My disappointment at the decision that voters made in this year’s presidential election has yet to be mitigated. For each forlorn, now-irrelevant Romney-Ryan sign reminds me of our choice:

To condemn success instead of encouraging growth and rewarding value.

To heed self-interest over self-sacrifice, political panhandling over rectification, and scarcity and class-warfare over unified prosperity.

To be swayed by a campaign and media capable of glossing over an ambassador’s death in Libya and $16 trillion in debt, among other things.

To settle instead of to believe in ourselves and in our nation.

Mitt Romney did represent a plan for America with competency and fairness amid smallness and petty attacks, and it’s unfortunate he lost the battle.

And yet, to those whose political signs still stand dejectedly in their yards: Have faith, my friends. We are a democracy, our self-prescribed medication may be hard to swallow, but every four years we’re called upon to make another choice. We must believe that the roots of this nation will hold steadfast and that, eventually, the winds will change.

Nate Marti

Mount Vernon