Each of us are influenced by a number of social factors in our lives. These factors, such as religious or family socialization, race or ethnicity, political orientation, etc., often influence how we view the social world and our sense of what is important, as well as our sense of right and wrong. I'm going to ask each of you to put all those things aside in responding to this discussion.

This is NOT easy. I would like you to step outside your social experience and think like a scholar, unbiased and value free, for this next posting.

What do YOU think is the most important social problem facing our society currently?

You may choose a topic that we have covered in the text, or some other social issue you don't believe the authors of your text placed enough emphasis on during this class. Some of you may choose the economy, pornography, drug addiction, or some other topic from the class.

The key to receiving credit for this posting is to approach this as an academic / scholar and not from previous biases. While potentially difficult, please leave politics, religion, etc. out of your comments.

Your posting should identify your area of concern and briefly describe why you feel it is of primary importance to our society. For example, (I) believe that sex education is an important issue due to the increase in certain STD's in our younger population, or (I) believe the financial meltdown is most important due to the debt future generations are incurring as a result of government investment in private enterprises.

I think this may be a great learning experience for all of us in this class. Your responses could also potentially influence the organization and emphasis in the class in the future.

However, please avoid personal attacks or derogatory comments regarding other students comments. I will monitor this discussion very closely and will delete any postings that become personal. Deleted postings will NOT receive credit.

I'm looking forward to your comments on social problems and what each of you feels is of greatest concern to our society.