The small-business forgivable loans, the rapid broadening of unemployment compensation, and the stimulus checks are helping stave off a deep collapse. However, we are not targeting the most needy among us.

Our ability to engage with each other across class, race, gender, political and philosophical divides seems to be deteriorating.

The process doesn’t always work perfectly. There are voting irregularities and machine malfunctions. Big money dramatically shifts the playing field. But imagine what it’s like with no voice, limited civil liberties, and no free press.

Early this year, we had problematic elections in state Senate District 11. Many mail-in ballots were not received by the primary and general-election deadlines.

Worker organizing has quickened. Prominent among the efforts are statewide teachers’ walkouts in West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Arizona, the latter two right-to-work states.

Let’s laugh at the foibles of politics, with its twists and turns. Let’s figure out how to diffuse hostility and name-calling. 

Learning two or more languages strengthens one’s ability to communicate in any one of them.