Life after an election "Showing up is 80% of life" – one of a variety of similar quotes attributed to Woody Allen. Participation in public life - such as an elected official - requires the dedication of a certain amount of time…often a great deal of time. In Richardson, City Council members give up nearly every Monday evening throughout the year for Council meetings. In addition, Council members spend several extra evenings in July reviewing the budget, have early morning meetings from time to time to review things like boards and commissions appointments, attend ribbon cuttings and neighborhood meetings and the like, and, in general, can easily spend 10-20 hours a week on City related business. In the recent Richardson City Council election, several of the new candidates began attending City Council meetings each Monday evening as soon as they announced interest, months before the actual election. One may ask how important it is to be physically present when the Council meetings are broadcast live and made available for replay through the Internet. The answer may be that the three newly elected Council members – Dunn, Maczka, and Hartley – all attended the Monday evening Council meetings in person for at least two months before the election, while their opponents did not. Indeed, Dunn continued to attend these meetings every week even after it became clear that he would have no opponent in the election. But the point of an election is not Win versus Lose, it is to select a new set of leaders and come together as a community to progress through the next two years. To come together requires that the winners and the losers continue to participate in public and community life together. That is, after the election, the "losers" - although this seems too pejorative a term - need to continue to attend community and public events to show that they are still a vital part of the City's life. I can say from personal experience that the most difficult event for a losing candidate to attend is the Council meeting after the election when the winners will be sworn in. It takes a certain amount of character to be able to hold your head up in public after losing an election, especially by a lopsided margin. But this Council meeting is not just for the winners, it is for the City as a whole to come together and witness the swearing in of the new members and the election of the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem. All the candidates and all the factions should attend these events as a sign that they understand and accept the nature of democracy that no matter who "wins" or "loses", that we are still a single community. Last week, at the City Council meeting where the votes were canvassed, the new members sworn in, and Mayor Townsend and Mayor Pro Tem Maczka were elected, only one losing candidate was present, Karl Voigtsberger. I can’t say why the others were not present; they may have had legitimate reasons for being away due to work or travel or family commitments, but that shouldn't stop us from appreciating that Mr. Voigtsberger had the time and chose to take it to attend the rather lengthy meeting which wrapped up the election. Exhibiting the same quiet manner that he showed throughout the campaign, Mr. Voigtsberger affirmed by his presence at that meeting that government should still be of all the people, by all the people, and for all the people, and for that, he deserves an "atta' boy!". William J. ‘Bill’ McCalpin Richardson, Texas