Editor,

Donald Trump has awakened many people like myself to the fact of how fragile our democracy is. Throughout most of my life, I was not politically active. I’ve always voted, at times enthusiastically, at other times, just going through the motions.

Yesterday, however, I mailed 75 letters to potential voters in swing states, not telling them for whom to vote, but just encouraging them to vote. In the next week, I will send out several hundred handwritten postcards for the same reason.

Donald Trump has forced my hand by pushing so many buttons — demonstrating greed, showing callous indifference to other people’s misfortunes, pounding away at our system of justice, however imperfect it can be.

It shouldn’t have taken such crude hands to wake me up, but it did. I hope never to go to sleep again or forget about the necessity of moving, however slowly, toward seeing all beings as worthy of acceptance and fairness.

At the age of 76, I will definitely be taking naps, but I, and we, can no longer afford to close our eyes and let our world be stolen and destroyed.

Miriam Raabe

Langley