I'm Major Jackson, and this is the slowdown.

Last week, I drove to a polling place at a nearby library.

I voted early.

There was a small line of folks, a dynamic cross-section of society,

a group of college students with backpacks, an elderly couple, a veteran in a baseball cap that said, Army.

People gazed into their phones.

Some talked about the World Series.

No one discussed candidates or topics.

I felt it.

What surged through us, what connected us,

was this very moment of participatory politics.

We were duty-bound as citizens.

We were exercising our rights.

This act so fundamental to the governance of our nation.

But here's an idea, a hope that fills me with joy, that the day after the election would

begin a new day to come together. To remind ourselves that the rancor and divisions

are a transient state of unrest, that we offer each other our quiet civility and the decency

of being neighbors. This day, this new beginning provides us a chance to rebuild connections with family

and friends whose values might diverge from our own, but whose presence offer far more.

I wish this for us. I love watching the volunteers at my polling place.

They were cheerful.

They lovingly bantered,

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