After the Election: Picking Up the Pieces

I am one of the least political people around.  I have my tendancies to lean one way but I generally vote for the person not just the straight ticket.  It looks like it is going to be a long night on the 6th of November.  Hopefully the absentee ballots will arrive and be counted.  I am hopeful that it is a clear victory for one or the other candidate.  We do not need another contensious and drawn out episode like when Al Gore ran against W.

People at the middle and the bottom have been impacted by the economic problems of the past four or more years.  I truly believe that the actions taken by Obama was done in what he considered the best interest of our country.  If he had not taken those actions Romney and his team would have found fault with whatever he did do.  That is just the unfortunate side of politics and running for president.   Were mistakes made?  Probably.  Would McCain have done things differently?  We will never know.

The bottom line is that we are a great nation that is reeling from the economic beating we have taken.  Whoever gets the office is going to have to make some very severe cuts to a lot of programs.  A lot of us will be affected and we will just have to suck it up.  It is time for us to quit looking at ourselves as Democrats, Republicans or whatever.  It is time for us to realize we are all Americans and we can work together.  We can find common ground.  We will have to compromise.  That is the only thing that will save us from a total meltdown.  We have been eating high on the hog for decades and we must realize we will have to use a term that has been demonized lately, austerity.  It is not a swear word but people don't want to see any belt-tightening.  As a country we have had to deal with a horrendous civil war and World War II and have always come together as a nation and moved on.  We can fix our problems if we work together.  Our representatives need to work together to get us moving again.  If they don't we should vote out the whole lot.

Remember the words of Abraham Lincoln, "a house divided cannot stand".  We need to come together and stand together to get through this rough patch.  This is America and it is the best place to live in the entire world.  Let's help keep it that way.

Michael Kaynard is a local photographer who lives in West Ashley.  His photos can be seen at http://kaynardphotography.webs.com.  He can be reached at mkaynard@gmail.com or 412-2299.