CLEVELAND — They’ve weighed in on the debates, watched and waited with us on election night. Our 3News Zoom Room Panel gathered one more time to share their reaction to what has happened since then.
“I do believe in the system and it is within President Trump’s right to contest this. It is within the law and within the Constitution. But, to me, I’ve moved on. It was a long 8 months,” said Zahi Abi Younes who voted for President Trump in the election.
“If anything, I do feel a sense of relief that it’s over. And I’m looking forward to 2021 and our local elections,” said Jennifer Lumpkin who voted for President-Elect Joe Biden.
While votes are still being counted, and re-counted in some states, our panel shifts focus to pressing matters ahead. The priority for all, getting through out COVID crisis. After that, opinions vary.
“We need to get the economy going. We need to make sure that people’s jobs are restored as best possible. We need to look at alternative sources of energy, where jobs could be, where we can create more jobs,” said Henry Guzman.
For Shari Nacson, it’s tackling discrimination. “Racial justice hits everything, right? It hits housing and hits education. It hits health. It hits criminal justice. To me, that reckoning is everything. I think that’s the most important thing for us to follow through on,” she said.
Among the hopes for 2021, our 3News Zoom Room Panel, with different viewpoints and political leanings, is bonded in the same belief: a fractured nation must find the path to healing.
“It’s time to now put our arms around all of us as Americans and move forward,” said Guzman. Added Lumpkin, “there may be differences, but there’s way more that we have in common when we really remove this party of idea of who we are as people in this country.”
Finding common ground, when you arrive with different experiences and beliefs: If 7 strangers can do it, there’s hope we can all do it too.
“I think that’s what was so special about the Zoom Panel. Everybody was likable. Everybody was caring. And I think in the end, that’s what’s got to be the focal point,” said Nacson.