After the votes are counted, how will we treat one another?

Election Day has come and gone. The results are in. We know who won and lost.  

Now, what will we do? How will we react?  

Some will celebrate what's to come. Some will lament the days ahead. 

Will we be smug in victory, bitter in defeat?  

Will the outcomes create more division?  

Or, perhaps, hopefully, a recognition that we need to work together. There are certainly common goals our political parties can and do share. Don't we all want affordable housing, healthcare, and education? Don't we all want jobs that pay well, water that is clean, bridges that stand strong, electricity that is affordable, and gas that is cheap? And can we agree that no one likes to see their property taxes go up every year? 

We will always have things that divide us like religion, abortion, and immigration. But as we have often said, we can respectfully disagree while finding commonalities that allow us to be courteous to each other, at least, rather than enemies. We're not saying we can all be friends, but we can be kind. 

After all, it was Jesus Christ who said, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” 

Imagine if this country took those simple words to heart. Love your enemy. Pray for those who oppose you. What a difference that might make. Just guessing, but if we took a poll, we're guessing there are few in the country who could say they love their enemy or even bother to pray for them. 

These days, it seems we are so strongly opposed to those who disagree with us, so strongly do we want to win, that we forget how important it is to be unified toward those goals we share. 

Here are a few quotes we hope that might inspire us toward unity, rather than division: 

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." — Helen Keller 

"We rise by lifting others." — Robert Ingersoll 

"It is amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares who gets the credit." — Harry Truman 

"There is unity in diversity, there is diversity in unity." — Henry Tullidge 

So, whether you supported or opposed Prop 1, whether you voted yes or no on the Coeur d'Alene school levy, or whether you didn't vote at all, we hope that in the days ahead you will accept the results and look for ways to better understand those who share this community with you.

Because now that the campaigns are over, the signs will come down. The ads will stop. But we will still be neighbors. We will still shop in the same stores, attend the same churches, cheer for the same teams, and send our children to the same schools. We will still run into each other on Tubbs Hill.

If there is one lesson worth carrying forward from this election, it is that democracy is not just about winning and losing. It is about living together afterward.

The real test is whether we choose respect over resentment, understanding over anger, and unity over division.

America doesn't need more enemies. It needs more neighbors. And that is something we can help build.