Your June 4 editorial “Beacon Hill leaders stifle debate among legislators” should be a wake-up call to the citizens of Massachusetts. The concentration of power in the offices of the House speaker and the Senate president has turned our state Legislature into twin dictatorships. The democracy that was bequeathed to us by our founders is long since gone, and virtually all decisions are handed down to the members by these two autocrats.

This didn’t happen overnight. It happened through the years, as the rules of each branch have been changed, adding to the power of the speaker and the Senate president while emasculating the rest of the members.