Disappointed... Happy... for better or worse the elections were yesterday... Time to congratulate the winners, console the losers and start working for a better tomorrow.
I graduated from college in 2001 and before graduation I was already working for a State Assembly member. That was the year that 9/11 happened… it seems to me that we have become more divided in our views, more charged in our political attacks, more unwilling to work with each other from that point on. We were on the same page for a few years, a unified front but soon that unity faded.
I am not saying we all have to agree. Anyone that knows me or has read any of my past posts knows I have pretty strong opinions. Discourse is important because it helps us arrive to better solutions, but there in lies the crux we need to arrive at solutions. They are not all going to be perfect… I don’t think any of us have all the answers but we have to work towards some sort of progress. I myself have to heed my own advice.
Two more things. Politicians are not saints, and I don’t expect them to be. They have to be negotiators, fighters, smart, and aggressive. If we had a bunch of “Tibetan” Monks running the place I am not sure any hard decisions would ever be made. There are no right answers in many cases just different approaches. The second point is that we have to be patient enough to let these approaches bear fruit. I may not like the results of the election but throwing up road blocks to ensure the other side fails is not going to get us anywhere…
