Let us hope the new Congress will address the following issues:

• Accelerating and potentially catastrophic climate change.

• Increasingly frequent mass shootings and hate crimes.

• A trillion dollar national budget deficit.

• Incompetent and corrupt federal officials.

• Incoherent trade and tariff policies.

• Inhumane and irrational immigration policies.

• Developing a compassionate and comprehensive health care policy.

• Irrational diplomatic and foreign policies.

• An inequitable tax code.

• Overdue infrastructure remediation.

Is this too much to hope for?

Perhaps we can hope for progress if Congress works more than three days a week – when in session.

On Nov. 1, in a Maine Voices column in this newspaper, Richard Barringer quoted David Broder: “If the nation is to survive and meet its challenges, it is going to cost us time and energy and thought, diverted from our private concerns, to make government workable and our politics responsible once again.”

I write this on behalf of my young granddaughters.

Spencer Apollonio

Boothbay Harbor