A new day has dawned in America, and it is time for all of us to set aside our differences and move forward, together, as one nation, no longer divided by politics and anger but united by a determination for our country to, in fact, be great again.

At this writing, newly sworn in President Donald Trump had not given his inaugural address, but if it is anything like his 2017 remarks, he will, at some point, urge unity and discuss his agenda, one that likely will promise to make the United States a strong, wealthy and proud nation.

But whether the new president talks about unity or not, the time has come for us to try to set aside all the political anger that has built up over the past nine years and forge a front that says whether Democrat, Republican, independent or a non-voter, we are going to give a new administration a chance. We should have done that four years ago, but we failed miserably. Maybe this time around, with lessons learned, we can see that a united country has to start not in the White House but in our house.

President Trump will not be able to do this alone.

Today it is our turn.

Whether we voted for Trump or not; whether we like him or even agree with his general philosophy, he is now our president and we should respect the office he holds and allow him the opportunity to do the things he has promised. Even as we hold him accountable for the way in which he will wield his power in a country broken by political rhetoric, bureaucracy, prejudices and economics, we should give him time to lead.

If we believe in our country; if we want our nation to be strong; if want our people to prosper; if we want our country to truly be united, we must work toward that unity, pledging not to hold grudges or work against the new president, but work with him toward a greater American.

That doesn’t mean bowing to his every whim. Checks and balances should continue and, as a nation, whether we like him or not, we must call him to answer for any missteps or actions that don’t reflect the unifying spirit we all need to have.

As Trump, himself, has said, we should speak our minds openly and disagree honestly, but we must always pursue solidarity, because “when we are united, America is totally unstoppable.”

He is right.

Somehow we’ve forgotten that it is OK to disagree, that it is OK to have other opinions, but that a disagreement does not mean we are prejudiced against another. Somehow we’ve forgotten that, as Trump said, we are all Americans and that no matter our color — white, black, brown — we all bleed red. And we believe he is correct in his earlier assertion that when Americans open their heart to patriotism, “there is no room for prejudice.”

There should be no room for prejudices as we move forward, but we cannot get there if we first don’t lay down our verbal arms, our desire to gloat or pout (depending on which party wins the land’s highest office) and our bend toward judging people who don’t think like we do, look like we do or believe like we do.

The responsibility is now as much ours it is that of the new administration to do everything in our power to make America great again, from the youngest to the oldest, richest to the poorest.

To do that means we must work together, embracing our differences even as we work to find common ground.

In taking his oath of office Monday, President Trump has pledged his allegiance to all the people of America; we hope America can now work to return that allegiance to his presidency.