The public usually puts the US Postal Service at the top of its list when asked to rate how well they view government agencies. The public also takes the mail system for granted, until it’s under attack. Ironically, in this age of the internet and e commerce, the USPS became critical to our democracy because the pandemic resulted in 75 percent of the country being eligible to vote by mail in the 2020 election.

It has become obvious that reforms are need in many areas of our democracy, and while I focus on legislation at the federal level, do not overlook what is happening locally.

Our Founding Fathers understood history. They saw that democracies are susceptible to demagogues, to majority rule becoming mob rule, to the subjugation of minorities, and to trampling on individual rights. And so they sought to curb the excesses of democracy through representation, separation of powers, checks and balances, and the protection of individual rights.

The Afghan refugee crisis has rapidly increased the pace of change in refugee resettlement in the United States. Last month the Biden Administration announced a new program, in partnership with the Community Sponsorship Hub (CSH), a project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisers, Inc., to launch the Sponsor Circle Program for Afghans. This program allows groups of private citizens to sponsor Afghan evacuees during the initial resettlement process.