To the editor:

The adults have definitely left the room of late.

On one side we have a chief executive opining on a restaurant’s redesigned sign, having a large, Big Brotheresque image of himself displayed outside a government building, and going public with inane and frivolous comments.

On the other we have the governor of a large state hitting back with his own snarky AI-generated images and all-caps opinions on all sorts of topics in a steady stream that seems endless in its quantity and variety.

Is this how our elected leaders spend their time, rather than dealing with real, long-term issues and challenges facing our nation? It is hard to fathom, if social media existed, John F. Kennedy publicly going after his political nemesis Richard Nixon with sardonic quips about his hairstyle or the size of his hands or Nixon responding with jokes about Kennedy’s nasally Boston accent or love of the Red Sox.

Enough. To our elected officials: Leave the quips and humorous comments, to late-night comics and get back to the business, as ugly and frustrating as it is, of governing. Trust that our adversaries and our allies are both taking notes, and while they may not understand what is driving this trend, they do know it is not the way of those who govern. It is a dangerous and competitive world out there and it deserves your undivided attention. Your constituents deserve better. Our states and nation deserve better.

David Teska,

Lawrence