Legislative branch isn’t doing its job

There are things to deplore about the state of the nation. We have the freedom to grumble, to criticize, to protest and to engage in civil disobedience. These are important applications of our citizenship and our humanity and people are employing them. A good sign of the times.

Still, we wonder why things have gone this way. We have a system of government that has worked well for over 200 years. Executive, legislative, judicial: that should take care of most things. But wait! There's disagreement about how the executive branch is working. We can agree that it 'is” working, whether we like 'how” or not. Judicial: well, who are we to judge the justices; they're supposed to be the smart ones.

Aha, the legislative branch. I think that our agreement is broad-based: it isn't working. Our Congress isn't doing its job. Its job is to make the laws. Immigration, no; gun control, no; declare war (or peace), no; adequate health care for all, no; access to higher education for all, no; fair voting rights for all, no; climate protection, no; good infrastructure, no; economic equality, well, that's another story. Of course, they are busy with things like hearings on sexual misconduct, on wiretapping and other cybercrimes, and on what happened in past elections.

If there's a problem, it only gets worse if you don't fix it. The first step is to recognize it; the next step is to - well, we haven't figured out what the next step is.

Sally McMillan

Iowa City