What are your important issues? (1 Viewer)

[wardorican]

Forget the current headlines. Forget the manufactured talking points. What are the big issues you care about? Or the small ones that don't get enough attention?

I'm just going to rattle off a few. I may dig into these more later. In no special order...

1. Infrastructure investment. The major categories being road transportation, flood protection / drainage, electrical grid resiliency, and better mass transit, especially rail. Our rail systems, outside of a few areas like Chicago, NYC, DC.. are just awful. They don't serve enough of the areas. They aren't tying the Suburbs, and towns nearby to the major city centers and major concentrations of Industry.
   1. A - I'd have much preferred no tax cut for the wealthy, and use that money towards Infrastructure. I don't mind some of the corporate tax cuts (not a fan of profitable companies finding ways to pay $0 in taxes.. that's unfair), but take a little back to go towards infrastructure and mass transit, which will boost productivity and lower congestion in major cities.
2. Wage growth. Not just min wage, all wages. Not sure what the government policy could be to drive this, but it's a huge pet issue for me.
3. Technology. Finding the balance between a company being large enough to have stability/security (think Apple, Microsoft, Samsung) to have things work well, but no so large as to stifle all competition and drive up prices. Also, who controls/owns our data. If my data is so valuable, why can't I be compensated for it?
4. Education funding. It's ridiculous how much the States cut from Colleges and how little they controlled their growth since the 1990's. That's why tuition is out of control. So, it's not just the funding issue, but also the lack of forcing public Universities to cap operating budget increases. In college, tuition increases was probably one of the biggest things I tried to fight against when in Student Government. We usually failed, but I did get one win on that topic, when I realized the committee that year was being somewhat dishonest about the increases, and called them out in public about it.

I care about a lot of other things, but I'm going to stop with these four.

 

[Dragon]

Tell that to the 332k babies aborted by planned parenthood in 2018. (That’s only planned parenthood hood in the US). Abortion is the number 1 cause of death in the US and worldwide.

Only some people don’t consider it a death because the baby is in the womb. I can’t wrap my mind around this concept.

How easy it is to write that - especially as a male but i can promise you that every woman who has been in that situation has not done it without serious thoughts and considerations. You know what that is going to get that number down?

Better education and information in schools - but no - many places the only thing they teach is abstinence.
Better access to birthcontrol - some healthplans do not even cover that leaving poor people with little choice.
Better and more viable options for women without ressources who get pregnant. Better councelling, medical care and support pre and after birth so that they will be able to provide for their child and themself.
More options for single parents -better daycare, better maternity leave options. Child care days.

Also remember a large part of that number i pre-8 weeks abortions (does not even count as "abortion" here since it is mostly purely medical and not surgery)

And then back to what GMR wrote. If there is a conflict between the rights of the woman and the rights of the fetus, whose rights should prevail ?

And just as a personal information - I do not personally like abortions at all. I went through 5 years of fertillity treatment which gave me cancer and 3 miscarriages before the cancer cost me my ability to get children of my own. Adopted a daughter who lost a set of twins at 20 weeks 3 years ago before finally giving us our miracle granddaughter - so to me every life i precious.. But I would still not force my personal oppinions on others since that would infringe on their rights.

 

[cuddlemonkey]

Tell that to the 332k babies aborted by planned parenthood in 2018. (That’s only planned parenthood hood in the US). Abortion is the number 1 cause of death in the US and worldwide.

Only some people don’t consider it a death because the baby is in the womb. I can’t wrap my mind around this concept.

Do you think a woman should be able to obtain a safe, legal abortion in cases of rape or where the life of the mother is at risk?

 

[Lazybones]

Do you think a woman should be able to obtain a safe, legal abortion in cases of rape or where the life of the mother is at risk?

yes.

 

[Lazybones]

Seemingly it’s bc you struggle to give the woman full rights
If you were able to see that a woman has rights to her body, you’d probably be able to wrap your mind around the concept

I give everyone full rights. This is such a weak argument. I personally think the life of a child is more important than the inconvenience of a woman.

 

[cuddlemonkey]

I give everyone full rights. This is such a weak argument. I personally think the life of a child is more important than the inconvenience of a woman.

So if the abortion is sought for reasons other than the inconvenience of pregnancy, you are ok with it?

 

[cuddlemonkey]

yes.

Then would you agree with Dragon that access to contraception and comprehensive sex education should be available and/or mandatory (in the case of education)?

 

[GMRfellowtraveller]

I give everyone full rights. This is such a weak argument. I personally think the life of a child is more important than the inconvenience of a woman.

accuse me of a weak argument and follow it up an even weaker one
i mean you're not even making an argument
but as a retort you seem to be fine with viewing women as chattel

 

[Lazybones]

Then would you agree with Dragon that access to contraception and comprehensive sex education should be available and/or mandatory (in the case of education)?

I’m not a fan of answering loaded questions.

I am a happily married catholic father of a preteen and teenage daughter. we also own a dance studio with 200+ Adolescent female dancers.

We live what we teach and it damn sure isn’t that premarital sex is ok. However, we also teach adult responsibility. I think it is irresponsible to use abortion as birth control.

I don’t think putting birth control in front of kids at a young age Helps the goal of not having premarital sex.

 

[Lazybones]

accuse me of a weak argument and follow it up an even weaker one
i mean you're not even making an argument
but as a retort you seem to be fine with viewing women as chattel

We see things different obviously.

 

[cuddlemonkey]

I’m not a fan of answering loaded questions.

I am a happily married catholic father of a preteen and teenage daughter. we also own a dance studio with 200+ Adolescent female dancers.

We live what we teach and it damn sure isn’t that premarital sex is ok. However, we also teach adult responsibility. I think it is irresponsible to use abortion as birth control.

I don’t think putting birth control in front of kids at a young age Helps the goal of not having premarital sex.

I do not see how that could be construed as a loaded question, but I will rephrase: If it could be shown that access to birth control and mandatory comprehensive sex ed reduced the number of abortions performed in this country, would you support them?

 

[GMRfellowtraveller]

We see things different obviously.

eppur si muove

 

[Lazybones]

I do not see how that could be construed as a loaded question, but I will rephrase: If it could be shown that access to birth control and mandatory comprehensive sex ed reduced the number of abortions performed in this country, would you support them?

It is still loaded. Give me your plan or anyone’s plan for that matter and I will happily discuss it.

I would not support sex education in early and preteens. I think there should be systems within the high schools to provide counseling etc.

 

[cuddlemonkey]

It is still loaded. Give me your plan or anyone’s plan for that matter and I will happily discuss it.

I would not support sex education in early and preteens. I think there should be systems within the high schools to provide counseling etc.

It's not loaded. Please stop deflecting and provide an honest answer.

 

[Lazybones]

It's not loaded. Please stop deflecting and provide an honest answer.

I answered. If there is proof of a plan that works, show it to me and we will discuss the morality of it. I’m not playing hypothetical.

This would be a great debate topic if anyone wants to dilly.

 

[cuddlemonkey]

I answered. If there is proof of a plan that works, show it to me and we will discuss the morality of it. I’m not playing hypothetical.

This would be a great debate topic if anyone wants to dilly.

I won't. I am looking at this from a standpoint of public school education, where nobody gets to decide on the morality of the subjects offered.

Edit: Meant to add that I would happy to take this to the debate board and make it official.

 

[Lazybones]

I won't. I am looking at this from a standpoint of public school education, where nobody gets to decide on the morality of the subjects offered.

Hence the reason I didn’t answer your question. [Admin edit - Assumption of motive not conducive to meaningful discussion]

My children go to private school where morality does matter.

 

[Ayo]

I would not support sex education in early and preteens. I think there should be systems within the high schools to provide counseling etc.

it should absolutely be taught to early teens. Biological approaches to sex ed - e.g. systems of reproduction - begin in middle school here and responsible sexual behavior, sexually transmitted diseases, protection and contraception begins in 9th grade. Some of the sexually transmitted diseases are covered in Grade 7.

Here's a sample from the provincial curriculum, with a sample Q&A between teacher and student.

D1.4identify sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBIs), and describe their symptoms

Teacher prompt: “Common sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections include human papillomavirus (HPV), genital herpes, chlamydia, HIV, gonorrhea, and hepa-titis. In some cases when a person has an STBBI, there are visible symptoms, but in many cases, the person has no visible symptoms, so it’s hard to tell if you or someone else has an STBBI. All STBBIs can have a significant impact on your health if they are not treated. W hat are some symptoms of an STBBI? If an STBBI has no symptoms, how can you find out if you have it?”

Student: “Sometimes when you have an STBBI, you can see symptoms, such as pubic lice or genital warts. In other instances you may experience itching, redness, or pain when urinating. If you are sexually active you should be regularly tested by a health-care provider even if you don’t see or experience any symptoms. Depending on the STBBI, tests can be done by taking swabs from the cervix, vagina, urethra, or other body parts, or by taking urine or blood samples.”

The rate here is about 18 per 1,000 teens. Those numbers are around 30 in Texas and 37.5 in Louisiana.

Drug, alcohol, substance abuse also addressed in middle school - and also vital.

Places with more robust sexual education curricula see decreased teen pregnancy rates, decreased abortion rates, decreased sexual activity. For me, these are all desirable outcomes.

Not to mention all incredibly morally responsible

 

[Ayo]

My children go to private school where morality does matter.

I object to this. As a product of public schooling and a teacher in public schools, there's a ton of interest in moral and character building. It's been in all of the schools and districts I've taught in - in Louisiana, Texas, and Ontario. Same goes for all of the schools my wife has taught at. And attended herself.

Up here, Catholic schools *are* public schools. Morality definitely an interest.

And there are a lot of private schools where 'morality' is more rhetorical than practiced compared to public schools.

Yours is not a fair statement