Now is the time to shake hands, roll up our sleeves and get to work

The political campaigning is now over and it’s time to pull together.
We need to gather those good ideas and actually accomplish some legislative good for our communities, our state and our nation.
We also need to set aside blatant disrespect, finger pointing and general negativity of the presidential campaign and mend fences.
What better place to start than in our own backyards?
Take the time to compose your thoughts and have civil discussions about what matters to all of us.
Gone should be the campaign rhetoric — and in its place should be some actual ideas.
Health care costs continue to rise, and the affordability of health insurance is not so affordable.
While people think the Affordable Health Care Act is not working, premiums were increasing by double digits before the law was approved. And people were also kicked off their plans when they got sick.
Should the current Affordable Health Care legislation be thrown out? Possibly. But what should be put in its place? When we change the bath water, should the baby be thrown out, too?
Our roadways need fixing.
Our towns need their infrastructure upgrades.
Diverse political views are good. But we need to embrace the difference of ideas and channel these energies into getting things accomplished. The discussions that arise from these differences are good and lead to examining all possible solutions before picking one.
Arriving at a solution, however, cannot be overshadowed by partisan politics.
We need to stop changing or adding unrelated topics to legislative agreements at the last minute. Practices like this erode that handshake across political aisles.
We need to be better people and political stewards than that.
Our charge to our newly elected and re-elected officials is to represent all of us respectfully in political work.