Nation As the world rapidly spins into the future and now that the new millennium is upon us, this nation is still faced with many of the old problems along with new ones that have been added to the list. Some of the problems are more prominent then others. Here is a list of three of the worst problems faced in this country to date. Arguably the worst of today's problems, in this nation, is racism. This extreme form of prejudice can be found anywhere, from a normal family home to the police barracks. The most important point to be made about the issue of racism, that most tend to forget, is that fact that racism is not only a "whites against blacks" or "whites against minorities" situation. There are plenty of African Americans, Hispanics, and even Asians out there that hold a strong prejudice against whites. When most hear the word, racism, they think KKK, or Nazi, both white hate groups. People tend to forget that there are also minority hate groups out there, which should be kept in mind. Racism is manufactured from numerous occurrences and places. It would very reasonable to say that the hatred that African Americans hold for whites stems from the days of slavery. It comes to mind also that the end of the civil war, the end of slavery, happened over a hundred years ago, so how can African Americans still use that as an excuse, they should just "get over it". Maybe many have forgotten the fact that, slavery in this nation went on for a few hundred years. That is the only past that these people have, years upon years of their ancestors being beaten, underfed, and overworked. It is also safe to say that the hatred whites hold against African Americans stems from the same period. People who owned slaves felt they were superior to the "blacks" and that tradition has been passed on through the generations. World War II and the Nazi regime also bred many racists, mostly against those of the Jewish faith, but the hatred has spread to other minorities as well. In the past few years there have been many incidents of police (most common is the L.A.P.D.) making bad decisions (killing an unarmed or harmless victim) because the person was African American or that of another minority. Many people die annually due to hate crimes, which is completely unnecessary. Kids need to be taught in school to be tolerant towards other races. People have the right to their own opinion and thoughts as long as they do not hurt others because of these beliefs. Hate crimes laws, as long as there is much evidence that the crime is one, should be strictly enforced (which is a long shot considering the police force is racist itself). If this problem is solved, it will help make this a less violent, more tolerant nation, which in turn might lead to more prosperous life styles. Another, very serious, problem that our nation faces today is that of poverty and homelessness. Our nation does not of course have the highest rate of poverty or homelessness, but there are still millions of people who live their lives without homes, jobs, education, or money. Many people think that those who are in poverty or are homeless are there because they are lazy, and have chosen the path they are on. These people also fail to realize that no one is the same. Many of these people were born into poverty, which can be a very difficult thing to get yourself out of, even if you do have a steady job. It is also true that some people aren't born with the same mentality as others, they do not have the capacity to store as much knowledge as some, therefore they (normally) do worse in school, which makes it harder for them to get into a good college or into college at all. Without a college education it is hard to get a good job. College is expensive. For those who do not have the mentality, or even physical ability (such as in sports), to receive a scholarship into college it can be almost impossible even with financial aid to go to college. No matter the reason, there are people who live in poverty, millions of them, in this nation. Something needs to be done to help those people. There are many ideas that could be used to help cure this problem; here is one that can be used on a city or county scale. Officials could gather up homeless or poverty stricken individuals and use them to help build buildings, shelters, for these homeless people. They would then be paid by the state for building these buildings, and they may even get jobs inside these shelters, such as cafeteria persons, or janitorial engineers. Others who do not desire to get jobs inside the shelter could use the experience they gained from helping to build these shelters to maybe work on other projects. That is just one of many options to help these poor individuals. One thing is for sure; much less money should be spent on protecting our nation from outside predators, when it is still deteriorating on the inside. The third problem, which is just as important as the others, is that of the discrimination of homosexuals. This can be found anywhere and everywhere, from schools to the White House. Today, the terms "faggot" and "gay", which are generally used to describe homosexuals, are used as common place insults. In schools, kids will call someone a "faggot" for something as simple as saying something they didn't like. But, if you are found out to be a true homosexual, your life may be in jeopardy. There have been many cases in which some kids beat a homosexual to death, because of the fact that they were homosexual. Kids are killed because of another's homophobia. Our government does nothing to help their case either. In many states, it is illegal for homosexuals to get married. What ever happened to "pursuit of happiness"? Why isn't homosexuality accepted? "Because it's not normal." That's the beauty of individuality. Homosexuals are born with their sexuality, many do not choose to be the way they are; if some do and that's what they want, then good for them. This nation needs to become more tolerant. But if even our government can't see that, then we are in dire need of help. Laws need to be passed to help make these people more accepted, to let them live a normal life. The future constantly brings us more and more problems, all of them need to be solved, some more then others. But one things for sure, they need to be solved now.

WORLD Not only will our nation face many problems in the future and so will this world. One of the problems the entire world will face in the future is that of overpopulation. As medicine gets better and better, people begin to live longer and longer, and more and more people are surviving their near death experiences. As more and more people become part of this nation, either through immigration or natural birth, living space continues to run out. Cities are becoming bigger and natural resources are becoming scarcer. This is most likely one of the more evident problems in this nation, as well as one of the hardest to solve. One of the things that could be done is to limit immigration. But this is the nation of equal opportunity, our country is supposed to be there to help those escape from the tyranny of the world. What happens when we say, "We're sorry, but we can't help any one else, you're going to have to suffer with what you've got." There shouldn't be a law that does not allow someone to wander this world as they please. This is a problem that is almost unfixable. There is nothing that can be done and we must live with it. Another major problem in this world, is the fact that nuclear missiles are falling into the wrong hands. This has been a problem since 1945. Nuclear missiles in anyone's hands are in the wrong hands. Now that more and more countries are gaining nuclear capability, the chance of nuclear war looks more and more likely. Many countries go to war over many small, unimportant things, and they have been at war for years. Now, if you put nuclear weapons in their hands, millions of people could die within minutes. Sooner or later, the leader of every country is going to have access to nuclear weapons. When that time comes, so will the end of mankind. The only way to solve this problem is to ban nuclear weapons. It may also be necessary to start a policing force that makes sure that countries do not use them illegally. Resources are becoming more and more scarce. Before long, there will be nothing left for humans to use, such as natural gas, coal, and oil. Once these resources are depleted, man will slowly die out. He will have caused his own extinction by the overuse of what nature has given us. This problem ties in with overpopulation. As more and more people are brought into this world, more and more resources are needed. It is quite impossible to stop the inevitable process of using up all of nature's resources, but some attempts to regulate the usage of these resources would help keep mankind alive and well for many more years to come. These and many more problems exist in the world today. Some of them can and will be solved before they become to bad, but others are impossible to solve and precautions need to be taken against them.