Patience, compassion needed in wake of election

The roller coaster ride of the 2020 presidential election wasn’t over, and wasn’t really nearing the finish line, by the time we put pen to paper for this editorial on Friday morning.

There were a lot of reports from the still counting states of maybe we’ve got it, but it’s so close, we probably won’t be able to say for days.

Maybe it’s fitting that a year so unusual as 2020 brings us such an unusual presidential election.

Emotions were high before we went into the voting booths Tuesday and being on the razor’s edge for days since hasn’t helped.

A common phrase since the pandemic struck has been, “We’re all in this together.”

It doesn’t seem like that’s something we could forget, given that we’re called the United States of America.

Both highlight the importance of the strength we have when we work together.

Sometime this weekend, or next week or in the coming weeks, all of the votes will be tallied. The courts will have held court. Decisions will be made, and a winner will be announced.

While we wait, maybe it’s a good time to reflect on what our next step will be.

Not as a country, but individually.

If our candidate — be it Trump or Biden — wins, are we going to rub that victory in the face of the friends and neighbors who were on the “other side?”

Is that momentary satisfaction going to help “unite” us or divide us?

We understand there are important differences in the beliefs of the two candidates and the steps they will take in running the country.

But alienating people in our community, people in our neighborhoods or workplaces, people we need to see and get along with on a daily basis, doesn’t change what is happening at a national level.

All it does is weaken our ability to make our hometowns better and stronger.

If you’ve followed presidential elections at all over the last 40 or 50 years, you can remember people saying this or that candidate will ruin America, as we know it. It will never be the same.

Guess what? That didn’t happen. Sure, new presidents had to clean up a few messes along the way but our country continued to move forward and be a beacon for the rest of the word.

We are a great nation because of our willingness to work together and put our differences aside following elections.

So we ask for patience in the coming days, and we ask for compassion.