Editor’s note: Today is the general election in the U.S. Tell us how you voted!
Go vote.
Not because it is your civic duty, but because you love this country and everything it stands for, including the right to vote.
Vote your conscience, and not because you love your guy or you hate the other guy.
Vote because there are few countries that allow the level of discourse we’ve seen and heard in the past year.
Vote because you are an American.
If you have already voted, congratulations! Your act reaffirms what is good about the “great experiment” in political history, going on now for more than 236 years. Like any experience, it’s filled with ups, downs, triumphs and tragedies.
Unlike other societies, we have not had a military coup or one-party rule. We’ve not had a dictator or a ruling party that uses violence to quell dissent.
We may be 50 states, one district, and 14 territories spread across the world, but we are, by definition, Americans.
We tolerate and sometimes even celebrate diversity in all of its shapes, ways and forms.
We speak our minds when we disagree, sometimes inappropriately. When we do, we can count on someone calling it out on the carpet.
And there’s nothing I love better than doing the job I do in this great nation of ours. It provides great comfort to know that today, like every other day of the year, some of you will be responding to requests for emergency care and doing so in a professional and compassionate way.
Tomorrow will be the day for pundits and newshounds to pick apart the results of all issues local and national, but we’ll still be there to serve our community.
