Seeking unity as Americans
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J. Michael Sharman
Published: November 10, 2008
The election has been over a week now, and my candidate for president lost.
So where do I go from here? What do I do?
Well, I follow the lead of John McCain and Sarah Palin and give honor where honor is due, salute my new president, and move forward into the next stage of serving God and country.
On the night of his loss, McCain continued to be a great servant-leader when he gave this concession speech to a ballroom full of dispirited supporters:
“Sen. Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for his country. I applaud him for it and offer my sincere sympathy that his beloved grandmother did not live to see this day — though our faith assures us she is at rest in the presence of her Creator and so very proud of the good man she helped raise.
“Sen. Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain. These are difficult times for our country, and I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.
“I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our goodwill and earnest effort to find ways to come together, to find the necessary compromises, to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.
“Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.
“It is natural tonight to feel some disappointment, but tomorrow we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again.”
On the day after the election, Sarah Palin also gave us a great example of patriotic graciousness in defeat: “This is a historic moment. Barack Obama has been elected president. Let him be able to kind of savor this moment and not let the pettiness of maybe internal workings of the campaign erode any of the recognition of this historic moment that we’re in. And God bless Barack Obama and his beautiful family and the new administration coming in. It is time that we all pulled together and worked together, and America’s going to reach her destiny”
When I was scanning the radio for post-election coverage, I caught part of a broadcast from Obama’s celebration at Grant Park, and the interviewer asked a black man in the crowd how the Obama victory was going to make a difference in his life. He said “We used to think there was nothing we could do. But now — now we see there’s nothing we can’t do!”
LeBron James was at Grant Park, too, and even though he is a basketball megastar, he also said that the main effect of Obama’s victory was that: “It was something that you can tell your kids, you really can become anything now. You don’t have to become a basketball player. You can become president of the United States.”
Even though there remains a deep and dangerous chasm between the goals stated by Obama and McCain, all McCain supporters can stand in unity on common ground with Obama’s supporters, rejoicing that there is no longer one category of possible goals for whites and another for persons of color.
The first stanza of the repeating theme in Martin Luther King’s 1963 speech was: “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”
The “one day” that Dr. King dreamed about has arrived.
J. Michael Sharman is an independent columnist who practices law in Culpeper. His column appears Tuesdays in the Star-Exponent.
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( Geriberi ) on November 16, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Exactly! The majority of the country does not want gay marriage - even California voted it down. But they will not give up until they have THEIR way, in spite of it being contrary to the wishes of the American majority. I’m so afraid (with very good reason) that this is just the first step in a long, long march against our Constitution and democracy - a march where every step is stomping on the rights of the average citizen. Keep up the good fight, OrdinaryWoman - I (and millions of others) are with you!
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Posted by ( OrdinaryWoman ) on November 16, 2008 at 10:47 am
So, so very true Geriberi!!
The very next thing they started was marches for gay rights. I checked their agenda, and they have plans for every major city coming up. What about the economy?? What about the jobs people need?? Why are they not prioritizing the needs of the country over theirs?
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Posted by ( Geriberi ) on November 15, 2008 at 9:44 am
Cudos to Sharman for being big enough to write this column. I personally am working daily on becoming willing to support our president-elect, and it ain’t easy. This is the difference between MOST of the liberals and conservatives I know - the conservatives truly do tend to try to put “country first,“ and the liberals tend to put “ego first,“ and love to hate conservatives. I don’t think we’d see a column like this from the other side if McCain had won - not on your life. And I don’t see much in the way of policy to support from Obama, but I do want to support the office of the President and quit giving the rest of the world ammo, as we’ve done for years with Bush. “Fake it til you make it,“ is a great tool people use to make changes in themselves for the better - I have a feeling this column in a step in that direction for Sharman. Honestly, everything in me was screaming “NO!“ while I read his plea for unity, but I’ll keep trying. What choice do we have - trash Obama continuously, as the liberals have done with Bush? I have too much respect for this country to do that, but it will be a pretty constant internal battle to avoid it.
I don’t understand why everyone can’t just thank Sharman for making this effort and move on. So typically, hatefully liberal - you’ll keep us divided if it kills us!
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Posted by ( OrdinaryWoman ) on November 13, 2008 at 1:02 pm
el debibble,
To answer your questions and many previous accusations that Mr. Sharman never supported McCain, I’d like to refer you to his article dated July 1, 2008 titled “Happy Fourth of July to the McCain Family”, and its many accolades of him therein, also to Sharman’s 9/2/08 in which he praises McCain for selecting Sarah Palin, and his 9/30/08 article in which he praises McCain for his warning on Fannie & Freddie.
Your memory is too short for you to be reliable with facts. Or is it your “feelings” toward Sharman that cloud your thinking? Doesn’t matter, you’ve been clearly biased without factual cause.
There was not much reason to go over McCain’s history, as he’s been out there for years and he is proven and well-known. Why should Sharman waste precious fews weeks of publication time when it was suppose to be the undecided’s that needed to be reached against Obama. Of course, they were not really that many undecided’s, we are a country in great trouble, and most people saw the republican party as the ones who got us there, and no amount of proof was going to change their minds.
Unfortunately, most people use their power to vote in a negative way. They vote against what they are mad at, they voted for change, without having any concrete evidence that the guy that said he’s going to bring all this change, is going to bring about the “right” kind of change; or is even able to bring change. But it was, and still is a blessing to see a black man in the white house. And I like that they are bringing Michelle’s mother too, as I see that as a big sign of respect. (We have both my Mom and my husband’s Mom with us.)
So far, Obama’s economist was right. He would be elected. And the world would see a harsher down turn in the economy. (Now don’t connect the two as before, it was bound to happen, the virus was already in place. It just so happens that people with lots and lots of money, trust Obama less when it comes to spending their money, and thus the pull-out at the Wall Street level. Except Obama’s rich friends going with him to the white house.)
From the analyst I work with, it’s going to take a long time to change things, and it won’t be Obama that does it or the Congress or Senate unless they wise up—REAL FAST. The banking & housing institutions sent a virus through to the whole world, and they don’t know how to arrest it. It will be a long time before people and institutions find ways to trust each other again.
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Posted by ( OrdinaryWoman ) on November 12, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Mr. Debibble,
If you didn’t want to come across hateful, then you should have had something substantial to refute what Sharman wrote. And since you never did, and still can’t do anything but say little things, (like my 10 year old could write that), you continue to show you have nothing to say, thus your feelings are the basis for your words.
If you wanted McCain to win you should have not campaigned so well for Obama like you did.
The conservative party is largely Christian. And Christian means you better have some basic morals based on Biblical beliefs, or you’re going to be called a hypocrite, or a non-Christian. If that means you, then I’m sorry. I’m not going to lower my standards to include people that think it’s ok to kill an unborn child, I’m not going to lower my standards to include people that think a marriage is made up of 2 men or 2 women, and I’m not going to lower my standards for more of the same corrupt type people that we already have in the House and Senate. If that excludes some people, then so be it. If the Republican party wants to go over to the left, then I’ll have to find another party or join a new one.
No one (at least not I or Sharman) that I’ve noted, ever said that if you disagree then you are a “hater/communist/fascist/etc or are doomed. Your hate really does consume your ability to comprehend. If anything, I’ve said we should be able to disagree. You are the one that is on the attack with every article Sharman writes, with no basis, and when called on it by me, you’ve tried to use further slander and then use that slander as the basis to attack. Thus the tree you continually run around.
Your ‘suspicious’ attitude (using your words here) clouds your ability to make logical points in your disagreements. You’ve failed to prove him “shallow, or flat out wrong”.
I’ve exposed you well. Your rantings are just that and are based on previous disagreements and untruths that you chose to believe.
And you are simply to blind to see that. And that is why I find it pitiful.
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Posted by ( El Debibble ) on November 12, 2008 at 11:33 am
Any party that continues making comments like “You can’t be a Christian and (insert here)and if you disagree with me then you are a hater/communist/fascist/etc” is doomed. The Republicans quit being conservative and became exclusive (wonder who caused that?)at exactly the wrong time.
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Posted by ( El Debibble ) on November 12, 2008 at 11:27 am
No o’woman, you are the one who is pitiful. My 10 year old could have written that column. Sharman didn’t write anything substantive. It has been obvious that he never supported McCain, he only disliked Obama.
That “wonderful” paragraph only applied to supporters of McCain and Obama. Show me where Sharman ever supported McCain.
Am I upset that Sharman didn’t write about McCain. Lady, I could care less. Just like you, he is part of what dragged McCain down. Since I voted FOR McCain I would have preferred Sharman just keep his trap shut, but he was typical of that special type of Christion I have learned to be wary of.
“Hating/hater” is another one of those right wing cliches that get tossed when some right winger continually fails to make any logical points when faced with someone who disagrees with them, is suspicious of them and continually makes it obvious that the rantings of said right winger is shallow, or flat out wrong. You’ve exposed nothing and finally came to rest on the starting the church thing. When I figure out how to address that without dragging people into it that aren’t deserving we will come back to the issue.
The only thing that has been exposed is you. It’s obvious to all. Accept it.
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Posted by ( OrdinaryWoman ) on November 12, 2008 at 10:19 am
I too would like to know where the republican party should go from here.
I’ve long thought we lost our way back in the Clinton years. I know nobody is going to be perfect, or always agree with one another; but I wanted to be part of a party of honesty and integrity. I want to be part of what I believe the Americans want and that is honesty and integrity.
We are where we are today, because we have leaders in both parties that are corrupt and lazy. This has nothing to do with intelligence or abilities.
I don’t think we are going to restore it or revive it from something it has not been for the last 80 years. I think it will take a new party. Maybe the Independent party will get a good leader that the good people of this nation will get behind? Or maybe the republican party can get gutted and start over. We’ll have to watch and participate diligently.
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Posted by ( OrdinaryWoman ) on November 12, 2008 at 10:05 am
Jeri Rose, I didn’t claim to know you, if I did, I would not have wanted you to explain so I could understand what you were saying better. If you wrote in more complete thoughts, I could understand better. Sentences like “ONCE AGAIN PEOPLE WITH THEIR OWN WRONG AGENDAS.“ I don’t understand where its coming from and where you’re going with that statement.
I didn’t call you ordinary, and I’m glad you are blessed.
I don’t believe that in not going along with someones agenda, just means that is how one puts someone else down, just to feel good about themselves. I believe we can disagree and still get along…that is with people having maturity.
Like wonderbread, I think you get it, but are slow to “swallow” as you said. In reading Sharman’s article, he did not say he agreed, or “shifted” his beliefs of what he has written about Obama in the past, but he, like McCain would seek unity as an American.
And poor ‘ol Debibble, still trying to find ways to hate. You really are pitiful. Sharman wrote his own article, as he always does, said what he meant, and you simply could not find anything to criticize so you just said he really didn’t mean what he wrote. You are making yourself look bad putting that wonderful paragraph in there, and then trying to find fault with it. Yes, you are a bad sport, but not because of your politics or beliefs, but simply because you hate Sharman and it comes through with every time you write.
Why do get upset about the fact that Sharman did not want to write about McCain? Why do you get upset that he spent the time he had on exposing Obama? Are you into some kind of “he’s not fair” attitude? If so, why does he have to be? He’s not a news reporter. He’s there because 48.some percent of the nation must believe the same way and he has a right to his opinion, which also expresses what almost half of this nation believes.
You should stop hating. It’s not healthy. And because some of your hate is based on lies that have already been exposed here, you should re-examine your motives and who told you what you now believe and why it is a lie; and how you can put it behind you.
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Posted by ( rjma ) on November 12, 2008 at 7:35 am
Thanks, El D, for pointing out that this is primarily a C&P;job. Mr. Sharman himself says virtually nothing in support of Mr. Obama. I would have liked to see a “I wish you well”. Note to Mr. Sharman: How about a “where should the Republican Party go from here?“ column?
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