One positive and promising sign that I took from last night's presidential election is that during Mitt Romney's concession speech no one from his audience booed when President Obama's name was mentioned. That is a far cry from what happened in 2008. And when Obama said in his speech that he wants to meet with Romney to discuss how they can work together, his audience applauded.
I understand that we won't be joining hands and singing kumbaya. I know that the uber-partisans will do all they can to block and prevent bipartisan solutions. I realize the monied interests will just dust themselves off and continue to attempt to influence the agenda. And I understand there will be those who out of self-interest will continue to stoke the fires of our differences to blind us from our commonality.
But as for me, I want to use the results of this election as an opportunity to start anew. I'm willing to wipe the slate clean. Moving forward, I know that there will be heated debates on a variety of issues, but I'm hoping that we can turn down the levels of animosity and disrespect so that we can work together to address the many challenges that we face as a nation.