While I was immobile at the doctor’s office for a few hours this morning, I met someone.  He was an older gentleman, who had retired from one of the local utilities after almost 40 years.  He was in the union while he worked there, but he is also a small business owner and entrepreneur.  He and I talked about kids, fishing, hunting, and just basically shot the bull for a couple of hours.  He, his wife, and I pretty much seemed to agree on most everyday things, such as raising children, the stupidity of criminals, and how hard things can be if you don’t prepare and work hard.

Only in the last 20 minutes or so did the subject of politics come up.  He seemed to be a mirror of myself coming from the left side of the political spectrum.  He tended to support Democratic candidates, but also spoke highly of one of our former Congresswomen, who happens to be a Republican.  He openly criticized some of what Obama had done, but said that he still preferred Obama over Romney.  Even when he explained why he doesn’t care for Romney and our local Republican politicians, he didn’t make it personal or venomous.

If only more people on both sides of the aisle could act the same way. 

In 48 hours, half of the American electorate is going to be pissed.  You can’t have as much of a divided population as we do and not expect a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth after a political loss.  But we have to remember that no matter who is President, we are all Americans.  We all deserve the respect that title brings with it.  Yes, there are knuckleheads on both sides of the political divide, and they have been particularly shrill this time around, but calls for either rioting or revolution after the last ballot is counted discredits us all.  We will always disagree, and the pendulum of politics will swing first one way, then the other, but we ought to remember that winning or losing with class and respect makes things work better than shrieking at the gods when we lose or rubbing a victory in our opponents’ collective noses.  Our system isn’t perfect, but it works so long as the winners keep the celebration down to a dull roar and the losers don’t try to get with the gun and the mob what they couldn’t get with the ballot and the speech.

 My new friend happens to be an American of African descent, a Democrat, and an Obama supporter.  However, he and I were able to have a rational discussion about life, politics, and the points we disagreed on with respect and laughter.  That is exactly what we need in the next few days and weeks, to celebrate those things we agree on, and to agree to respectfully disagree on those things we don’t.  I’m not perfect on this, but I’m trying.  I hope that more people than just me will try too.