Hold your fire, folks. Day is done. The smoke over the battlefield is clearing. Peace is at hand. Before long, we will have a new president, senators, representatives and various state and local officials.

Praise the Lord and pass the bandages.

In the Gettysburg of 2008, we already have more bloody losers than we can count. Some of them are us. Tuesday is simply a formality to declare the winners.

We're all bruised and battered. The conflict was relentless; the casualties overwhelming.

We are drained from enduring too many candidates, too many primaries and too many debates. Conventions, rallies, interviews, polls, profiles, infomercials, endorsements and photo ops. Change and the status quo. In their aftermath, voting and absentee voting and early voting.

Our ears still roar from the accusations, the name-calling, the allegations, the denials. The 24-hour coverage has dimmed our eyes. The lies have jeopardized our faith in the system.

Will the winners and losers wake up Wednesday morning and go on with lives like professional wrestlers after a match? Can they pretend they never said such vile things to and about each other? Will they forget what their rivals said to and about them?

More important, what will the voters do? Can we forgive the people we picked to lead us? Should we try? Will next time be even worse?

It's our duty, I suppose, to enforce the peace by holding the winners to their campaign promises -- no matter how arduously they will try to distract us.

We also must monitor the losers so that they -- and we -- get behind the victors to bring some sort of unity to the nation; after a civil war, we must all wear the same uniform again.

We have to beat our swords into plowshares. We can start by yanking those political party signs from our yards. We must no longer fear the robotic campaign messages from our phones. For better or worse, we will return our evenings to normal programming.

And not a moment too soon.

MOORE WORDS: No matter how maddening an election sometimes is, it comes from noble beginnings. The word "elect" has a long, bountiful history in our language.

"Elect" has been with us since at least the 13th century, coming from a Latin stem, eligere , which meant "to pick out, gather (fruit) or select."

According to various dictionaries, "elect" also dealt with reading and speaking, so we ended up with "legible," "lesson" and "lecture."

"Elect" begat "select" and "collect" and "neglect." Another offspring was "eligible" (fit to be chosen). In the 18th century, "elite" grew from the same root; after all, the elite are those who are chosen.

From "elect" we inherited "elective," "electorate" and "electoral college." Less obvious, though, are "logic," "legume," "leech" and even "negligee."

A handy word, election.

Reach Glynn Moore at (706) 823-3419 or glynn.moore@augustachronicle.com.