With the end of a harsh campaign season, the USA has finally voted. Though the president won comfortably, this country is still divided, with some Americans feeling hopeful again while others are afraid for the future. If the vote went the other way, there would be the same split of emotion with merely a flip of who felt what.
What I find sad is how close to the edge Americans now stand, staring at each other across a chasm of our own making, trying to tug some invisible knot over to our side. If we care about our country, we will drop that knotted rope and extent our hands.
Neither side is stronger. Neither side is ‘right’. Both sides have value to add to the discussion. Both sides simply need to listen – and act – for the betterment of the country, not a party, an ideal or an agenda.
It starts with each of us and ends with the demands we make on 
our representatives – and on the motive behind our demands. Insist on compromise, not on stagnation, and this country’s focus will soon go back to being of the people, for the people and by the people.
And ‘the people’ is everyone of us. We all bear blame. We all bear responsibility. We all bear the brunt of dysfunction. It’s time to demand better from all. For all.
I agree it rests on everyone’s shoulders to make this work.
It’s a shame that people,and I’m including politicians here, have lost sight of what’s important. I see too much “what’s in it for me” when really the it’s the country as a whole that matters. I keep thinking of what JF Kennedy said ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.
Exactly, Donna. It can’t be about each of us individually but about ‘the village’ that is all of us.