I don’t need to tell you how many people turned out in pouring rain for the March for Science on April 22 in Washington D.C., or for the Climate March one week later, with over 200,000 participants, along with tens of thousands in 370 sister marches throughout the country.

Marches are happening with increasing frequency everywhere. It’s getting so you can’t sit them out.

We were in D.C. for the March for Science, and home on San Juan Island for the Climate March. From one Washington to another.

Azalea blossoms were out in full force in D.C., as cherry blossoms lingered. In the islands, Orca whales are following the salmon who are returning to the rivers where they were born. And hummingbirds returning from their vast migration to our feeders.

Nature needs to know we are with her, that we have her back.

On Saturday, April 29 we gathered at noon in the upper parking lot of the courthouse in Friday Harbor. Liquid sunshine then too. Bearing hand-painted signs, wearing handmade costumes, pushing babies in strollers, and toting dogs on leashes. One person wore a teepee construction around him. Essentially it was a microcosm of all we had seen, and all the camaraderie we had experienced in D.C. the week before. One country, coast to coast. Or so it seems. If there is one good thing to come out of oppressive regimes, it is this: The Resistance. Who are they, in fact, who does sit this out?

If there is one good thing to come out of oppressive regimes, it is this: The Resistance. Who are they, in fact, who does sit this out?

In the run-up to the election, I had wanted to write an open letter to my Republican relatives, as well as a few friends I’ve probably lost by now. But I must have mulled over it too much, for I never did. Now, of course, I wish I had. I would like to hear from you.

Tell me, what in God’s Earth did you not see coming with Trump? What were you thinking?

Kimberly Mayer

San Juan Island