“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union….”
Our founding fathers got one very important detail right over two hundred years ago and that was the first three words of the preamble to the United States Constitution. We the people. These past few days, I have been incredibly proud to be a United States’ citizen and I’m very proud of my fellow citizens. I got my ultimate wish for this election and that wish was that we would have more people vote in this election than ever before. It was not the highest percentage of eligible voters, but it was the highest number of people. I was not disappointed. The historic turn out of voters gave me hope for our country.
We the people did not stay silent, we spoke, and then we waited patiently.
With the deep divide between us, enflamed by pain, anger and fear, our cities braced for pandemonium during election day. We held our breaths, waiting for the wide-spread rioting and protesting that shook this country only a few months ago. It did not come. We the people had a say and then we watched our democracy in action, allowing it the space it needed.
My facebook feed indicates that we are still a deeply divided country. Our vote count indicates that we are deeply divided. Yet this week, regardless of party affiliation, we came together in unity to exercise the single most important part of our government process. We came together and voted. We had a say in who we want to speak on our behalf in the House and the Senate and we had a say in who we wanted to speak on our behalf to the world as President.
For many of us, there is relief. There is a feeling that change is in the air, that hope has returned. For many of us, there is fear. A worry that our voices will be quashed under small acts which slowly take away our freedoms. We must all learn to listen to one another and understand these different feelings.
Listening doesn’t mean agreeing. It doesn’t mean that one person will win while another loses. It means caring about one another enough to understand we all have fears, even if we may not understand ourselves what those fears within us are.
Fear can only rule when we let it. As long as we the people have a say in our government through the power of voting, we have the power to dispel those fears regarding our rules and laws.
We came together as a nation and voted this week. We did it with minimal chaos. We accomplished it with patience. We all spent this past week filled with hope that with that universal step in voting, our nation can come together in an important way and united with the common purpose to close the divide that has pulled the seams apart on our nation. With our votes and our faith in our democratic process, we fought to keep our relationship together rather than give up on it.
Moving forward, we must remember that democracy doesn’t work when we the people stand by and stay silent. Democracy works when we the people speak out. We can accomplish this by engaging in our local communities as volunteers in the government process. We can make a decision to run for office ourselves. We can write to those elected officials and voice our concerns on issues that affect us. We can testify at our city and state meetings for or against bills we believe deserve our attention.
We can listen to one another with compassion.
We the people have the power.
