Patriotism and Love

Tomorrow we go to the polls and cast our ballots during the most divisive political climate of my lifetime. I have strong feelings about who should be elected as I hope you do, too. The people in charge of our government are important, and everyone should analyze the issues and decide what's best for our country and VOTE.

This isn't a political blog post, though. This is a post about patriotism and love. Some of us are going to be heartbroken when this is all over. Some of us are going to be angry. Some of us are going to be disillusioned. And, while all of these emotions are valid, here is my cautionary advice:

We must support the word of the people. Then if we think the system could be better, we must work together to change it. We must be willing to compromise to solve our problems. We must put love of country above politics. We must remember that democracy is messy and scary and mean sometimes, but when it comes down to it, it's the best system in the world.

I don't know where you stand on the issues or the candidates, and I wouldn't hold that against you if I did. What I will hold against you, though, is refusing to come together and work together once the people have spoken. We are all in this together, and we will have only ourselves to blame if we don't walk away from the "us and them" mentality of the election and move towards the middle to "we."

If we all love our country, and I think we do, then we better learn to love our fellow Americans, even those we adamantly disagree with.