On election eve

When I was in college, I made a deal with a very liberal, very good friend of mine.  We agreed that, if either of us ever gets elected to high office, he would hire the other as an adviser so as to always have input from the other side.

I am worried about our country, because I fear that kind of respect for other philosophies is losing steam.

I am worried because I read stories about threats of rioting, should Barack Obama lose the election. And because I've seen and heard how frightened and angry people in western Kansas are, about the prospect of President Obama winning.

I am worried because a friend of mine told me, the other day, that his brother won't speak to him anymore because of their political disagreement.

I hope my point will not be mistaken, here. I stand by every bad word that I have said or written about Obama (and I've said and written a lot of them).

Four years ago, I called candidate Obama a horse's ass, and today I realize that my words were the greatest insult ever levied against the equine posteriors of the earth. "Voting is the best revenge." Really? Revenge? What is wrong with that man?

The point is, I do not desire a Kumbaya moment, where we all hold hands and agree that the truth is "somewhere in between" the two major philosophical visions in America.

Really, I just hope most of us will realize, in the coming week, that there are good people who have sincere — and respectable — differences of philosophy.  That's easy for me.

I think about my pre-law professor in college: A woman who used to smile at me while she told me I was wrong about whatever social policy was on her mind a the time, in polite conversations.  She's the same person who inspired me to go to law school.

I think about my college buddy, the one I made my deal with.

I think about a law school friend of mine, with whom I talked on the day the Obamacare opinion came down from the Supreme Court.  She was happy about the ruling, but she told me, "Sorry."

And I think about my brother and his wife. They joked, earlier this year, that they would put up two signs in their front yard: One for Obama, and one for Mitt Romney.

Tonight, on election eve, I will pray for that same type of respect, the same type of grace, to be widespread tomorrow night. I pray that Americans will not view each other with hatred, or anger, that they will not seek "revenge" after the votes are counted.

America is better than that.