If anything positive emerges from this government shutdown, perhaps it will be a renewed understanding of the vital role that the federal government plays in our lives.

For the Grover Norquist (founder of Americans for Tax Reform) crowd – who’d like to see government reduced to the size “where we can drown it in the bathtub” – the specter of inspections of our foods being curtailed, garbage piling up in national parks, air-traffic controllers being stretched to their limits and loans to farmers, other businesses and potential homebuyers being halted, the shutdown calls their ideology into question.

Add to this the ripple effect on the economy, when millions of Americans employed by the federal government or its contractors are no longer receiving paychecks, and the critical role of the federal government becomes very clear.

Government serves the public interest in myriad ways that the private sector can’t or won’t.

Enough with government bashing.

Mary Ann Larson

Portland