Government

If I were to change something in our culture the way in which our government serves its people would be fixed. The Declaration of Independence states "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." yet this is not how our government currently operates. The government has many responsibilities, but first and foremost is it's responsibility to the citizens of the United States of America. We can not hope to help others if we cannot first help ourselves. I strongly support helping war torn countries, impoverished countries etc. but before our government continues doing these things it must address the myriad of ailments our country currently faces.

The homelessness in our nation is completely unacceptable. We are one of the most successful nations in the world, yet we have four-hundred thousand homeless people with only just above half in some kind of shelter. During my 1 month trip to England I saw one person who you might consider homeless. I asked my relatives why there were so few homeless people in England, and they informed me that the British government will house you, and give you a adequate sum of money bi-weekly to help you get back on you feet. The part that threw my for a loop was that there was no time restriction for how long you could stay in that particular position. Not only do they keep you housed and fed, but they also help you get back to work so that you can support yourself. So why can't one of the wealthiest and surely the strongest nation in the world provide something close to that level of assistance to its citizens. That doesn't sound like a government that serves the people to me.

The second most upsetting part of our government is their emphasis on education. The only way to advance is to educate your citizens. Eventually our doctors, CEOs, and political leaders will grow old, retire, and unavoidable pass away. When that happens what state will our uneducated nation be left in? There is a very apparent problem in wealth distribution in the world, but a particularly bad one in our nation. You can clearly see the correlation between level of education and success and socio-economic standing. Being a student myself can see small changes that would greatly increase the way our education system is ran. In England you can begin to choose a focus in secondary school (equivalent to late middle school and early high school) and by 16 you are in college (not the same as our college) where you completely focus an area of your choice. Upon completing college you can choose to further your education and go to university (this is equivalent to our college). Their system is superior ours in essentially every aspect. So our government needs to focus more on education.