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Dear Friends,

An election is that unique time in the lives of the people in a community when they can take stock of who they have been, who they are and where they want to go. It is also a time when the community speaks its deepest aspirations and voices its most powerful concerns.

You can learn a lot about yourself in a year long campaign, and you get a good education in what people think and what they feel about their lives, their neighborhoods and each other. It is an experience that is both humbling and enabling; it teaches all who participate how to think beyond yourself and about what matters most in the place we call home.

Democracy, even on the small canvas of a city district, is a remarkable process that creates the very possibility of renewal, generation after generation. It reminds us, in the end, that we are the mere custodians of the passing moment and that what we do and fail to do will matter to future generations.

I end this year of effort grateful to all of you for your faith in me, for your long hours of hard work working on this campaign. I will never forget your generosity, enthusiasm and steadfast support.

I congratulate both of my opponents on their vigorous campaigns and wish them well. I hope their interest in our city's welfare will continue in the years ahead.

Together, let us turn our thoughts to envisioning new ideas and bringing new energies to public service in our city. Let Columbia become a community that reveres its diversity, inspires its children, cares for its aging, values its history, protects its character, plans its future, welcomes people and ideas from around the globe and, every day, lives up to its highest values. 

I commit myself to working for that kind of city, and ask you to join me for the rest of the journey.