The federal government has been getting a lot of much-deserved criticism and condemnation for its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

I want to set that aside for a moment and offer a good word to the feds for something it did correctly: the census.

We received a mailing from the Census Bureau the other day. I opened it and saw some instructions on filling out the census form online. I followed the instructions, completed the form and then submitted it electronically to the agency in Washington in charge of counting every U.S. resident.

Boom! Done!

I have to say that this year’s census-taking is a lesson in one of the things government can do well for us.

Moreover, I want to say that I appreciated the fact that none of the questions we answered had anything to do with whether we are citizens, that we are Americans.

You might recall the hubbub that erupted when the Trump administration considered whether to add the citizenship question to the census form. The U.S. Constitution stipulates that the government should count all U.S. residents every decade; there is no requirement that we must identify ourselves as citizens.

The census form has been completed. It was easy as it could possibly get. It was clearly worded, concise and direct.

My wife and I are now counted as among the 300 million-plus residents of this still and always great nation.

Thanks, feds, for making it such a simple process.