It’s the American Way.

There’s a moment in the movie “Apocalypse Now” where the colonel played by Robert Duvall looks out over a burning battlefield and says wistfully “someday this war’s going to end.”

That’s how a lot of people feel after the 18 month contest our country and the candidates have run. It hasn’t always been ‘pretty’ or nice as both sides have run a hard fought campaign to the Presidency.

But it has been an ‘Amazing Race’, a historic election on so many fronts, with unconventional nominees and enough twists and turns to fill a feature film or a long running television show of the sorts of “The West Wing”.

Today was D-Day of sorts, and we now know the 44th president of the United States and after months of being in partisan mindsets we need to begin transitioning back to thinking about, yes, Country First.

If you care about the Country First, which all of us should, than the wounds left by even successful low-blows are troubling if they divide the country, dumb-down the debate, and appeal to our worst instincts? There is a reason that even amid a Civil War; Lincoln called on us to rediscover “the better angels of our nature.”

Our country, constitution & civilization are strong . . . our political opponents are not our enemies. At the end of the day . . . we are all Americans . . . and to face the future with strength, we need to remember that what divides us is far smaller than what unites us. Now that the voting has ‘officially’ ended (yes Alaskans finished up at our polling places “after” the results were announced on national television) and the counting continues, let’s all take a deep breath. Because soon we’ll all need to start healing the wounds left by this election and unite the nation around the next president.

I’m struck by several things this cold dark night under a clear Alaskan sky. One is with this election that an irony has played out before our eyes . . . that there will probably never be a Vietnam era elected President and that a post Civil Rights baby boomer will be.

We elect a new president every four years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Congress set this date and it has been held this way for decades.

We have a process . . . we have a peaceful process. This is something that many nations still strive to achieve.

Regardless if you are a Democrat or Republican . . . black or white . . . Rich or poor . . . we all get to vote. I take comfort in that fact.

Some people say that it’s a waste of time to vote. Some will tell you that there is no honesty left in politics. I don’t know all the answers but here is why I vote.

I vote because when we elect a new President or Congress it’s peaceful, even during wars and uncertain economic times. In the 232 years as a nation and in the 43 times a man has taken the oath of office never has there been a tank in the street or an attempted overthrow of our government.

I vote because Franklin D. Roosevelt said:

“Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.”

My candidate didn’t win . . . but I am behind my President!

It’s the American Way.

Ice