Dear Editor,

I write this on Monday, November 7, before the polls close tomorrow and final ballots are cast for local, state and national races. I have no crystal ball, and have no idea how things will eventually settle out.

But I do know one thing: this has been the most awful election cycle in my lifetime, and I have voted in all but one (that was due to a fluke) since I came of voting age in 1970. It should not have been so.

I have been greatly disappointed by the tenor of most of the campaigning I have heard, with very few exceptions.

Candidates (on both sides) have often gone to great lengths to demonize their opponents, instead of debating the value of actual issues and policies. This does no one any good and solves no problems, but only causes more of them.

Anyone who “wins” an election based on lies and misrepresentation has already lost any ethical claim to represent the public. Anyone who puts “winning” above all other considerations has already sold their soul to the devil, and will ultimately be called to account, on Judgement Day if not before. I hope sooner. The nation suffers meanwhile.

A great sickness has swept our country. I pray it will soon die out. I fear it will not. We are all risk until it does.

Raphael Semmes