By Alicia Pike

Special Student Contributor
 

With the presidential election a year away, politics are popping up everywhere.  People aren’t afraid of giving their opinions on subjects ranging from the candidates to the issues they feel should be addressed.  For some, the issues hit close to home. 

Imelda Garcia, Collin College student, says that aside from the war in Iraq, immigration is a personal issue that she feels needs to be discussed. 

Professor Kelly Logsdon-Rush and student Lana Umlauf feel that healthcare is a main concern, especially for, as Professor Logsdon-Rush put it, “the 45 million people that don’t have it.”

Aside from the war in Iraq and healthcare, there are other topics that concern people.  For student Kristi Dobberfuhl, gay rights is an issue that she wants to see settled. 

“To me, it seems that the same issues are always brought up. I think gay rights need to be addressed because it’s something that I feel is important but wasn’t addressed correctly by President Bush,” she said.  

Dobberfuhl added that as far as the war in Iraq was concerned she was simply “tired of the whole thing.  Whatever one person chooses to do about the war isn’t going to sway my vote.” 

Lana doesn’t think that the war is going to be as big of a decision maker as many think. 

“It won’t play a major role, but I will certainly be happy to see the future president maybe finally withdraw the military from Iraq,” she said.

Another big topic that people are discussing is whether or not America is ready for a minority president—whether African American or female.

“It would be interesting to see America with a female president.  It’s worked for Germany so far,” Umlauf said.  

According to some polls, Hillary Clinton seems to be the popular Democrat and Rudy Giuliani the most popular Republican to run against her. One can only wonder whether movies like Michael Moore’s “Sicko,” a movie about the American healthcare crisis, and the fact that every candidate has a Myspace page has anything to do with the way college students are leaning. 

Hillary Clinton and numerous other candidates including John Edwards have also held debates on channels such as LOGO, a channel geared towards homosexuals.

The candidates also held a debate on CNN that took questions that YouTube users recorded and sent in so that they could answer them. Candidates are using every available media to garner the attention and followers they need to actually be nominated by their party. 

Because of such a vast amount of media attention, it’s hard not to pay attention to what’s going on and what people are saying.  For the youth of America, the issues seem to lie in what is going to happen to their future.  Subjects like healthcare, social security and the economy are topics that the youth want reassurance on. 

“Well, doesn’t everyone want to know that they’re going to be okay after working for years and saving up money to retire?  I know I don’t want to be 70 and still having to work,” Dobberfuhl said on the subject of social security. 

Some citizens also seem concerned about what is going to happen to the youth of America.  The Texas public school funding current state is appalling, according to most. In general, it seems that voters are looking towards the future. What is going to happen to us if we don’t fix the problems we have now?  Most people are still concerned about the war and the outcome of it, but in the end, is that really the biggest problem we’ll have when all is said and done?  That may be why voters are looking at problems that deal with the future, because they’re worried.  Last election, the main concern was the war and how to get out of it.  Four years later and it’s still going on, people are obviously tired of focusing on just that.