Family planning should be available to everyone in this country regardless of who they are

I grew up with cars. That's it. There was no public transportation in Covington, and even now only has a couple of lines running through it. So, I grew up yearning to drive, then learning to drive, in order to escape. Cars represent freedom to me, and to many Americans. The feeling of not being beholden to anyone else is freeing. 

I started riding the bus out of necessity when I was accepted to Cornish in downtown Seattle where there is an infamous lack of easy or affordable parking. And I realized then that I liked it most of the time. Not having to deal with idiot drivers, not having to pay attention to the road at all, it's nice. But there are terrible things about public transportation too - primarily other humans and their bad behavior. Smelly people, loud talkers, rude young folks who refuse to move their stuff, etc. 

I think I will probably always prefer to drive if I can. It's a deeply-held love. But luckily for the planet, driving is only getting more and more expensive and frustrating. :)

I am a millennial, so I grew up with the [then three, now five] "Rs." It was part of my general public education. So I've been a reduce/reuse/recycler forever. What I could definitely do is incorporate more repurposing into my life. Old containers become new containers, old sheets become new rags, etc. I don't do as much of that as I could, or would like to, so I'm going to start. It doesn't make me feel any particular way, really. I would feel proud, but dampening that pride is an overwhelming concern that it simply isn't enough.

Growing up in a small town in Texas, we didn't really have public transportation, other than the school bus.  Even in Houston, options were pretty limited and most people drove - parking was rarely an issue.  I always wished there were better public transportation options because I don't really like driving in traffic, and it seemed so much more efficient.  I'm grateful to have convenient public transportation into Seattle.

my city does not provide mandatory recycling as some cities.  I would like to see a much more strict rules around recycling and enforce fee(s) if not followed.

I love the subway in NYC and other big cities, where it just works and driving is not a realistic option... Seattle just has a long way to go, its still faster to go by car to a lot of locations. My last job, I could drive there in 30 minutes or take the bus for 60+ minutes. Its hard to commit to that extra time. Once Seattle hits the point with bus frequency and accessibility I think we will see more usage. In fact I think we are starting to for many locations.

I discovered/confirmed by keeping the food waste log that very little of our food goes into the garbage as we compost and have chickens/dogs/cats that all benefit from the food we don't consume.  So that made me feel good.  What I do see is that there is a lot of food packaging in the garbage so want to focus more on buying items whenever possible with less packaging and/or providing my own reusable package when purchasing/storing.  To help with that, I did purchase reusable mesh bags to put produce in so I don't use the plastic ones provided in the grocery store.  This was a good exercise for me!