Editor,

Dear residents of Whidbey Island: I have lived here for 12 years and love this island and its people. I’m happy we all can state our opinions freely. All opinions I’ve heard agree the current president is unreasonable and unfit for the job.

I’ve always had a healthy respect for our government and its rules of law and election. I did not vote for Donald Trump, was surprised he won but was willing to live with this choice per our rules. Four years is not an eternity. But now, it feels like it is.

Bad behavior can sneak up on us. My mother used to say we must “stand porter at the door of thought” so we guard against the subtlety of evil. It is our responsibility to speak up, demand that our elected officials conduct themselves with respect for the process and the good of all citizens in mind. This requires repeating ourselves until behavior is corrected. Speaking up is all that is necessary.

Turning away because it’s too unpleasant or overwhelming or unbelievable is giving in to those subtle thoughts that we are powerless to affect change. All of us who appreciate this place and its peace need to be ready to protect it by speaking up to those who threaten it.

I know lives are busy. I understand it seems far away and someone’s else’s job to fix it. Being an elected official cannot be an easy job. I do not have solutions. But I do believe we have the power to correct it if we all agree it should be corrected.

Please listen to your thoughts and guard against feelings of powerlessness. We do have power and the ability to speak up. The true will set us free, say it.

Elizabeth Hamilton

Freeland