Upcoming year holds potential for progress on big problems

In Congress, a Republican-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate may carry both gridlock or bipartisanship. We hope for the latter and urge our congressional members to be a part of discovering areas of settlement.

For instance, immigration is among the longest-pending challenges going through Congress. The Dream Act has been pending since 2001, the older of the youths initially affected now of their mid-30s.

The undocumented inhabitants is getting old. The Pew Research Center finds that a minimum of 66% of undocumented individuals have lived within the U.S. for greater than a decade. That means they haven’t come into contact with regulation enforcement and are possible working.

The U.S. can safe the border and deal with the outdated insurance policies retaining individuals from getting into and changing into authorized residents. Our nation has a workforce scarcity in almost each business. We can discover options that may make our nation stronger and extra affluent.

Other points are primed for attending to widespread floor.

Health care is an ever-evolving want, significantly with rising prescription prices and personal insurers persevering with to boost deductibles, co-payments and different charges. Climate change has created chaotic and excessive climate. We want extra advances in science and expertise.

Our nation have to be vigilant on the world stage, stopping the unfold of tyranny from such locations as Russia and North Korea.

In Oklahoma, the political make-up of a Republican supermajority management of the Legislature and a Republican holding each state workplace must create ahead motion.

But proper now, greater than one in five Oklahoma youngsters go hungry. Nearly 18 out of 100,000 Oklahoma teenagers age 15-19 die by suicide, exceeding the nationwide common and changing into worse. The state is No. 4 in teen births.

Public faculties within the state added 2,600 more students this year, educating a minimum of 90% of Oklahoma’s youngsters. Yet raises haven’t been offered for trainer pay since 2019, and per-pupil expenditures rank forty sixth nationally. Lower-than-average outcomes replicate the low investments made.

Oklahoma ranks within the prime three states for jail incarceration, led by the intakes from rural areas. Marijuana regulation must be strengthened to rid the state of felony enterprises.

Oklahoma ranks No. 2 within the nation within the variety of ladies killed by males — normally intimate companions. Tulsa County has the second-highest home violence charge within the state.

State leaders would finest serve Oklahoma by avoiding wedge points and cultural rhetoric and focus on these fundamental wants. Now is the time for options.

Tulsa officers face a bunch of points, however housing and homelessness is reaching a disaster. Mayor G.T. Bynum has set a course for correction, which incorporates growing the inventory of accessible housing for lower- to moderate-income residents.

That doesn’t imply letting off momentum in areas of constructing belief with regulation enforcement, enhancing animal welfare, rising companies, supporting public schooling, and tackling social points akin to starvation and little one abuse.

Going into 2023, we’re optimistic that folks of various ideas can work collectively on big problems. Digging right into a place hasn’t produced prosperity. This is the year to be completely different, to be daring and to be higher.