Now that the parties are mercifully over, it’s time for all facets of the political spectrum to clean up.

This is essentially a two-fold task.

First, please begin with the campaign signs that all of you so devotedly posted along highways and distributed for lawns. They are now just litter. The incessant commercials, radio announcements and telephone calls have finally ceased. No one needs to see the signage anymore either.

In Franklin, residents have five days after the Tuesday’s election to remove signs before the city issues warnings.

Second, Republicans and Democrats also are asked to clean up their acts. The time for mudslinging and finger pointing has passed.

Instead, we strongly recommend that all parties – Democrats, Independents and Republicans, etc. – take the recent advice of U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes to find common ground and work from that point. That was the message from Forbes, a Republican who won another term on Tuesday to represent Virginia’s Fourth District, during his recent appearance at the Franklin Rotary Club.

He stressed building relationships and noted that Washington isn’t the only thing that’s polarized; it’s the country.

We would do well to remember that we are Americans first, and must do all we can to unite and strengthen the United States.