Are we a nation of Democrats, Republicans, or Americans?
This question has never been more important. My father, born in 1903, told me years ago that before elections the political parties would campaign vigorously and really slug it out. After the elections, the parties would tolerate each other and work together for the betterment of the nation.
This didn't just happen by itself. People made it happen. President Dwight Eisenhower used golf to bring key members of both parties together to form friendships. President Harry Truman utilized his famous card games, and President Ronald Reagan used dinner parties and his sense of humor to develop friendships between members of both parties.
I remember Reagan saying it was important to develop relationships and friendships in order to solve the problems facing the nation. He felt that when you sit down with key people from both parties who have developed a relationship, it makes solving problems a lot easier. I believe this is true. When reasonable people are faced with a problem, a reasonable solution will result.
Whatever the outcome of the presidential election, the president-elect must use leadership to find the means of creating relationships between key members of the parties, as was done in the past. Failure to do this will only feed the fires of the growing dislike or hatred between the two parties to the detriment of our nation. There are too many military men and women lying in graves all around the world who gave there all to preserve our wonderful country. We owe it to them to learn how to come together both as citizens and elected officials to preserve America, the greatest nation in the world.
HOWARD HAUCK
Whiting
