“It’s the young kids that’s having babies. Babies having babies. It’s not right. They need to do something about that. You know, I’m looking at kids that I taught in swimming class. They’ve got kids that’s older than my grandkids, and I’m 15 — 20 years older than them.”
(Charles Lewis, 55, of Syracuse, certified nurse assistant at the Loretto Health and Rehabilitation Center, registered Democrat)
“There is a lot of things that have been going on for the Native Americans. They’re trying to tax our cigarettes, trying to put transportation taxes on a lot of things. Technically, taxes are one of the biggest things on our society. On the reservation, in the whole Native American community, I think that’s one of the main things that the government should issue, I mean, keep an eye on, really, I mean, because if more situations like that happen, then it’s going to lead into a war and then that’s going to lead into whole another country inside another country war.”
(Jacob Holmer, 19, of Syracuse, security guard at Onondaga Nation Cigarette Factory, unaffiliated with a political party)
“I would like to see more funding for the school, as far as the kids are concerned, funding for schools. The afterschool programs could be I feel a little better for the children. More books, pencils, for the children. More teachers. They need to bring the teachers back. There’s not enough teachers in the classroom for between 25 and 30 kids and sometimes there’s only one teacher or maybe a teacher’s teaching assistant. Some children with special needs has to have their own personal time with the teacher. ”
(Anna McNair, 65, of Syracuse, teaching assistant at Van Dyme Elementary School , registered Democrat)
“Nobody needs to own an automatic weapon and if you take the guns out of people’s hands, then the crime will jump. People who are criminals are listening to this legislation to see if regular citizens get their guns taken away and crime will jump. You don’t want to offend people and their sensibilities for the Second Amendment but you don’t want them to own automatic weapons either. What are they going to use them for?”
(Stephen Mosher, 45, of Syracuse, food handler for University Food Services, Democrat)
“You know, New York state, I feel the middle-class gets hammered with taxes. High income doesn’t suffer or have to pay for anything. Health issues, there’s so many people without health insurance and a lot of people can’t afford it.”
(Kathy Trop, 43, of Syracuse, medical secretary at CNY Surgical, unaffiliated with a political party)
(Madina Toure is a graduate student in magazine, newspaper and online journalism.)
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