Taking a moment from writerly-type posts to say how proud I am to live in a country where we can stand up for our beliefs, disagree as we might, and come together as Americans in the end.

There is still hard work to be done. When you gain 50 pounds, you don’t lose it in a day. There are those who suffer, injustices that abound, and yes, mean-spirited rhetoric that is oftentimes louder than rational conversation. But we move forward, we stand side by side in peace and connected in the knowledge that we have an electoral system that does not involve guns and tanks or bombs. We don’t riot in the streets–okay, not true-mostly it’s over the Lakers or the Giants or whoever has won the latest championship title, and not who will be our next president.

We ain’t pretty sometimes, but I’ll take our fractured democracy over the alternative any day.