If I ran up to you and exclaimed that a flying saucer full of little green men had just landed on top of the Cook County courthouse, you might be worried. You might ask me how I knew this. If I said I hadn’t seen it myself, but others had told me so, you would probably want to know who. You might want to walk over and check it out for yourself, or talk to the people who claimed to have seen the flying saucer. But if it turns out that in fact nobody had really seen it, being a reasonable person you would conclude that we just don’t need to be worried about an invasion of little green men. You would turn your attention to dealing with whatever real problems the day presents.
Many people are concerned about the future of the nation. They are right to be concerned, and citizen engagement is crucial to building a better future. It’s also correct that free and fair elections are critical for democracy. We need to be vigilant in guarding the electoral process.
And it’s normal for people to feel disappointed when their preferred candidate loses an election. The loss can be difficult to accept. However, when the integrity of the election has been well-examined, and no evidence of any significant irregularities has been uncovered, it’s not helpful to continue to protest the results. Instead of spending more time and energy on unsupportable claims of fraud, wouldn’t it be better to be working to do what we can to improve the community?
Charles Hathaway,
Grand Marais
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