Let me say this up front. I don’t want readers to think otherwise. I was born a citizen of the United States and I remain a loyal citizen. I try to exercise good citizenship, paying attention to this issues, voting in each election, following the laws of the land, paying my taxes, volunteering in service to my community, keeping myself educated about the issues of the day and communicating with my elected representatives. Although I will occasionally comment about our neighbors in Canada, I have no intention of becoming a Canadian citizen.

I regularly listen to the broadcasts of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The taxpayer supported public broadcasting network has some programs that I enjoy and I think it is helpful for me to learn their perspective on the news of the day. I also am an avid reader of U.S. news sites on the Internet and I also listen to US radio stations. Among the news in Canada yesterday was coverage of the third reading and debate in the Canadian Senate of bill C-226, “An Act respecting the development of a national strategy to assess, prevent and address environmental racism and to advance environmental justice.”

Given the news that has been coming out of our national legislature, it has been refreshing to listen to the debate in Canada about an issues that is important in both countries. I admit I was a bit jealous of our neighbors. I wish our representatives were engaged in a national conversation about the relationship between environmental pollution and racism. Regardless of whether or not you think that current environmental policy is unfair to members of minority communities, I think a healthy conversation is a good idea. One of the challenges of our time is the need to reflect on our shared responsibility to improve our relationship with the environment. There is substantial evidence that some communities are disproportionately more affected by pollution and environmental destruction than others.

Meanwhile, news from our federal legislators seems to focus on some pretty silly and unnecessary issues. For example, this week the Speaker of the US House of Representatives unveiled a bill to ban noncitizens from voting in federal elections. The bill is entirely unnecessary. It is already illegal for non citizens to vote. In addition, despite significant rhetoric coming from one of our national parties claiming that such fraud is commonplace, there is no evidence that voting by non citizens is occurring or that such illegal action has any impact on the outcome of any elections held in the United States.

A couple of days ago, a member of the US House of Representatives sought to remove the Speaker of the House after failing to block an emergency bill that funds the continued operation of the government. That’s right. Upset that the House and Senate did their job of funding the operation of the government, a member of the House attempted to stop the process of legislation completely.

These debates, such as they are, seem trivial and are not focusing on the very real issues before us as a nation. In communities and on campuses all across the nation, people are debating the role of the US government in supporting Israel in the light of the continuing war against Hamas in Gaza. Like many other foreign policy issues, this is an extremely complex issue. The history of the 20th Century has made it clear that it is important for our government to support the State of Israel. Standing up for the right of Jewish people to have a safe homeland to protect their rights is important. The publicly avowed intention of Hamas to destroy Israel is abhorrent as were the killings and taking of hostages that provoked the war. On the other hand the people of Palestine also deserve a safe place to live and the excessive use of force against civilians, the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands, and the cut off of relief supplies leading to famine cannot be condoned. It would do us well to have careful and reasoned debate about what shape US policy should take in this time.

Our country has a serious problem with homelessness. There is a shortage of decent affordable housing. While some of those who are homeless suffer from addictions and mental illness there are hard-working citizens of our country who simply cannot afford the basics of life. A careful and reasoned conversation about how we might address this problem would be welcomed. The problem is nation-wide. A federal response is necessary.

The high cost of health care continues to be a serious problem in our country. Medical bills continue to be the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in our nation. We spend more per capita than any other nation on health care and yet our health statistics are much worse than other industrialized countries. We spend more with less success than other countries. A well reasoned national conversation is in order as we seek ways to address this ongoing problem.

I could go on and on about issues that are important to the people of our country and worthy of healthy conversation. Meanwhile our Senators and Representatives seem to be willing to hold press conferences and speak out on all kinds of things that are not real issues. Sometimes it seems as if they are avoiding the serious conversations that our country needs and for which they have been elected.

The business of politics in the United States has become so expensive that elected officials spend more time raising funds than dealing with issues. It is frustrating that there is so little cooperation in the federal government that we have no comprehensive budget and our government runs on stop gap funding will important issues such as climate change and its disproportionate effects on racial minorities and impoverished communities are simply not being addressed.

Some days I take a brief break from the news of my own country and listen to the news of our neighbors. It can be refreshing. It also reminds me that there are important conversations we need to have in our country.