I hope that driving on the newly repaved sections of Interstate 95 — without paying tolls — will be a reminder to everyone of how well-maintained infrastructure (highways, bridges, water and sewer lines) make life for all of us more comfortable as well as safer. The U.S. is seriously behind in maintaining and upgrading its infrastructure, much of which was built in the decades after World War II.

For the last 20 years we have been starving our public sector by cutting taxes to the point where we now worry about not having enough money even to pay our police, firefighters and teachers. Major public works on the scale of those America undertook in the 1950s and '60s seem out of the question.

We cannot get infrastructure maintenance or improvements by cutting taxes and leaving everything to the private sector, as some politicians would have us believe. Adequate funding of federal, state and local governments — even if that means higher taxes — is the only way our communities can meet these real and urgent needs. It's time we all did our share to maintain and improve our country.

Sam Bleicher