No childish behavior this time

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, November 19, 2002

In this space last week, we called upon Gov. Don Siegelman to put the future of the state of Alabama above his own, to do the right and honest thing and concede the election to Bob Riley.

&uot;Yes, Mr. Siegelman, the people have spoken. The only question is, will you listen to them?&uot; we wrote.

On Monday night, he did listen to the people of Alabama.

To everyone’s surprise, including Gov.-elect Bob Riley, Gov. Siegelman conceded during a press conference Monday night although not until he had accused citizens from one end of the state to the other of lying, cheating and generally, breaking a variety of laws.

Getting past those feelings and those comments must be uppermost in the minds of all of us as we move forward.

We urge those connected with the current administration to work with Gov.-elect Riley’s transition staff to ensure that Alabama moves forward in a peaceful and productive manner.

Everyone remembers the missing &uot;Ws&uot; from the Presidential election of 2000.

While moving from the White House, President Bill Clinton’s staff not only stole furniture and other accessories, they took all of the &uot;Ws&uot; from the computers &045; a slight to newly elected President George &uot;W.&uot; Bush, I suppose.

We would hope that kind of childish behavior would not creep into this transition period.

Gov. Siegelman and Gov.-elect Riley are both adults and hopefully have surrounded themselves with adults.

Alabama citizens are now expecting each and every one of them to act as they should during this transition