By Retired Col. Patricia Webb, Alexandria

To the editor:

In this great country, we have a system in place that allows its citizens to elect their representatives at all levels of government. With all of its flaws, it remains the best democratically representative system in the world.

In each election, there can be only one successful candidate. Not everyone is going to get his or her way. In June, Alexandria elected a successful candidate as its nominee for mayor. It is hard to believe after all of these weeks since that election, we are still hearing discussions of potential action in November to derail the election of that successful mayoral nominee.

It is also concerning. I spent 33 years in the military and I can tell you not every decision was popular with every person. Neither did we get to vote on it.

But we knew that to be our strongest in war and in peace, and achieve successful results, we had to pull together and act not as divisive individuals, but as a team, a single entity. Just as no nation can be its strongest without the support and participation of all of its citizens, no city can be its strongest without the support and participation of all of its citizens.

Each mayor of this city has had that support and has been successful because of it. No one is successful on his or her own. Now, let’s respect the democratic process that took place in June and the results it yielded, get behind the mayoral nominee as an entire city and be our strongest and best going forward together. How lucky we are to live in Alexandria.