The citizens of Minnesota have been holding a collective breath while waiting to find out who will represent their interests in Washington for the next six years along with Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

The recount is over and Sen. Norm Coleman has prevailed. It is now time to put the election behind us, get beyond the political rhetoric and partisan posturing and move forward with helping the citizens of this state.

In a time of great economic uncertainty never before experienced by most of those in this country today, it is no time to prolong the outcome of the election and delay the seating of our United States’ senator.

Neither our state nor our country can afford to delay the momentous work that lies before our elected officials.

Minnesota has one of the greatest and proudest health care traditions in this country. The innovative developments of Minnesota companies have literally lead the nation in ingenuity in health care and continue to make much-needed improvements to our health care system. We can ill-afford to stymie that commitment to creativity by getting side-tracked by a long drawn-out legal battle which does nothing but further the political aspirations of individuals and waste precious taxpayer dollars.

Health care debate was a dominant feature in many of the campaigns this past year, including a commitment from President-elect Obama, who promised to do something significant to address the massive problem of the more than 45 million uninsured people of this country and the unsustainable, ever-increasing, costs of health care.

We should be excited about the possibility of real health care reform occurring this coming year, as it will be one of the top priorities of Congress in January. This is why we cannot afford to waste a single day without full representation in Washington, for the welfare of our citizens and for the businesses of Minnesota.

Sen. Coleman has worked for Minnesotans on myriad health care related issues. He has helped improve rural health care by bringing new critical access hospitals to rural areas, supporting the adoption and use of health information technology and reducing medical errors, helping more Americans access health care coverage, focusing on prevention and wellness as a means to bring down the costs of health care and eliminating fraud, waste and abuse. He has demonstrated that he will ensure that our input and the interests of Minnesota families and businesses will be represented in the health care reform debates that begin immediately in January.

The time for campaigning has come and gone. It is now time to move on to the critical issues facing our nation. Reforming our health care system and working to resolve the problems of the uninsured is too important to take a back seat to an unnecessary, purely political effort to change the will of the voters and the outcome of a Senate race that while close, has already been decided by the voters of this great state.

Tim J. Gallagher

pharmacist

Astrup Drug

Shoreview