Voices from the trailer park

The Ann Arbor Area Committee for Peace went door-to-door in a local trailer park a couple of weeks ago. In addition to registering voters, they asked people "What issues are most important to you and what concerns do you have for the future?"

Here are some of the answers they got:

• Economy, retirement, health care.
• Stupid war, don't need to fight.
• Sure isn't for Bush - he got us into the worst shape. "I am a strong Democrat."
• Jobs, pumping money, war in Kuwait taking money.
• Mine is work. Jobs.
• Right now health care.
• I keep hoping Kerry doesn't get it, because I don't like how he goes about his military record. He has a medal. I don't like his outlook on a lot of things. Like he knows so much about Iraq.
• I don't think either one of them. Don't know who to vote for.
• Honesty in politicians.
• I want the bars to stay open till 4 am.
• Politicians should tell truth.
• Quit taking us backwards.
• Kerry should win.
• More jobs in the USA.
• (96-year-old) I'm not leaving until things get better.
• I don't like politics. Politics turns me off.
• I don't have time.
• Health care - I have no insurance.
• Mental health.
• Worst election year, not happy with either.
• Better explanation for Iraq.
• I feel like I was lied to as a citizen.
• Gambling in Michigan.
• Not voting for either one. Bush cooked his goose; Kerry can't do much better.
• I've had it up to here.
• Don't want Bush because of the war; he acts like the economy is good; it is not.
• Health care. That's my big concern. Where I work we used to have a choice of three plans. Now all we have is M-CARE. It will cost $400 a month. We can't afford it. I don't know what we're going to do. We need national health care.
• President Bush keeps saying our economy is going so strong. I don't see that at all. My husband is losing his job. He works for the auto industry. Cars aren't selling. So they're going to sell the plant.
• What's going on in Iraq. I wish everyone would come home.
• The candidates keep fighting each other. I just want to hear what they're for.
• Just keep us free.
• The economy and the continuing loss of life overseas. I'm hoping we get a new administration. I don't think he'll be so impulsive going against the United Nations.
• Iraq: I don't like it. I can see going over to get people riled up so they know we won't take any nonsense. But I don't know why we're still there.
• I don't believe in the government. I don't like what they're doing. I don't like what they did. I don't like the people who blew up Iraq. They blew up their schools and their weddings. Go Bush.
• Seeing that I have two teenagers; housing and employment. What concerns me are the terrorist acts. I worry about our food being safe and our water being safe. Education. We need to go into the third world countries to learn Arabic and Chinese. There needs to be a corner in the classroom with multicultural topics.
• The big one is Iraq. Get us out as soon as possible. We never should have gone in.
• Biggest thing for me is that the Anti-Christ is in office.
• Middle class is shrinking - need to keep it viable, not just rich and poor. Too much single-issue politics playing on emotions.
• Anything with school funding/education. They keep taking funds away from those who need it. Not all are mainstream kids.
• Get out and leave them alone in Iraq. I don't know why it is our business
• Jobs, jobs, jobs. Ain't no factories left to get a job. Eight are closed and the three that are left won't stay long.
• It don't matter to me. What happens, happens. I don't vote.
• The war and stuff going on. It's been busy, but I try to keep up. I've got a lot of friends over there. I had a friend, haven't seen him in a few months ... he says it's rough.
• I think I keep up pretty well about what's going on in the world, but newspaper and even TV are not always very accurate. I always have kept up on things. And the hurricanes are going on.
• I'm fed up with them both and I'm not voting. I gave it up years ago. They're all talk and they do nothing.
• I'm going to get my absentee ballot. I wouldn't miss this election for the world.
• I have an absentee ballot but don't know who I'll vote for. This mess in Iraq - I don't think they have a plan to get out. It's like they're feeding our boys into a furnace. That Ralph Nader - he has some good ideas; of course he'll never get in.
• I know who I want to vote for, but I can't because of my religion. It's abortion…
• We're a house divided. Kerry has the glitz of Hollywood behind him, but I don't know. These Californians like him, but they have a muscleman for governor.