Mark DeLap
                                Editor - Bladen Journal

Mark DeLap

Editor - Bladen Journal

FROM THE EDITOR

Does this sound redundant? Good. Then you’ve read it before. Doesn’t sound familiar? Good. Then that is why I beat this dead horse.

Likening the political campaigns in America to a sickness in the stomach or a flu virus is pretty much an understatement. Now as that sickness is passing, it has left most of us with an emotional dehydration, weakness and the feeling that we may never want to eat again. And the big election is still somewhere around 42 days away.

But in every recovery, there is a point where a body needs to get up and begin to function again. It is first a matter of the mind. You must decide in your heart that you want to get better. You must fight the battle that pits your comfort of a warm bed and no activity against the need to put that body into motion so that it stays in motion. Normal and healthy come only with great effort.

We are now way past the minor elections and still the vomiting continues in this county. The fallout from a debilitating family feud is now upon us. We have choices to make. It’s the candidate that takes a higher road and calls for “healing” and an “open mind” that impresses me.

Scenarios like this happening all over America.

The losing candidate becomes mellow and suddenly supportive and called for the same thing. Here were two candidates locked in death-grips just days before the election and now it was like… everything had miraculously changed.

And that is what healing is all about. Miraculous change. If the candidates we loved and supported are calling for this healing, then why do we as Americans step out into our own land of protesting and/or gloating. I haven’t talked to the candidates today. But I would hope that they are concerned with going forth for the greater good.

The fight is over. The last bell has rung. The 15 rounds have been accomplished and the prizefighters are hugging in the middle of the canvas. Some are disappointed, some are angry, some are prideful, but your continuing the fight in the cheap seats is not the heart of the boxers. At least… I hope not. Not here in such an incredible place like Platte County.

If you gloat. If you protest. If you continue to raise your fists and utter your threats, you are in essence, going your own way to prolong a fight that is now over. You are doing damage to the land we are all fighting to preserve. You are throwing stones at the gaping wound that Lady Liberty has acquired.

You would rather be right in your own mind than see a nation healed and strengthened, because, God forbid, what if you were wrong? Did you really support your candidates? Did you honestly follow them faithfully? Did you believe in what they said? Or was it all a lie?

Your actions after the fight is over, will speak louder than your words or your “politicians promises.” If you obeyed your candidate and respected them while the fight was going on, then your choosing to abandon their post-fight wishes is nothing short of hypocrisy. We must move forward. Together. On the same page.

America is recovering from this political sickness and the Kangaroo courts that will continue to the big November Tuesday, and most likely long after. It’s certainly easier to remain comfortable in your anger and your pride and your bed of bitterness. But if this body is ever going to get up and be put again into motion, then we must resolve to drop the stones – on both sides, and come together for the common good.

“We are all just a car crash, a diagnosis, an unexpected phone call, a newfound love, or a broken heart away from becoming a completely different person. How beautifully fragile are we that so many things can take but a moment to alter who we are forever?” – Samuel Decker Thompson.

Our moments can alter our tomorrows. Choose to walk within them wisely. Onward Bladen County. Onward.

Mark DeLap is a journalist, photographer and the editor and general manager of the Bladen Journal. To email him, send a message to: mdelap@bladenjournal.com