My kids have had to endure many a sermon on election day about never taking for granted the privilege of voting.  While my heart has been heartened and crushed during elections, there is something about this act that speaks to even my most cynical of political convictions.  It is akin to the feelings I had as a third grader who was on the team that raised and lowered the flag at school each day.  Amid scandals, incessant polling, an out of control pundit verbosity and some campaigning behavior on the part of many that makes me wince, I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in this process.

I am also grateful on this day for the many voices in our nation, from differing parties, calling for a renewed sense of respect and common cause among all of us.  In the past I have described a set of debates that made Lincoln/Douglas, Kennedy/Nixon and all recent debates pale in comparison.  They were the famous Behnke/Donatelli debates.  Well, famous in my eyes. 

Arthur Behnke, my mother's father, a proud union card carrying (his union pin was on the lapel of his burial suit) typesetter, and Henry Donatelli, my father, a proud 'white collar' businessman.  They could argue for hours: "Hank, business doesn't give a damn about the little man; if not for the unions, we would be...."  "Oh, hell, Art, it is the businesses who create markets and sell..."  It could peel the paint off the wall.  And then, as if they both possessed an internal clock (perhaps it was the gaze of my mother and grandmother), they would stop, get out the playing cards- bridge, pinochle, cribbage- and begin to have a cocktail and laugh and talk away into the early morning hours.  They had VERY different ideas of how the country should work, and yet both understood they possessed a common cause: the welfare of all persons, having dignified work, raising your kids and sending them to good schools, having a sense of pride in your community and beyond.

There are many examples of this in our lives and throughout our government.  Tonight in just a few hours, we will begin to watch the tallies, begin to see which of our candidates will get to serve in their resepctive offices.  There will no doubt be some excitement and some sadness.  And we all have a common choice:  Will we walk away from here as one?  Will we get gehind whomever gets the differeing positions?  Will we chose to support and trust that all of us, regardless of political positions and affiliations, are hoping for the same things?

Respect, dignity, honor, serving each other: the things we learned at an early age, and things that still come only through our choosing to uphold them.

Todd Donatelli