“We should worry about home more than foreign affairs. It seems like the last two presidents all they cared about was foreign affairs. I do think we should keep our troops over there, but less of them. Like start pulling them back slowly, because if you take them all out at one time that’s a sign of weakness.”
(Leshem Escoffery of North Syracuse, 21, janitor for Sears at Shoppingtown Mall, registered Democrat)
“Our foreign policy: I don’t know what it actually is. I worked across from the World Trade Center. People I worked with, they saw the bodies — they saw people jumping out of windows. We were that close. It gets stressful after a while because you’re on the train in the morning and there’s guys with AK-47’s and the bomb-sniffing dogs and people who don’t live there don’t realize this is going on every day.”
(Deborah Robinson of Syracuse, 39, unemployed, registered Republican; former member of the Democratic Party)
“No one ever does anything in politics — they just talk. I watch the news every night and, like I said, politics to me just seems like a bunch of people talking and not doing anything. I just change the channel after a while because it’s the same-old, same-old. Done. Bring back our town; get rid of Wal-Mart. I just started out and they — just off the top — 42 percent of everything I earn. I think big businesses get a huge break, and small ones have to fight to stay alive.”
(Sarah Cincotta of East Syracuse, 32, owner of her namesake company Baby Signs with Mrs. Cincotta, not affiliated with a political party)
“Health care — we should have some. We get insurance but we have to pay all our own. We get insurance. The company just doesn’t pay for it — they offer it, so it’s there, but they don’t pay for it.”
(Kevin Laplatney of North Syracuse, 47, driver for First Student bus company, not affiliated with a political party)
“Jobs. The unemployment rate still hasn’t gone down enough to get our economy moving again. Creation of new jobs, and not just government jobs but private sector jobs. That’s still not quite figured out because there’s still too much political infighting.”
(Milly Manso-Davila of Syracuse, 54, unemployed, registered Democrat)
(Rebekah Jones is a senior with dual majors in geography and newspaper journalism.)
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