Estimates of the total spent on the election we all just survived hover around $6 billion.  No, that “B” is not a typo.  

How many transit systems could be modernized with that money?  How many more cancer research studies could be funded?  Or, perhaps more on point for some, how much could the nation’s deficit have dropped?  For those who funded SuperPACs hoping to influence the way this country works, isn’t there some sort of direct funding option?  And maybe that direct funding has the benefit of being a bit less divisive and perhaps even actually creates jobs instead of talking about doing so?  

In raising the questions above, I am joining the finger-pointing fray and so I take myself to task.  In the words of a very smart friend, “It’s time to move forward.”  Chapel Hill resident Vicki Threlfall was not parroting slogans when she said that, as she continued to say it’s time to “focus on improving- not winning.”  

She’s right, Congress.  She’s right, State Legislature.  No more gamesmanship and no more brinksmanship.  No more late night votes, no more digging in and being unwilling to negotiate.  It’s time to do the job you were elected to do:  work for the betterment of this state and this country.  

It’s time to get out of some schoolyard mentality and stop the bullying.  Americans are united by the fact of our differences.  To the man driving in front of me the other day whose bumper proclaimed the need to “Defend Freedom” by “Defeating Obama”,  there are other car tushes out these asking for different freedoms to be protected that I’m guessing you do not countenance.  Aren’t we all entitled to ask for freedoms?  Isn’t that what joins us?  

Let’s go beyond the need to work together; elected leaders should respect the differences between them.  Is it a question of faith?  It’s deserving of respect?  Does someone highly value education?  That’s also deserving of respect.  No more sneering and belittling the values of others.  How is it that the baseline of behavior expected from most children isn’t required of our leaders?  It should be and we should demand it.  

Sadly, I feel a bit like Don Quixote writing this, tilting at windmills.  But if we don’t talk about how it should be and what we expect from the people to whom we give these jobs and – don’t forget- pay their salaries (and their fabulous healthcare plans), nothing will change.  

Also, I recently saw this, a map of what the country really looks like, with very few states being all red or all blue and I decided that purple is my new favorite color!

Please leave your suggestions below for how to incite civil discourse or write to me at Donnabeth@Chapelboro.com.

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