A peaceful transfer of power

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

With those words, Donald Trump will become the 45th President of the United States on Friday, Jan. 20. As has been the case throughout our nation’s history, the power of the presidency will peacefully be transferred from one person to another.

Many people have questions about what kind of president Donald Trump will be. To be certain, no one has come into this office with the type of background as Mr. Trump. He has never held an elective office and never been a member of the military, historically, the two most common paths to the office of the president. Instead, he has been a businessman, known best for his deal-making abilities and his history of self-promotion.

Mr. Trump struck a chord with the American people. Most wrote off his candidacy more than a year ago, assuming that he would flame out and the "serious candidates" would eventually win in the primaries. Still later, once he secured the Republican nomination, many people believed the Republicans had basically handed the presidency to Hillary Clinton.

If there is a lesson to be learned, it would be not to underestimate Mr. Trump. He has proven the experts wrong ever since he announced he was running for President. With a Republican Congress, he has a good chance of carrying through on many of his campaign pledges. He is also a smart, adaptable man who will hopefully find out quickly that being president is a lot different than running for president. His words carry a lot more weight now than they did when he was private citizen Trump or candidate Trump or even President-elect Trump.

No one can guess what the next four years will have in store for this nation. Our only hope is that Mr. Trump will use his new position to benefit the entire nation while at the same time respecting the rule of law, the Constitution and all the citizens of the United States.