Top Five Issues Facing America Right Now

Grace Tanch, Staff Writer
October 22, 2017

  1. Our flawed education system: “When we see low test scores, instead of teaching our kids the material, we lower the bar.”, said Triton AP Biology teacher Jamie Richards.
  2. The increasingly deadly opiate epidemic: According to the New York Times, the current opioid crisis is the deadliest in American history, with the rate of deaths by overdose rising higher and faster than that by guns, car accidents, and HIV.
  3. A constant threat of domestic and international terrorism: According to The Heritage Foundation, even though only 7.8 percent of worldwide terrorism is directed at the United States, over 20,000 people have been injured or killed as a result of terrorist attacks in the United States.
  4. A rise in political ignorance: According to Rick Shenkman’s ‘Just How Stupid Are We?’, only 1 in 1,000 Americans can name all five freedoms guaranteed by the first amendment. People are voting on issues that they don’t know enough about to comment on.
  5. Disunity: In 2017, our country’s citizens are violently divided on almost every issue. People hold actual hate for those that disagree with them politically. Instead of working together to come to a compromise, we are facing policy gridlock because of a refusal to cooperate.