Bolingbrook, the hometown of Virtual Agora, mirrors the problems that the United States faces as a nation. The recent mayoral election was contentious and decided by a very narrow margin. Political tensions flare up in otherwise simple technical matters; for example, should the village stay with its current garbage pick-up system or should we have new garbage cans?

On the other hand, Bolingbrook is a spectacular success. Established recently, in 1965, Bolingbrook is the fastest growing community in Illinois among those incorporated around the same time. With affordable housing, good schools, shopping malls, low crime, and many jobs, it is a great place to live for people of modest means and has even made it into lists of best places to live in the country.

Bolingbrook residents have a lot to lose if political emotions guide changes rather than a cold analysis of facts.

Let us be blunt: Politicians in Washington do not care about finding and fixing the core problems of our health care system. Their objective is to be reelected. They will not seek to find what the source of our problems is; they will not ask fundamental questions, they will make no effort to educate the voters who might have unrealistic expectations. Instead, they will check the results of opinion polls and vote for whatever their misinformed voters lean toward. If we do not find a solution ourselves, outside the corridors of Washington, no one else will.

Please check 19 hard questions about health care, and then turn them into challenges here at Virtual Agora, so we can work together on finding a consensus on healthcare policy by bypassing the dysfunctional politics in Washington. 

Ultimately, everyone would be able to use the Virtual Agora platform to conduct a dialogue on issues within their communities. During the introductory period, there will be only one debating forum, on the health care policy in the United States. It is an agonizing issue; it affects everyone. People disagree on philosophical and political concepts of health care policy, but the unquestionable facts are that we still have many citizens without access to health care, we spend much more on health care than other industrialized nations, with a worse outcome, and still many Americans go bankrupt under the burden of medical bills.
People that we entrusted in bettering our health care policy seem to be unable to do it. We have to do it ourselves. The algorithm of the debate at Virtual Agora gives us a chance.

You have just joined a group trying to change for better the politics as we know it. Conducting a productive political dialogue between people of opposing views has been difficult for some time, but right here, right now you have an opportunity to change it. This forum gives you an opportunity to shape the future.

The concept of the debate might seem complex, but the forum has been designed in a way that it should be easy to participate without even reading the official rules.

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