RIP 2012 Elections

Haime and I are "Fightin' Texas Aggies," me, by virtue of my heritage (and true maroon blood), and Haime, by association. My mom's family has had every American-born generation represented at Texas A&M since the 1920s. Of my immediate family, two of my sisters and I are former students from the 1980s, both my sons are former students and two of my nephews are current Texas Aggie students. I'm giving you this background in order to demonstrate how deeply connected to Texas A&M our family is. With all of that said (typed), I respectfully add my condolences to the family of Coach Darrell Royal. Coach Royal was the head football coach at the University of Texas (I have never typed it that way before, as we all know the grammatically correct way of referring to that school is tu...ask any Aggie), from 1957 to 1976 where he compiled a record of 167-47-5. He led the school to three national championships and remains the winningest coach in the schools history. In short, he was the bane of our existence as Aggies. Coach Royal passed away today at the age of 88, RIP Coach Royal.

Today also marks the beginning of healing for our country, I hope. After a very long bitter and bloody presidential campaign, what our country needs most is to put politics aside and remember that our neighbors and friends matter to us regardless of their politics. I am so disheartened by the division this campaigning has caused among so many and am more thankful than I can clearly express that it is over. One of my earliest politically-based memories is from the 1964 Presidential campaign. I was about 6 and remember asking my mom who she voted for in that election. She told me that whom a person votes for is a secret and that the voting was done in a "booth" so that no one could see who you marked your ballot for. When I asked why it was a secret, she told me that some people get very angry with others if they don't vote the way the mean people think they should. Wouldn't it be nice if we could turn back time (there I go channelling Cher's song again), so that the choices we make for our elected officials were personal and not the basis for drawing lines between ourselves and others? With the popular vote being so close in this election, I think the message is crystal clear, it should be the job of both sides of the aisle to figure out how to work together to bring the concerns of the PEOPLE of this nation to the forefront of the discussion. Its time to heal the chasm because as my friends in business will tell you, when a company is divided, it makes it most vulnerable to outside interference.

Congrats to our elected officials...now get to work!

TTFN

Lois