"...American is my Black culture. Um, that being the ancestor of people who came here who were enslaved, um to now be a professor at NYU, that journey is an extraordinary journey and I stand on it every day when I stand in front of a class. Um and I think that particular journey could only happen somewhere like this where the dream keeps people going even though the circumstances might be completely uh seemingly uh insurmountable. Um and so I think a dream like me could only happen in a place like this. Um and so that is what makes me proud to be an American is standing on my African-American heritage."

"Something that's pretty divisive but people don't realize is the funding of cancer research. So something I notice at a lot of sporting events is people stand up, they say fuck cancer, they hold up signs at the MLB All-Star game for instance. And they have a loved one that they hold up honoring, uh, somebody that they lost to cancer. And I think a lot of people agree that cancer research should be funded, but based on the way they vote, that's just not true, because you have one party that, um, aggressively looks to cut taxes for the extremely wealthy and defund a lot of our most essential research programs for cancer. Um, about 20 years ago, you had a president who cut funding for stem cell research, and, um, we lost out on a lot of potential, uh, progress in that field. And currently, I don't know what the consequences of our current defunding of crucial research programs will look like, but I think that while many people think that they are in agreement on this issue, inherently they're not, and they really shouldn't be."

"I think taxes should be better allocated towards healthcare. I think as someone who works in the healthcare sector, I've noticed that there are a lot of people who need like basic healthcare procedures and stuff, and they don't receive it because, um, they don't have the means to do so. And I think, um, as a country who has so many resources, so many innovations, and so many things to offer, it's kind of heartbreaking when people need like life or death surgery and they, you know, choose to do it because they, they obviously choose life and then they're indebted for the rest of their life to pay for their like 50,000 heart, $50,000 heart surgery or something like that. So I would like my taxes to be better allocated towards healthcare. I think especially being from Miami actually, when flying back, I realized that there's a lot of taxpayer dollars going towards other things, um, like it's very much based on like the presidential agenda. And it's very heartbreaking to see, for example, like an ICE officer like checked me into the airport, um, and instead of allocating taxes towards like where they're meant to be allocated, um, they're allocated towards other departments that are not as, like where they're not meant to. And I think healthcare for me is something that's very important and it's not allocated towards enough. And so even like non-invasive things like, um, birth control and things that are like helpful for girls to have, some people aren't able to have them because they don't afford it or their insurance doesn't cover it."

"I think elected officials can learn a lot from professional athletes, like they're both in the spotlight, they're on our phones, they're on our TVs. A lot of eyes are on all of them, and of course, they want the best not only for like their team but their fans. And I think a lot of these sports are team sports and you have to work well with others. And I would like to see that a lot more with politicians, 'cause I feel like on the news or on TikTok, it's just everyone fighting all the time and nothing really getting done. And you can't have that in sports, like if the team's not working well together, you will lose game after game after game. So you have to realize that it's not just one person that wins the game; you have to have each player on the team doing their part to have the overall goal of bringing home the trophy. And you even think about with the Olympics, like these people are going off leaving their teams, playing with new people, and they have two to three weeks to gel together to figure out a plan to, um, like see success in the Olympics. And I would love to see that with politicians being able to go to different countries, build relationships. And I feel like I'm just not seeing that at all right now, and it's very much like "me, me, me" and not thinking about the large group of people that you represent."

"What makes me proud to be an American, I would say the people. Over the past couple of years I've been inspired by the way that people have come together to show up for others when the government has failed them. They've rallied around issues that matter to not only themselves but to those in the community around them and made sure their voices were heard. It has given me hope and made me proud to stand by them and for them."

"More things that are divisive in the US, um, for no reason are children's access to free school lunches, um, immigration. Why are we keeping people out of a country that was built on immigrants and people coming to America to follow this American dream and under this promise that if you work hard, there's a place for you here and you can build a better life, and now we're saying that you can work as hard as you want, but it actually doesn't matter because you weren't supposed to be here in the first place."

"I think there's a lot in the US that's divisive right now that feels like it shouldn't be, and they feel almost common sense. But, um, women's rights, uh, their autonomy over their own bodies, um, abortion access is part of that. The idea that even if we have different opinions you're able to mandate and regulate what I do with my own body, um, is not a thing that makes sense to me and I don't understand how people can be on opposite sides of that part of the argument. I understand we have different opinions, but you shouldn't be able to control what I do with my body. Um, other things that are divisive in the US with no basis to me... oh wait, I don't like saying no basis."

"teammate mindset. Um, and not in just the way that we're working towards a common goal together with the people next to you on your team, but the reminder that there's no one person that sits above this team as a whole. Um, this team has been here before you and will be here after you and you're here at the service um of the team right then and in politics especially you were elected to represent this specific group of people and advance their beliefs, not necessarily just your own. Um, and you're chosen to play kindly with others um and work towards progress but also in an athlete mindset you're here to win games as a team um but also under the team name as a whole."

"I think elected officials could learn from athletes by um thinking in more of a team effort mindset um a single athlete can't usually in team sports they can't win by themselves they need their team".

"I think the is it depends on what stage of life in you're at, but probably either higher education or groceries are the two things that come to mind off the bat."

"I think I want my taxes to be spent on infrastructure, um, making homes and community spaces for people to live in who maybe can't afford their own."

"Everything seems really expensive right now. Down the line, it's my dream to buy a home, and looking back on past generations, it seemed like people were buying houses at my age, and I can barely afford my groceries. A modest one-bedroom in the Bay Area is probably like $3,000 to $3.5k a month, um, and it just feels too expensive for simply having a roof over your head. And I think, when I was growing up, it felt like a predictable chapter after graduating college and finding my first job to start saving for a home, but it feels like my money is going elsewhere: groceries, gas money, transportation money, even just wanting to go out and have fun with my friends. It feels like it's making things down the line a little further out of reach. Housing is an expense that makes the American Dream feel like it's a bit further away than it should be."

"This country was built on freedom, opportunity, and personal responsibility. I'm proud of the idea that if you work hard, stay true to your values, and take ownership of your life, you can build something meaningful here. I also think that there's something really special about the way faith, family, service, and love of the country still matter to so many people in America."

"I think oftentimes we focus a lot on, you know, why we're ashamed to be American, but I do genuinely feel a lot of pride in being American. I like to think about it kind of like Kintsugi, the like, I might be pronouncing that bad, but the Japanese art where you, you know, make new ceramics out of broken shards of old ceramic and you highlight the cracks glued together with gold. I really think that like, when I see America represented like that, that's what makes me proud. When I see different indigenous cultures, um, and different historic regions, people celebrating, you know, whether those are immigrant roots, whether those are, you know, roots of culture that came out of scars in our past like slavery and war. But when I see people owning them and owning the diversity of all of them and, and celebrating the different, you know, pieces, those that are broken, those that are whole, those that are painful, all together at once, that's what makes me feel proud because there's so much vastness and diversity and historic significance that makes this country what it is. But I only feel proud when I feel like I'm seeing all those different layers being celebrated at once."

"I feel like I'm spending a lot of my money on rent and I feel like people my age will be renting for much longer than generations that came before us due to the fact that rent prices are so high and I feel like it's hard to save money to put towards a house because rent is so expensive."

"I have to immediately go to healthcare, especially in America, we don't have universal healthcare. Um, I'm a social worker who works with people diagnosed with HIV, and one of the biggest battles that we face in having patients take their medications and having their viral load suppressed is affordability to medication. So a 30-day supply of medication is $5,000 when, um, you sell it on the street. So we have patients who have to really sacrifice their health, um, in order to afford the cost of living nowadays. So I think that is a sacrifice that really impacts our health in America. We do have to make those hard choices. I personally have had to forgo therapy, um, when I was in a really hard spot because I couldn't afford it and I was uninsured. So I think that's definitely one of the hardest things to afford now, and I believe that shouldn't be that way."

"The pride that we have in our country, I think a lot of what people want to fix just comes from pride and wanting us to be the best, like put our best foot forward as a country, and I think that's really special for America."

"Rent prices are not dropping, uh, rent is very high, uh, and there seems to be no real end in sight."

"I think our big conglomerate monsters and giants of healthcare companies do a great job of making it on the backs of capitalism and not giving opportunity for those in need so if you don't have money and the resources you simply just don't get healthcare um which is not a sustainable model and fair to everybody."