We are heading toward two runaway freight trains that are on a collision course, set to hit Nov. 3.

Fueling of the fire for both engines began four years ago on a cold November day that followed the election that was a “miracle” for some and a “travesty” for others.

Since that time, the fire has been stoked with scandal, accusations, trials, lies, name calling, muck raking and mudslinging. And with each side having an established army, the goal was to discredit the other side, and gain new converts.

To say that it has torn America in half would be an understatement. The very fibers of our American flag have been shelled and tattered and resembles something we have read about that is recounted in the Smithsonian magazine as recounted by Edwards Park.

“Night fell,” Parks writes. “The tremendous bombardment eased off as boatloads of British troops slipped past the fort to attack the city. The Americans spotted the foray, and their guns roared, and again the British had to pull out of range. Desperate to finish off the fort, they redoubled their cannonade, bombs curling high in the night sky, their lit fuses streaking across it, then down to their bright burst. (Scott Francis) Key, tirelessly watching, realized that the roar of British guns meant the fort still held; by the burst of bombs he could see the flag, still there.

“And, in the faintest first light of dawn, at about the time the British command called off its Baltimore campaign, he spotted it. The rain had ceased; a stirring of wind opened it, and he made out the red of the stripes, the blue square. The American flag.”

To imagine what it’s going to be like next week at this time would be an error. Suffice to say, there are threats already should the election go one way or the other.

It’s going to happen. A candidates will be elected. Tempers will flare, civil wars will break out that won’t be very civil. So how do we as the American people proceed? What will we do to the grand old flag that has represented our powerful nation for so many years? Those are the questions.

Will we continue to tear her down, or will we find ways to bring the medicine and promote healing? There are some words that government just refuses to use. Compromise. Partisanship. For the good of the nation.

“We the people” still must have a voice of reason. We have children to raise, grandchildren to set on our knees.

There will be a mop-up and cleanup operation beginning next Wednesday. We can roll up our sleeves and find a way to make our nation better, or we can continue to loot the very future of our children.

It’s all up to us.

To show how much we haven’t changed, this was our op ed before the 2020 election and here we are two years later and we not only haven’t changed, but we haven’t learned. This time around, something has to change.