I’ve sat by during this historical election season and said nothing to those who detracted from my candidate.

The election is over, Sen. Obama is now President-elect Obama, and with that he deserves the respect of the American people, but I see that there are some who still cannot bring themselves to acknowledge that fact. The fact is that 54 percent of Americans voted for change, and that is clear majority of Americans.

What I have learned during this campaign is that old animosities never die; they just hibernate until they are awakened. I cannot believe that with the enormity of the task ahead not just for our president, but for the American people, that there are those who can’t or refuse see this.

We are in the greatest economic recession since the late 1970s, and there are some who say since the Great Depression, we have two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan respectively and a potential powder-keg in the rest of the volatile Middle East, yet some still are harping on a Democratic election, which by the way was free from any voter fraud or any hanging chads of previous elections, still they try to rationalize the defeat of their candidate.

The truth is that President-elect Obama ran the most fundamentally sound campaign that I can remember, of all the major party candidates, his was the only one that never ran into financial problems, unlike others, there were no major gaffe’s in his campaign.

Unlike Sen. McCain, he presented himself presidential every step of the way. Unlike Sen. McCain, who for some reason acted irrational at the most inopportune time during the start of the financial crisis. Imagine Sen. McCain sitting across from world leaders making sarcastic faces and refusing to acknowledge them, that, my friend, was a scary thought.

What I have learned is that there are some who choose not to understand the significance of the election of President Obama. They choose to ignore the beauty and greatness of America, which despite our nation’s history through slavery, Jim Crow and other legalized modes of racial intimidation, we as a people did the almost unthinkable, no other Western nation can say that they have done what America has done and that is elect someone of color to their highest public office, that’s change you can believe in!

If Sen. McCain had won, I would have been disappointed, but I would have still referred to him as my president, instead of acting like a child who loses and one thing to say to these people, grow-up!

Jerry ButlerBainbridge, Ga.