To the Editor:

This election season seems to have gone on forever and I am sure many if not all people are looking forward to the end of the campaigns, the end of TV advertisements and not receiving multiple telephone calls, surveys, and political postal mailings. The campaigns have also been very divisive and seems to have philosophically split our country into separate world views.

I am writing prior to the election not knowing who will win, who will lose, which party will triumph, which will be in the minority with the hope that once the vote is in, the election’s are over and the final results known, all the citizens of our country will recognize that we can no longer afford to be Republicans, Democrats or Independents, but we must unite as Americans. That the labels used during the recent campaign that have separated us, white, black or brown, rich or poor, liberal or conservative must become secondary to our all being citizens of this country.

Unrealistic as it might be, I hope people will recognize that we need to come together to require and expect all our elected officials, whether Democrat or Republican, whether president, senator or House member
to work together to address the many serious issues that face our country.

The one thing that has become obvious during the campaigns is that our government is not providing the opportunities that many in our country expect and deserve. That the country’s ability to respond to the issues of providing opportunities for an adequate education to all citizens, for improving the economy for all citizens, for improving access to health care, for addressing the changes in the environment, for the rational defense of our country and the threat of terror attacks need to be addressed. This means our elected officials need to work together to identify what will solve these problems.

I hope that all the citizens of New Hampshire will ask their representatives at all levels to work together to find areas of agreement. That they will work to solve these problems so that the country will become one where more citizens are able to succeed in the quest for a better life for their families and themselves.

Richard B Friedman, MD

Bedford