Our coverage of election night tends to be about winners and losers, and we focus our attention and cameras on individuals who are either celebrating or commiserating. It always seems easier to understand big stories in terms of a personal narrative, which may explain why people take the scores settled on election night so personally. This narrow focus sometimes distracts us, however, from what really happens on the first Tuesday in November, the perennial pivot point in our democracy.

Change happens. And in Newtown this year, the change is discernable, significant, and consequential. And once we put down our own personal reactions to the election night story and take up the larger collective community view, we can see that we all have a stake — winners and losers — in making the consequences of that change positive and constructive. It means supporting the leaders we have selected not only with our best wishes and full attention, but with our full participation in community life. That participation only starts with voting. The paper we fill out in the voting booth is a contract we sign as agents of change. It is a contract that requires us to stay engaged, on Election Day and every day, in the ever-changing narrative of our town.