At precisely 5:32 a.m., on Oct. 27, 2016, I had an epiphany.

I can pinpoint the time and date because that’s when I returned to bed from an early morning foray to the facility only to find, after I had laid down, that Maggie the dog had had an accident literally seconds before and exactly where I was lying. Such an untoward event has a way of fixing itself in one’s memory.

So okay, what about the epiphany?

Well, after stripping off the bed sheets, I was staring at the ceiling thinking about a recent column I had written. In that column, in my fair and balanced way, I had poked gentle fun at Republicans who are clamoring for change when, in fact, Republicans dominate most elective offices from the United States Senate and House down through the various governor’s mansions and state legislatures. The point being that for change to occur, there would have to be fewer Republicans in elective office – a not-so-subtle hint that folks could assist Republicans in realizing their dream by voting Democrat on Nov. 8.

Well, that’s predictable enough. I often sound like a broken record making that partisan point over and over. What about the danged epiphany?

It dawned on me that I had stopped the roll call of Republican-dominated offices at the state legislature level. I never mentioned the races for local county offices here in Howard County, even though all of them are currently held by the GOP. It never even occurred to me. How could I have let that slip?

“That’s it?” you ask. “That’s all there is? The fact your memory is failing is an epiphany? Heck, any of your students could have told you that!”

No, the epiphany was not that I failed to mention the local contests, but “why” the omission occurred in the first place.

The political scientists have a name for it. They have a name for most everything. This one’s called “social capital.” It’s defined as “the networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively.”

The theory goes like this: If the only contact we have with each other is over our differing political views, the odds are we will be relatively intolerant of each other. If we have many different points of contact, we are more likely to be more forgiving of each other.

For example, I only know Todd Young as a Republican candidate for the Senate. I perceive him to be an adversary.

On the other hand, take any local Republican candidate. I see them in the grocery store, and we exchange pleasantries. We go to the same church. The kids play on the same team. We both have Colts or Cubs stickers in the back window. We “know” each other first and foremost. The party labels are secondary. I am more willing to cut them some slack for their unfortunate political party affiliation – and perhaps they may be willing to forgive me for mine.

The epiphany was that while I saw these folks as Republicans, I still saw them as people first, not adversaries, so it never occurred to me to list them with those I perceived to be in that category.

This is a good thing. It is what allows us to stay unified as a community despite our political differences.

I saw it in action for the duration of my time with the city. Party labels pretty much lost their significance after the vote count was complete. There might be ripples of partisan discontent from time to time, but things never escalated out of control.

Kokomo is a tough, resilient little city. It should have curled up and died when the gas boom went bust in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It should have faded away when Haynes Automobile and the Apperson Brothers’ Jackrabbits closed up shop in the Twenties. It should have shut off the lights when GM and Delphi shipped thousands of jobs to God-knows-where over the last 30 years.

Its death has been reported multiple times, but it keeps on truckin’.

The reason, I believe is because we have been able to see each other as people first, and political partisans second – even as the ideological wars have flared ever hotter.

As we approach another election, let’s remember we have more in common that unites us than differences that divide us. That recognition is what makes us tough and resilient as a community. I’ll be a Democrat and you can be a Republican, and let’s cut each other some slack.

And I’ll try to remember to let Maggie the dog out more often at night.