A Guest Commentary from Someone with a Differing Viewpoint than Mine

My friend, Lynn Woods Bettinger, who I have known since our days growing up in Floral Park, NY, is my guest commentator. She and I have had several discussions over the last year, which have never been heated, even though we wanted different candidates for President. When I asked her on Saturday who she voted for, Lynn said, "After much mental torment, I voted for Hillary."

My response was, "You voted. To those who didn't and now don't like the result, they should sit down and shut up." On this, we agreed.

As you know, I voted for and supported Donald Trump. Please enjoy this unedited commentary from a reasonable and alternate view, my friend, Lynn Woods Bettinger. As always, your comments are welcomed.

Lynn:

I have kept my usually highly-opinionated-self quiet through most of the Presidential campaign, and I will explain why for what little it's worth or for those who care. I was a Bernie girl. When he was no longer an option, it was time to listen, watch, and learn. I learned from many of you: THANK YOU!

Frankly, Hillary and Donald both left me with doubts. What I felt and still feel this country needs is a return to energy and passion. My generation, by openly demonstrating and protesting and with the help of a lot of unafraid musicians, forced an incumbent president not to run, forced the resignation of another, brought about a Constitutional amendment giving 18-year-olds the right to vote, and ended a war. Not bad, friends. We were heard.

I didn't feel that passion in Hillary. I thought she  was the saner of the two and I don't think she felt as much "entitled" as she did qualified, but she would be very much politically correct and, well, boring, though it would have been great for a woman to finally shatter that last glass ceiling.

Do I care about her email server? No, but I do care deeply about the judgment that ignored pleas of help from Benghazi. Trump has passion, but he's been so isolated that his mouth spewed the language of a 5th grader on the playground. He said horrible things about people, but said them from behind the protection of a Twitter screen. Obama put it best, saying that if he can't be trusted with a Twitter account, do we really want him having the nuclear weapons code? 

Do I care that he didn't pay taxes? If he Iegally exploited a loophole in tax law, then no, I don't. I say FIX THE LAW. I don't think Trump's as much a bully as he portrays himself. You can see that he's already being tempered. So I am not pro-either of them.

The election is over but it's not "It is what it is." IT IS WHAT WE MAKE IT.

Obamacare doesn't need to be tossed; it needs to be fixed. People need to know that they don't HAVE to buy their insurance through the exchange; there are still lots of companies out there to buy insurance from as you usually would.

I don't know that we need immigration control (I don't want families torn apart) as urgently as we need terrorism control. During Viet Nam, the leading story on the nightly news depicted the horrid realities of war. We don't have that any more unless or until there's a particularly devastating attack or we see a heartbreaking picture. We've been at war for fifteen damn years, folks, and there's no sign of it ending. We don't even know what's happening.

This is where my passion is: actively and speedily righting the wrongs, and spending the rest of our time trying to enjoy and improve upon the many privileges of being Americans.

It's only by the grace of God we weren't born in Aleppo. I genuinely thank you for hearing me out.