Leslie Su Cheng

The passionately charged election is finally over. Half of the country is in a jubilant mood, while the half in mourning. Both candidates, in their concession and victory speech respectively, have asked the nation to unite. The pride of the democracy shone at that moment while the fierce ex-opponents spoke in the same tune for the good of the country.

President Bush has graciously asked for the support of people who had voted for Kerry and promised to earn that support by his future work. For Kerry supporters like me, we appreciate his good gesture but are waiting for his substantive deeds. At this point, he has none of our trust; his performance on his last term and during the campaign made it hard for us to take his words at their face value. But at least, as good citizens of this democratic country, we will grant him the chance to win back our trust. This good will is our response to his call to unity. All the rest is up to the president to decide whether he will truly abide by his own words to be a uniter not a divider.

However, unity certainly does not mean we have to give up our point of view or our right to speak up. President Bush had in the past exploited the rush of post-9/11 patriotism and accused people who spoke against the war being unpatriotic. I hope this time around he will not again exploit the call for unity by accusing people who voice different opinions being dividers or unity-spoilers.

The nation needs to unite together to win peace in Iraq and to bring our troop home. But that united front does not necessitate a censorship on the judgment that the war is a wrong war and should never be repeated. To be united does not mean either that we should agree to the outrageous reduction of moral complexity to merely the most divisive issues of abortion and gay marriage. We need to speak up about other more important moral issues like eradication of poverty, preservation of environment, and fair distribution of resources. We also need to emphatically speak up about the imperative separation of church and state which our founding fathers have wisely written into our Constitution. We need to watch closely that the appointment of Supreme Court is not ideology based or motivated by any political agenda. We also need to ensure that the punitive fervor and negative intolerance from the religious far right would not poison the all-inclusive and all-encompassing spirits of our Constitution.

If President Bush means what he says then he should be mindful that his victory is within the statistic margin of errors and he has half of the country to reconcile with. If he truly wants to win the trust of his opponent's supporters he has to proceed with caution, not to give in completely to his ultra conservative base. Most importantly, he should never interpret unity as silencing the other side or treat dissident opinions as disloyalty.

For Kerry supporters, it is not the time to throw in the towel. We love the country too much to retreat. If we want the country to be what we have envisioned, we need to keep on speaking up, guarding what we treasure, and fighting against what erode our country's soul.

Unity with one voice is hollow tyranny. Only unity born out of diverse voices can have any strength.