Unity Of Purpose

I’m going to deviate from my standard post topics tonight and I hope you’ll bear with me for a few moments, because I feel what I have to say is important.

Tomorrow is Election Day, and there are only two things that you absolutely have to do; the first is to vote, you have to vote. People have sacrificed a great deal, including their lives, so that you and I can live in a free society and exercise our right to vote for the candidate of our choice.

The second thing you have to do is to make the choice to stand behind whoever gets elected.

Why? You ask. I can hear you now; “Over my dead body, I can’t stand that other guy. I can’t stand his policies or his personal beliefs, and I’ll never acknowledge him as my President.”

The answer is simple, we’re in a dark place right now, and no politician or party can pull us out of that dark place without our help. Unity of purpose is the only way we’ll ever get this country back on track again. One nation, indivisible, that’s how we bill ourselves, and it’s what allows us to be great. Many hands working for a single purpose, that’s how things get done.

Right now, we’re a nation divided, but we shouldn’t be. The people on the other side of the political fence from you are not your enemy. They’re not crazy, and they’re not deranged, they’re just your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers, good Americans all, they’re just not all on the same wavelength as you, and you know what? That’s how it’s supposed to be.

If everyone was the same, thought the same, acted the same, there’d be no progress. It’s only through our exposure to others who think differently that we learn, and that helps us to make informed, intelligent decisions. Freedom of thought and speech form the bedrock of this great country. My opinion, or yours, or our party’s, is never the be all and end all. There’s always room to build and grow, none of us are perfect, and it’s how our forefathers intended it to be.

If you’re afraid that we’re going down the wrong path if one party or the other comes to power, fear not. The checks and balances that are built into our political system ensure that no one person, or party, can take us too far off track. You can start to work immediately after this election cycle to make sure the person or party of your choice makes it into office in the next cycle, but you are undeniably obligated to try to make things work in the meantime.

I look at it like this; say you work for a company that has profit sharing, and you get a new boss who you disagree with. Do you stop performing because you’re unhappy, or because you don’t like the direction the company is headed in? Of course not, because you’d be cutting off your nose to spite your face. You wouldn’t stop working, and you wouldn’t publicly talk smack about your boss, or your company, because it would hurt the company’s public image, and that would hurt your earnings.

That’s what’s going on right now, people are intractable in their beliefs and refuse to see the higher ground. They refuse to see the benefits, no, the absolute necessity, of cooperation, of unity of purpose.

Yes, there are a plethora of things wrong, and yes, change is slow and painful, but change can only be achieved if each and every one of us rolls up our sleeves and contributes, so tomorrow I ask you to vote, and to promise you’ll work with those crazies on the other side so we can get things back on track. It’s your solemn obligation as an American, and the only way you can ensure that this great nation carries on.

That is all.