The absence of civility at the national level in America is very unsettling. We have two political parties in Congress acting like spoiled children instead of taking charge of America’s issues and doing the jobs we elected them to do.
Take the infrastructure bill, for example. The American Society of Civil Engineers states that 46,000 bridges in America are structurally deficient. It states that a water main breaks in America every two minutes.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers states that the condition of thousands of miles of levees is unknown. We all know what happened during Hurricane Katrina. We had been forewarned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that the levees in New Orleans were defective and unstable in the event of a powerful hurricane.
We ignored the advice, much to our detriment.
The infrastructure issues facing America are not going to disappear. They will cost money, and that money has to come from somewhere. That means the government has to spend money to fix these kinks. Republicans are fixated on blaming Democrats for requesting more funds to fix what ails America. Nobody is keen on paying higher taxes. We can fix our energy, transportation, rail and human infrastructure today at a reasonable cost, or delay and lament later on.
The focus should be on ensuring taxpayer funds are spent wisely, rather than pursuing partisan feuding to score political points. While our congressional representatives are gripped in finger-pointing, our nation continues to suffer. Countries like South Korea, Thailand and Romania have a faster broadband speed than we do. How are our students going to excel when we cannot equip them with the necessary tools to ensure that they succeed and that we remain the great power we are? Our congressional representatives should put the nation’s needs ahead of party allegiance, it is that simple.
Patrick Machayo
Wilmington
