Now, though, it is much less complicated, and I actually find myself LIKING it, because I know it's helping me and everyone else. And, the County just started a new phase of recycling, where there is a category for things like pizza boxes and such, which cannot be put into paper recycling, but will now be used to create compost for the county's parks and community gardens.

And, I decided to get some compact fluorescent light bulbs. Yikes, I'm being assimilated! :rofl:

:hi:

[Nicole]

6. I wish we had mandatory recycling here.

I also wish companies would do away with unnecessary packaging. So much of the stuff we buy is in larger boxes or bags than needed.

Here's to being assimilated! :toast:

:rofl:

[SeattleGirl]

7. Maybe you could send a letter to the country or city council in your

area. Start the ball rolling.

And yes, here's to being assimilated! :toast:

Don't forget to recycle your bottle! :rofl:

[Nicole]

9. I have. Several times.

They have extremely hard heads, that ball didn't phase them at all. :mad:

At least they are now providing recycling containers for those who do recycle so that's a start.

The bottle will definitely be in the recycle bin. :rofl:

[SeattleGirl]

10. Yup, definitely a start.

Oh, and don't forget to add your pizza box to the compost pile! :P

[hang a left]

8. Corruption in Government

The War
Voting Issues
Education

[trof]

11. Global climate change. All else pales in comparison.

[Deep13]

12. Global warming and population control.

Health care reform for purely domestic matters.

[Lyric]

13. Civil/Equal rights, poverty, healthcare, corporate accountability

The ones that are lowest on my list of concerns are probably animal rights and the environment. It's not that those issues don't concern me *at all*--they just aren't my biggest priorities.

[MedleyMisty]

14. Eradicating prejudice and hate and cruelty and lack of empathy

Or at least fighting against them as much as I can.

[Joe Fields]

15. The environment. That is my world view. But, with this administration,

cleaning out the muck of a wholly corrupt Bush administration ranks right up there, and of course putting a stop to this illegal and immoral war.

[MissMillie]

16. healthcare and energy policy

tax cuts don't make a hill of beans difference when you end up having your energy and health care costs double in any given year.

[slackmaster]

17. Our ongoing refusal to adopt and embrace the Metric System

Ounce wise and kilogram foolish.

[jobycom]

19. You should keep pounding that message home.

We are moving towards it, inch by inch.

[bertha katzenengel]

18. # 1. Homelessness. # 2. Hunger in the U.S. # 3. STOP the war.

# 4. STOP the war.
# 5. Etc.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

20. education, health care and poverty (welfare, disability, social security etc)

gay rights are the ones that personally effect me the most. but i dont believe society will ever really become liberal unless everyone has decent health care, security and education.

[jobycom]

21. They all center around equality and human rights.

And not just for Americans.

Iraq and any future military actions are the top priority. You can't respect human rights while dropping bombs on humans heads.

Race issues are getting out of control. Non-whites are imprisoned too frequently for crimes meant to target them primarily. Voting rights are suppressed. Hispanics have become the new whipping post. Equality in education is regressing, and Bush's emphasis on testing ensures less teaching and more measuring of abilities learned at home. We are still governed by whites, business is still run by whites, the majority of wealth is controlled by whites--and this is no accident, but the result of decades, even centuries, or government and societal oppression. That needs to be addressed. It doesn't take an anthropology PhD to note that racism is becoming increasingly chic in America again.

Health care needs attention, and that goes beyond human rights--the outrageous health care costs (and all insurance costs) are killing businesses, too, which drives wages down and makes us all slaves.

A more progressive tax system, also. It would stimulate the economy, and give more money to the people who actually drive the economy, rather than those who merely suck it dry (that being the wealthiest). I'm all for allowing folks to become gad-awful filthy rich, but the more wealth they control, the more they owe back to the society that helped them create that wealth.

My final issue is one no one mentions. We need a rebuilding program in this country, to mobilize the unemployed, unite us, update our roads and dams and bridges and waterways and wetlands, energy infrastructure, etc. We need to stop spending trillions we don't have blowing up other countries, and spend it hear stimulating job growth while remodeling and upgrading our own nation. When was the last time we built something like the Hoover Dam or the Golden Gate Bridge? We have cities on the Gulf that need rebuilding, we have an entire Gulf Coastal region that needs a better infrastructure and maybe even a creative solution or two. Not to mention places prone to earthquakes, forest fires, and whatever. And how come Europe and Asia have all the cool new toys? Buildings, trains, ferries, cool-ass 1000 ft high bridges spanning river vallies? I'm jealous, dammit!

We need to modernize this nation. That's an investment for the future we just need to make. Not to mention, it could create a sense of pride and involvement that is missing in this nation right now.

[Writer]

22. Mine are education and the appropriate distribution of public funds in order to pay for it.

When money is funneled to overseas wars, it benefits only the top 1% of our economic system.

When money stays here we ALL benefit.

[raccoon]

23. Oh, I thought you meant personal issues. nt

[Left Is Write]

28. So did I.

[benEzra]

24. Gun rights, fourth amendment, first amendment, Medicaid/health care

in that order.

[femmocrat]

26. Health care and education.

Health care is really important to me because I can't retire without it..... and who knows what will happen with Medicare by the time I retire. It drives me crazy sometimes.

[onecent]

27. Freedom of Speech.

[Kat45]

29. health care (should be single-payer, universal

Also the great income gap/poverty, corporatism