In three more days, this long national nightmare of an election will be over.

This election, which seemed to start a day after the 2008 presidential election, has been brutal, nasty and expensive.

It is almost criminal the millions of dollars that have been spent on political campaigns, especially in light of the fact that the pain of many of the voters that the ads have been directed to could have been reduced by such an infusion of money into the general economy.

Locally, we are in need of good, solid leadership. We can only hope that the thousands of voters who have already gone to the polls used the good sense the good Lord provided them to vote for a person or a proposition that will help propel us into 2013 and beyond in a positive way and didn't follow the herd mentality of a few political hacks.

This election locally has produced a tension that can almost be cut with a knife.

We can only hope that in three days this tension begins to ease and that all citizens of all races begin to come together with the same goal in mind to help make our communities a safe and prosperous place for our children to inherit without gall or prejudice and that we start using the good common sense that most of us were taught.