The morning after: Time to work together

The morning after Election Day finds our country bitterly divided.

It finds us reeling from a dramatic end to an unprecedented campaign that never seemed to stop forcing us to recalibrate the depths to which our candidates and their supporters could sink in pursuit of political power.

It finds us reflecting on the fact that there truly are no limits to those depths but for those that we choose to impose upon them.

It is a stark reminder that today is not the end of our nation's struggles. It is a new beginning.

Today, we must embrace that beginning. We must each in our own way recommit ourselves to the principles that have made our country a beacon of freedom and tolerance throughout the world.

Elections are rife with the language and imagery of war. Candidates campaign, they battle, they fight, and some emerge victorious. But what must follow is governance. It is leadership. It is charting a new path forward.

Ours is a nation of ideas. Its governance is not, and should not be, about battle, but about exploration. We are not enemies. We are one nation. Indivisible. So long as we choose to be so - as we must continue to do.

We must continue to speak our minds and stay engaged in a political process that can seem daunting and far removed from daily living.

We must find a way to address the anxieties and heal the rifts that were brought into such stark relief over the past tumultuous months.

We must respect and recognize our differences, working together to design our common future.

Because that clear-eyed fearless dialogue is what has brought us greatness in the past; it is the blueprint for our greatness in our future.

Indivisible.

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