The people have spoken, and they have made their choice known.

The face of government in Dallas County will have a new face for at least the next four years.

But that face does not belong to a single person or even a particular idea.

Democracy is not made up of men. Men are fallible, shortsighted and prone to let their own desires affect the way they govern something greater than themselves.

Democracy, as powerful a system as it is, still stands on a belief. That belief gives leaders the mirror to which they must look into every day.

Citizens of Valley Grande showed on Tuesday they are relatively happy with the way their city is run, but that it is also time for some minor changes.

For Selmians, who knows what the turnover in city government would have been like had certain candidates not aspired for higher offices or decided to run again?

But the message rang clear with the election of a new mayor of Selma — people demand changes, and great ones at that.

We often hear the term “election process” used, and it is for a very good reason.

Elected officials who don’t view their terms as extensions of their campaigns rarely return to office.

This is not a time to sit back and enjoy spoils that we have not won. It will take this city and this county as a whole to build our community into the way we see it in our collective minds.

To put the hopes of an entire city on one person’s shoulder is unfair, both to that person and to the people that empowered him.

True work and foresight is needed in what have already proven to be hard times, regardless of leadership.

This is now the time for people to show that they truly believe in their decisions. It’s time to get past bitterness and differences of opinions.