Post-Election Thoughts

 As of today, there will apparently be a new administration occupying the White House for the next four years. This post is not to celebrate, or denigrate, what the nation's voters have decided. If you are hoping for someone to validate your political position, this is not the place. 

For the entirety of my adult life I have chosen to be as ambiguous as possible regarding political leanings. For someone who studied journalism, and decided early in life to make broadcasting a career, I felt it served no purpose to advertise political preferences. Obviously, some in the broadcasting business, over the last number of years, have made a lot of money doing just that. Perhaps my choice was a bad one. But I have always felt that any broadcaster worth their salt should do his or her level best to respect all of the audience by presenting both sides of any issue. That is the ground I chose to stand on. And it has served me well. 

I am not a young man anymore. I have seen politics take on many different colors going back to my earliest exposure to it in the 1960 presidential race between Kennedy and Nixon. Through the tumultuous 60's, and on to today I have experienced many elections and gone back and forth from party to party for most of them. You might say that makes me wishy-washy, or milquetoast. Perhaps that's true. I choose to think of it as being able to make the right decision at the right time...unclouded by ideology or political positioning handed to me by my parents...my friends...or anyone else. 

With this election effectively in the rear-view mirror, I have seen many of my friends on social media...because that is the town hall of today...espouse many crazy notions in an effort to prove their thinking is correct, and their candidate the chosen one. I have been amused by most of it...and also disgusted at the length to which some will go to make a point. Anyone who thinks they might fit into the latter category, please give special attention to the next paragraph. 

If you have viewed this election through blue or red-colored glasses and not given any regard to someone who may be on the other side of the fence, I urge you to come back to the middle of the playing field. I am not sure who first put out this thought...but it's one of my favorites. The most intelligent among us possess the urge to challenge what they know to be true. 

With that thought in mind, I would urge everyone to give more than an ounce of thought to adding other colors to the way you view the world. Our nation is made up of many different ethnicities, lifestyles, income levels, needs, wants, and situations. Living in the United States...and just being called a U.S. citizen...is a wonderful gift to any human. Any one of us could have been born into poverty, unhealthy surroundings, political or social oppression, in another less-free country. We are all fortunate to be able to espouse our political thoughts, and support them vigorously, without being put in jail or executed as might be the case in another country.

My sincere hope is that we all will be able to come together to beat the virus, return to our previous lives, enjoy the company of our friends and family up close, and be a nation less-divided in the coming months and years. I want that for my family of today and years to come. But that will require all of us to challenge, however small the effort, what we know to be true.