Julie White
From East County (Teacher/Artist)
It’s the partisanship. We need to pull together and look for the positives — solutions instead of pointing fingers. Probably the best thing I ever heard someone say was, “Fix the mistake, not the blame.”
Mark Rauch
From Bankers Hill (Estate Advisor)
It’s that most people care more about American Idol or the latest reality show than spending time learning about their constitutional rights or how the government is conning the American public with lies, trickery, and blatant theft. Courts and judges are not going to convict them and will continue to allow officials, corporate CEOs...to get away with stealing and fraud. Until people in this country drag them into the street, tie ’em to a pole, tar-and-feather them on a Friday afternoon for spectators to see over the weekend, then our country will keep getting pillaged and continue to be eroded away.
Susan Myrland
From La Mesa (Art Curator)
I would say the polarization of the parties, the fact that it’s really hard to find a middle ground and that everyone’s really determined to keep voting for a different party every time...so we have gridlock.
Doug Myrland
From La Mesa (Retired)
I think the biggest issue is that we haven’t come to grips with our culture in the 21st Century yet. I think everything has changed a lot, and mostly for the good. We have this explosion of media and the internet. We have an explosion of communication where people can be instantly angry with each other or instantly crazy with each other, and I don’t think we’ve quite got our 20th-century brains around the 21st-century opportunities and problems. I don’t think it has anything to do with politics or education or any of that. I think it’s all about this enormous human culture change.
Sergio Ramirez
From Sherman Heights (Cook)
The fighting between the parties is the biggest issue. Me? I’m neutral. I can understand one part of it, but I can also understand the other. As to how to fix it, they just gotta sit and talk about it; work it out.
William Norman
From Rancho Bernardo (Peace Officer)
The economy. Basically, I think it’s a lack of transparency and not practicing what they preach. They’re talking the talk, but there’s no unity in America right now and that makes it hard. If there is no unity, there is no remedy. We’ll continue to go our separate ways. Those that have will have, and those that have not will have not. I think we need to become a little bit more mature and have a little bit more foresight, a little bit more responsibility, and more concern for each other.