Opinion: We need to get along, even in an election year

I’m not sure how we get there, but we all need to start getting along.

I watch the news at night and it tears at my heart, violence in the streets, rhetoric and scare tactics off the scale.

It seems that everything and everyone is divided into polar opposites. Left and right read into everything anyone says. They’re saying a lot with not a lot of substance, but if you want to get both sides you have to tune to more than one station.

The chatter in the comments alongside the governor’s online press conferences has become vile and combative on both sides of the political spectrum. We may be experiencing the first governor press conferences streamed live on Facebook, but it’s way too controlled and nothing like what a press conference should be.

We’ve entered the age where politicians are testing the waters with using social media to talk straight to the public with no baloney filter in between. I never dreamed that a U.S. president would become the hottest property on Twitter either.

The problem is that the audiences for both sides are pretty much each respective base. The rhetoric therefore just fires up that base and, in this day and age, apparently just leads to deep division and a community that can’t get along.

We’ve had bitter election years but we seem to be letting this one consume us. Tides are going to come in and go out. The waves going either way won’t drown us. Life will go on if your candidate doesn’t win. Don’t let that fear of drowning in the surf waste good friendships and strong community bonds. Even family relations seem to be at risk in the climate we live in today.

We’re all living with extra stress trying to get through this terrible pandemic that is still killing and sickening those around us. Let’s not continue to politicize this struggle we face that has nothing to do with politics until we set out to use it to try and score points against our political enemies.

I’m ready for peace in our streets, peace in our community and peace in our families. I fear it’s not going to happen until after the election. At least that’s the way it used to be.

Please use a little understanding when you speak with folks, be careful what you post online. Watch the debates, read actual news articles with respected sources, make up your mind who to support and do it. Love your neighbor even in an election year.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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