Letter from Olympia on Nov. 4

THIS ISLANDER IS ON SABBATICAL, but my island’s wild winds have followed me to Washington State’s capital city.

Here’s my quick day-before-the-election report.

I awakened today to lashing rain. Fierce winds are ripping golden leaves from the autumn trees and prepping them for winter. Lights in the house are occasionally flashing here on Oly’s West Bay Drive, where I look out through a bank of picture windows to Budd Inlet and the cityscape of sailboat masts, new apartment buildings and a broad swath of state offices. I’m house-sitting for six weeks for my friends Daniel and Jean.

I’ve been here a week. Took a hike with Daniel’s all-male hiking group, a bunch of gray-headed guys with tales to tell, many of them from influential positions in state government. Took a long solo walk down Olympia’s Fourth Avenue, past Bohemian coffee shops and cafes, more than one “junque” store selling other people’s discarded treasures, and a few boarded-up storefronts. But there’s also the elegant new Assyrian restaurant, and the soon-to-open holiday skating rink with a view of the stately capitol dome. Ended up at Olympia Coffee Roasters, where I plunked down 20 bucks for a bag of delicious Ethiopian Abore medium-roast beans (“flavors of berries, chocolate and cream”).

I’m here, in part, to decide if this is where I want to live next. Part of my long-term Center Island exit strategy. I’ve joined a gym. I’ll go to local events and shows. I’ll get reacquainted with the community where I went to college almost 50 years ago.

But I’ve another objective in writing today.

Tomorrow is Election Day, the final day to cast our votes in the most important election of our lives. A day when we choose to keep our freedoms or give them up to an unbalanced, narcissistic tyrant. A day when America chooses to give democracy another chance or gives up on everything everybody has fought for and lets chaos reign.

It’s that simple. We’re like the Germans in the early 1930s. The choice we make tomorrow, for good or bad, will shake our world.

I’ve done what I can to help the good guys. I’ve written 250 get-out-the-vote letters to swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona. I’ve donated $1,500 of my meager bank account to the Harris campaign.

I’m not looking for credit or thanks for that. But I am asking loyal readers to stop and think: Have you cast your ballot yet? Has everyone in your family cast their ballot? Does anybody you know need help or encouragement to cast their ballot? This is not an election to sit out. If there’s anybody you know who needs help or persuasion, today is the day. Please write or call your friends, family and neighbors. Make sure they’ve voted.

Keep up the hope. Keep up the optimism. But, please, do what you can for the good guys.

Then we’ll all keep our fingers crossed.

Thank you,

Brian