6:30 a.m.:
Welcome to Election Day 2016.
I wish I could say I was surprised.
I'm not. I saw it coming. And it still was a bit chilling.
I knew what the reaction to my Monday print column indicating I would be voting for Hillary Clinton was going to be.
And I was still taken aback at the vitriol that rained down on me - phone calls from angry readers; emails from those who wanted to disagree, usually in fairly colorful language; comments posted on the column on our website and also on social media.
A sampling:
My mother would be ashamed of me.
I'm a bad Catholic.
Actually, I'm anti-Catholic.
I have an appointment for brain surgery.
Yes, that one was from an old friend in my home town on Facebook. I think he was at least partly kidding me. You were kidding, right, Jack?
It's OK. It goes with the territory.
That is the great thing about this country. We have something called the First Amendment. It insures that you have Freedom of Speech. It's why I am able to print my opinion in the newspaper. And it's why so many can disagree.
But it does not distinguish between disagreeing and something else, something deeper, something that is eating away at the country, something that has been front and center in this election.
That is my fear as we move forward.
What happens after we vote.
How do we come together again. How do we make America the United States again.
Regardless who wins today, that should be Job One.
First and foremost, make sure you vote. Take part in the process. Do something other than post on Facebook and Twitter.
Then resolve to be start of the solution. Of the process of putting out shattered, divided psyche back together again.
It is not going to be easy. For the past year I have had a ringside seat, peering into this national divide.
It hasn't been pretty. Just like the reaction to my Monday column.
The time has come. To vote. To heal. To unite.
Again.
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