OT For all of my friends.

On Wednesday I received a forward from someone entitled "Dear Red States..." It was something of a sendup based on the relative resources of various states vs recent election returns. Here is a response I wrote to it. Perhaps you'll find something worthwhile in it:

Two days ago, I would have been hitting the forward button with glee, passing this on to all my friends of the opposite persuasion. After all, I've been putting up with the partisan, spitesmanship, red/blue, black/white, typical liberal, typical neocon, hate mongering that has divided this country for far too long. Right up until about 12:20 AM on the 5th, that is.

What happened then? I came across John McCain delivering his concession speech. I'd had no use for him or virtually any other republican for the past twenty years, and I certainly saw him as the anti-christ for the last twenty weeks. But this was different. If he had given this speech anytime within the last three weeks, the election might have been closer. I don't believe the outcome would have been any different, but it would have been closer.

As he spoke, I could feel my disdain for the opposition melt away. As he implored all of his supporters, and all of America, for that matter, to come together as Americans and work to make this country what it always should be, notions of red this and blue that honestly disappeared. I knew at that moment there would be no gloat emails, no "na-na, na-na-na" phone calls, no zingers over coffee from me. I'd heard the call for unity, and I accepted.

About an hour or so later I watched Obama's speech and I was electrified. I literally felt chills as I listened. His message was much the same--all for one/one for all, Americans for America. There was no red, no blue--no black, no white--no liberal, no conservative. It was about America and Americans. My path was clearer than ever before. I knew what I had to do.

My very first self assigned mission is to respond to this email. Almost none of you knows me. It doesn't matter. I'm not lecturing, I'm not condescending, I'm not reprimanding. All I'm asking is to stop and think what this historic election means--in its entirety. Sure, there's the obvious and I've already seen some significant insight into it by one of my daughter's friends. That's given me more hope for our country than I ever thought I would feel-- certainly not in the last eight years.

But what's really important to me is the opportunity to bury the hatchet--the symbolic hatchet that one side or the other has been using on each other the last twenty years. I'm sick of it and I'm sick of the implications it bears-- that I'm unamerican, or that I'm immoral, or that I lack ethics or judgement because of my ideology. I have been absolutely sure all along that I wasn't deficient in any of those departments. But two speeches in the middle of the night made me understand that no matter how "wrong" I might think my friend might be about an issue, they are still an American, they are still moral, and they are still ethical, and exercise good judgement (usually, including me). It's time for me to stop painting with those wide sweeps, and it's time for my friends to stop, too--even if we haven't met yet.

So, as amusing and apropos as I might have found the original post a couple of days ago, can I ask each of you to consider taking another look at the folks on your email list? Do they really deserve to be labelled red or blue, black or white, liberal or conservative? Don't they deserve to be Americans first. Don't we all deserve that? Didn't all of us earn that when we exercised our franchise Tuesday, regardless of which lever we pulled?

To me, the hope of America lies in the answer to the question, is "Dear Red States" really a message worth sending? If I, who's carried grudges longer than some of you have been alive, can forgive twenty years of acrimonious political insult, so can you. Let's move on to constructive activism. There is plenty of work to be done.

Reply to
LRod
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My reaction to Sen. McCain's concession speech was much the same - and my impression was that John McCain under pressure was a very different person from John McCain /not/ under pressure.

It was just my impression, and I'd guess that only those who associate with him fairly closely would know whether my impression was accurate or not. If the impression was correct, then I think both he and I (and perhaps all of us) are better off the way things worked out.

As he turned away from the microphone and left the stage, I had two other impressions - first that the man was undiminished in failing to win this contest, and second that there was less distance and more warmth between John and Cindy than I had seen at any time during the campaign. I found it impossible not to wish them well.

Reply to
Morris Dovey

Wednesday morning they went to Starbuck's for coffee, no Secret Service, no Press ect. All by themselves.

Mark

Reply to
Markem

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