What are teen's views on American Leadership & future.?

Oh boy..I don't know where to start:

1) We're gonna need politicians who represent the people instead of trying to keep their seat in the senate or HOR. The biggest threat we have at the moment is our national debt; which is expected to increase by 8 TRILLION by 2020. And guess who's gonna be stuck paying it off? If our leaders can't reign in spending then our country is gonna be worse off in another ten years than it is today. Which means that our current president Obama is gonna have to put the brakes on spending. I'm not blaming him for our $12 trillion+ debt, but I am saying it's now his responsibility to keep that 12 trillion from growing larger under his presidency.

2) Well, we're also entering a world that is much more connected than in the past. Our leaders can't go around bullying other countries to get what they want anymore. You have countries like China & India rising in Asia, Brazil in South America, and Nigeria and Egypt in Africa. We're gonna have to communicate more w/ them and the multiple other developing nations on the Earth cause they will be experiencing the greatest economic growth in the future, and also have more influence in global issues.

3) The environment is getting worse every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week..and you get what I mean. We can argue back and forth that tihngs like global warming aren't real, blah blah blah. But it's already scientifically proven and proof is before our eyes. It will take a while to see the effects of global warming, but when we do they'll be catastrophic, and the adults today arguing if it isn't happening or not won't be around long enough to exeperience the full effects--we will. So we need to do whatever we can to use more renewable clean sources of energy. Nuclear power, solar power, wind power, they're all clean and w/ greater advancements in technology nuclear power will become a safe alternative. And solar & wind are a clean & unlimited supply of energy. I see it as an investment in our future, not only will it create millions of jobs but it will also mean we can maintain good lifestyles in the future.

4) This decade, and last too, we saw a lot of our manufacturing base be sent overseas. It continues to do so, and we continue ot lose more jobs. A stable economy needs manufacturing because it's like the supports that hold up a skyscraper--without it you'll come crashing down sooner or later. America manufactures high-tech products such as computer chips, military technology, aviation products, etc. If we can invest and encourage innovation like we have in the past, then we'll continue to lead in these fields and somewhat keep a decent manufacturing base.

Other than that, debt is a huge problem. We need to save more instead of focusing on consumerism, and only buy what we KNOW we can pay for with our own money. It's gonna take dedication of the govt and Americans to get our debt down. I think we should set up a plan to say retire 10% of our debt in 10-15 years, and after that just knock up the percentage. And like I said above, globalization is the new trend, so our companies are gonna have to reach out to other continents for future partnerships/customers & Americans will have to maintain a competitive attitude cause know we'll be competiting w/ a Chinese, Nigerian, Pakistani, or Chilean person for the same job!

5) Ehh, this one is a hard topic. Some people think we need to reduce the number of arms people are allowed to buy/have in order to drop the crime rate, and many others think we need to tackle bad areas (such as Detroit) to make them nice, livable places again. I think the problem we'll face the most w/ crime is w/ immigration. So many immigrants live here and will continue to flood into our country, and as a result there is definitely a huge possibility that crime will surge. So we should reform immigration so we only accept so many immigrants a year that we can support, and make an effort to integrate them into our society. Now of course they'll have to make a commitment to this as well, but I think both sides can meet somewhere in-between.

Other than that...I don't know what to say about crime & law. But one other thing I can say is that police officers need to abide by the law more than they do today. I know many of them out there are law-abiding citizens, but then you have the cops who like to streth their muscle just cause they're in a uniform.

We have a lot of challenges in the future (hell of a lot more than in the past), and the only way to solve them would be if we all focused more on communication than arguing all the time. Basically we need to bring back the America we saw in the last century; competitive individuals, students who actually care about education & don't disrespect teachers, politicians not afraid to go to the extreme to get reforms, and businesses that don't sell-out the people who helped them rise to power in the first place.

To think that in just a few short years doing all of this will be my & every other American teens job. I'm thinking of getting into politics, but I don't know yet, and kinda scared if I do I'll end up looking like Bush, Obama, or other past presidents (who seemed to age like 2 years every year they're in office).

My dream is to become a marine animal trainer and help push more laws forward to protect the ecosystem