Commandments For GOP

I shall accept the fact that President Barack Obama has been reelected and the people have spoken.

I shall never again ignore the needs and concerns of minorities, the poor, the middle class, women and any other constituencies .

I shall remember that a salary, benefits, perks and the prestige of high oftce are not automatically my rights but must be continuously earned as I execute my duties with honor, humility, maturity and respect for all with whom I labor - superiors, colleagues and subordinates alike.

I shall not pledge my allegiance to any individual, corporation, theology, media power or special interest group lest such pledges cloud my better judgment and displace my loyalties to the people I serve.

I shall put the people, always, over my party aftliation and political ambitions.

I shall try earnestly to better educate myself on economics, civics, history, world geography, and science so that I may properly serve the electorate.

I shall never forget that voting is the right and privilege of every American and will do nothing to interfere with that right.

I shall concentrate on the proper business of government - education, the economy, defense.

Foreign policy and climate change - and leave personal, private issues to each citizen as a right of conscience.

I shall show courage in all my deliberations, regardless of personal or political consequences and remind myself daily that power is derived from the “consent of the governed” and is as fleeting as their will.

LINDA FARRELL

Bella Vista