Where Do We Go From Here?

It is not easy to lose an election.  But as Joe Biden pointed out last night, the time has come for us to remember that while we may oppose each other's point of view, we are not enemies.  We are all Americans.  The time has come for us to abandon the vitriol and figure out a way to move our country forward to meet the challenges and solve the problems of a complex society that has pressing issues to resolve....climate change, income inequality, systemic racism, medical inequality, and most urgently, an out of control pandemic that is growing stronger and literally killing our citizens, no matter what party they belong to.

 

I appeal to all my Republican friends with whom I have locked horns over the years.  As reality sets in with the winning of the election by Biden, I am confident all of us yearn for a new beginning.  Our democracy works...even when we all think it will fail us!  We are counting every vote, and contrary to all the accusations of fraud and illegality, there has been no mass illegality committed.  No one has created boatloads of fake ballots and no examples of harvesting have been presented.  Trump's accusations are baseless, and all his legal obfuscations are being rejected.  

 

Instead, I am filled with a relief that is unexpected and surprisingly palpable.   I didn't realize how

burdened I was with the seemingly endless daily need to endure the tweets, the chaos, the division.  As the people celebrated in the streets, I felt the lifting away of the oppressive anxiety that was always under the surface.  As I watched the faces of the young children in the crowds today with their wide eyes taking it all in, I was grateful that this new generation of Americans would have a different role model; a much gentler, empathic image on their TV screens, and a lightheartedness in the spirits of their parents.  

 

What has become apparent to me during the past 6 months is that the sacred nature of our ability to make our voices heard and for us to choose our leaders is at the heart of our democracy.  No one person is our 'ruler and maker of rules'.  We elect our leaders.  And to put a fine point on that, we are the ultimate authority about who governs all of us....  We the people.  That is what has been demonstrated over the last week.  At some fundamentally unconscious level we ALL realize that it is that principal which is the ONLY thing that truly separates us from the autocracies and dictatorships of the world.  Our founders brilliantly enshrined this bedrock idea of our republic, which too many of us have taken for granted. If we ever deny or reject that principle, then we will be truly lost.

 

The vote of all the people over the last week has demonstrated that our voice can be heard.  A majority of us have decided to seek change...to choose a different path than the one we have been on for the past 5 years.  However, we must accept the fact that half of us don't want that change.  So we must seek accommodation and compromise between our opposing points of view in the interests of all of us.  We are not enemies, as much as some would seek to maintain that myth in our politics.  We are all Americans.

 

The time for reconciliation is here.  Joe Biden said last night that he will be the President of all of us, not just those who voted for him.  Why not believe him, or at least give him a chance to demonstrate that he is a man of his word?  We can be better, and we must be better.  The moment to grasp that new possibility is here.  I am ready to join hands with sincere people who hold the best interests of our country at heart.  We are all Americans, citizens of perhaps the most successful experiment at self-government the world has ever seen.  We need to believe in ourselves and find common ground with our fellow citizens to make our lives better.

 

I am willing to do my part to practice a new civility....are you?