It is too early to process, less comprehend, the meaning of this election. We will wake up, stand up for the values we share, look to our friends for support.

In the best of worlds, these next four years, journalism will have a great responsibility, cross generation. This is a great challenge in the age of cable television and the internet, where we live so much of our lives in sectorized, like-minded comfort zones that only confirm what we want to hear. How much time has been wasted with the utterances and hot breath of on-air analysis? After the polls, the experience of November 8 was like blowing open a door that pushed a frozen wind that tore at our eyes. This was reality.

Journalists among us will have to move beyond polls and predictions. The older generation of journalists among us can provide perspective to those idealists now coming on board. We will have to share with, and work with, a new generation that expects to build a better world.

All I can say is that the product of all the good people we know must create something better than this. We are not built of hatred and fear.