The Millennium Promise is one that benefits us all, no matter our current personal circumstances, because it helps equalize the playing field. The Millennium Promise aims to achieve the following eight globally endorsed objectives that address the many aspects of poverty:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

2. Achieve universal primary education.

3. Promote gender equality and empower women.

4. Reduce child mortality.

5. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

7. Ensure environmental sustainability.

8. Develop a global partnership for development.

Many notable individuals have used their fame and influence to raise public awareness of the extent of global poverty, including singer John Legend. Organizations such as Unicef, and Women Without Borders are making important strides in this area. But all of us can make this issue a priority, and make a personal determination to be part of the solution. With very simple interventions, we can wipe out global poverty in 20 years.  Make The Millennium Promise a done deal. 

When you were growing up, you probably had chores to do, and perhaps this was a way to earn an allowance. My allowance was pitiful compared to what many kids today are given, including my own kids -- but the idea of an allowance is a good one, especially if it's being given as a reward for accomplished duties. Children need to learn about finances at an early age.

Since my folks didn't have extra cash to throw around, my allowance was what I used to buy special items that didn't fall under the need-to-have category. As soon as I was old enough, I started babysitting. I couldn't wait to start my own savings and checking account. In fact, I learned how to go to the bank, to deposit cash, and to open and balance a checking account before my own mom did. Amazing.

I was of the generation that had obligatory home economics and shop classes. I took typing and shorthand classes as well. We were taught that work skills and life skills were important. It was assumed we'd need to know how to cook for ourselves, and to sew a seam to repair a piece of clothing.

Teach your kids these basics. As soon as they're old enough to understand, show them how to make a deposit in a savings account, and give them access to their savings account booklet so they can see how it grows. When your kids are old enough to have their first job, teach them how to open a checking account - show them how to write a check, how to keep track of their account balance. You'd be amazed how many kids leave high school without this knowledge.

Teach your kids how to do their own laundry; how much soap to put in the washer, how to separate the colors and jeans from the whites.  Teach them how to buy groceries, how to prepare a meal for one or two people, and how to preserve their left-over’s. Teach them how to clean up after themselves - to have pride in their surroundings, and respect for the things they've been given.  Encourage your kids to learn marketable skills. They may need to work to put themselves through college, and earn money for the extra things they desire.

Give your kids the benefit of your experience, and teach them these valuable life skills. As you know, they'll need them. 

Making the decision about who will head the third most populated country in the world, can be frustrating, confusing, and complicated by mixed messages. Still, because of the hardships and sacrifices of our founding mothers and fathers, we have the opportunity – and I would go as far as to say the duty, to partake in the process of choosing and electing those illustrious people to whom we will grant the authority to make decisions on behalf of every person residing in the United States – which as of this morning, was approximately 305,031,261 individuals.  We’ll expect our lawmakers to establish the parameters for all those who wish to visit and do business here in the US as well. 

When the chosen are sworn into office, we’ll put our faith and trust in them to rise to the occasion, whatever that occasion may be, and to do their jobs with strength as well as grace. Ultimately, we’ll need our leaders to earn our approval and to live up to the pride of America. 

But until the choice is confirmed, our presidential election will be the mother of all shows, and much of what we see in the media is presented in order to entertain. There’s a lot of pageantry and boasting, accusations and innuendo, the unveiling of secrets and surprises, some theatrical twisting of information, and certainly drama. Our emotions will vacillate wildly, and heated arguments may ensue among formerly peace-loving friends.  

Is our country headed to the extreme right, or are we swinging precariously to the left? Who is staking out the middle ground? Can we pay for the current wars, ramp up our military might, ensure national security, provide healthcare and a viable education without more taxes, and if not, who’s going to pay for it all? Is the richest 5 percent of the population going to be charged with fixing everything?

Ohmygod, everybody has a different answer, or at least a different argument.  Such heated discussions are not only occurring among friends and colleagues, but in peace-loving families too; we’ve been having them for months now. Though some of us have made a definite decision regarding our Presidential choice, we’re still very much engaged in the fact-finding process. We’re fishing for answers and hunting for facts, and those facts seem to be changing all the time.

With McCain choosing a female running mate in Sarah Palin, he has selected a woman who has little if any international experience, but can be congratulated, at the very least, for her grit and verve; I’m sure the conservatives are having a field day.  She eats Caribou, has five kids, owns a gun and likes to hunt and fish. Hmmm, she sounds gutsy, and perhaps McCain is hoping to attract some of the women who previously backed gutsy Senator Clinton.  Though I’m obviously biased, I wouldn’t bet on it.

The Republicans have branded their new Vice Presidential candidate as a Maverick -- like their Presidential candidate, John McCain, she shoots from the hip.  I personally am worried about the possibility of having two gunslingers in one office; such a combo could have messy results.

But if being a maverick is laudable, our Democratic Presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama deserves his share of praise as well.  Senator Obama has proved to be a formidable communicator and in his own maverick way has managed to inspire the youth of America to get engaged in this election.  He has charged onto the scene as a relative newcomer, a man of mixed racial backgrounds which by itself shows that he comes from spunky genes.  He was born in 1961, the product of an interracial marriage, which at that time in the US was still slightly out-of-the-box behavior; the banning of interracial marriage wasn’t fully eliminated until the last anti-miscegenation laws were struck down by the Supreme Court in 1967. 

Whether we chose Obama and Biden or McCain and Palin, either team will need to be able to see beyond their own life schemas and open their minds to the needs of a worldwide population of over six billion, because we are part of a global economy, and we are affected as the world turns.  They’ll need to learn how to put some of their own narrow-minded opinions aside, and chose a course of action that benefits every citizen in this country – not just the special interest clubs i.e., Republicans or Democrats, they may belong to.

On with the show.

I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know anything about Governor Palin before I read about her on the web. But she's apparently considered a maverick like McCain. Though much younger, she's already earned the title of Governor, which says a lot about her determination. The Press reports that she is vehemently anti-abortion, which obviously pleases the conservatives, but doesn't please me. I do not advocate abortion, but I am pro-choice, and I have my reasons. A decline in women's fundamental rights regarding their bodies is not something we should be willing to endorse.

Party affiliation aside, our dinner table is the scene for many boisterous conversations about who is better qualified to take on the job of commander -in-chief; who can best handle the pressure, who can heal the international wounds caused by boastful rhetoric and disrespect, and who will be the most supportive of our allies, especially Israel. In the end, it's unclear who will be able to change the truly dysfunctional course our country has been on for most of the past eight years.

We'd have to be living under a rock not to be aware that each of us will need to pay more taxes in order to cover the tab for the war in Iraq. And it is clear that it will take a continuous infusion of human and monetary resources to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, and other locations around the globe. And I haven't even begun to talk about our national, social interests like healthcare, infrastructure and education. And of course, there's our environment.  What are we going to do about our dependence on foreign oil, and how are we going to be able to sustain life on this planet for future generations?

Truly, it's a conundrum. Listening to all our newscasters and journalists argue about it makes our choice that much more complicated -- in truth, there are great things and perhaps shortcomings that could be applied to each candidate and each running-mate. But that said, I maintain the opinion that our democratic candidate - Senator Barack Obama, has what it takes to do the job. I'll cast my vote for him.

• Barack Obama

I was a Hillary Clinton supporter. And though I saw the missteps in her campaign, and moaned and groaned about the way the media dished her, and the difficulty she apparently had connecting with some voters, I thought she was capable of taking ownership of a direction -- even if she occasionally changed that direction. All elected officials must hope they'll make progress once they're in office. But even though hope is an important additive, it takes more than hope to float the boat.  The Chief Executive of the United States of America can hope and yearn for changes.  But to bring those positive changes about, he'll need to be proactive and very specific about the hopes and changes he wrangles for. With our economy slip-sliding every which way, Russia flexing its muscles, Iraq taking tentative steps, and the Taliban as busy and deadly as ever, I hope he quickly and astutely defines his mission, and his message from one of I hope for changes, to I'm prepared to direct those changes.

If that’s the case, you’re one of my heroes.  I hate to admit it, but up until my mid-thirties, I wasn’t sure about my self-worth – it didn’t seem to be a constant, and I didn’t know it was a ‘given.’  It vacillated wildly depending upon the life circumstances I was muddling through, and was particularly affected when the men in my life were displeased with me.  I somehow grew up thinking that men were the authorities; that they would naturally be the leaders in my life, and I would naturally be among the group that followed along – albeit not always whistling happily.

Many of you have grown up with a similar schema; that self-worth is not a sensation that is necessarily distributed equally, but rather a hoped-for reward one receives for being good, behaving as you’re told, or accomplishing a specific goal or task. What’s up with that?

Is self-worth relative and subjective? For much of my life it seemed that my self-worth could be questioned by extraneous people or events.  Being criticized publicly by an authority figure could strip me of my feelings of validity and send me into hiding.  As a teenager, when I didn’t fit in with any of the popular cliques, I could easily feel stigmatized, demoralized, and worthless.  Going through a divorce was a real worth-dampener too.  I gradually formed the opinion that feelings of being worthy, worthwhile, and esteemed came more easily for men than women.  My grasp of worth seemed much more fragile, much more elusive.

Ah, well. I hope you are from the group that from the starting line knew who she was, and daily values her.  After many laps around the sun, I finally got my facts straight, and I now know experientially that worth is innate. Oh, we can certainly behave in ways that will enhance or obscure our worth, but it’s still there inside you.  Unfortunately, there’s the rub.  Learning to grasp, possess and project one’s own self-worth is an existential hurdle all of us must surmount. 

And though we all begin practicing the course as infants, it seems some of us are naturally-born good jumpers, while others need lessons – or perhaps simply need to learn how to bounce.