No one can accuse Vashon islanders of not getting involved.

This week, our intrepid intern reporter Aspen Anderson provides front-page coverage of the efforts of two islanders who have come up with oh-so-Vashon ways to support the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz ticket.

While Jenna Riggs is busy hustling honey to raise money for the Democratic ticket, Matt Beursken, often clad in rainbow hues, has taken to daily flag waving in the center of town.

Meanwhile, members of Indivisible Vashon are huddled at the Swiftwater Gallery, busily writing postcards to send to swing-state voters.

We all have a part to play in this extremely high-stakes election. And while we can’t all be as showy in our support as the islanders who are profiled in today’s article, we should all make time, right about now, for heartfelt and sometimes hard conversations about the kind of country we want to live in for the next four years.

This is our chance to reach out, share our convictions, and listen.

All that said, none of us need a crystal ball to know how Vashon will vote in November’s election — it will be a landslide for Harris and Walz, following trend lines established since the 2000s.

In 2004, Vashon voted 77% for Democrat John Kerry over Republican George W. Bush. In 2008 and 2012, Vashon voted 82% and 80% for Democrat Barack Obama, and in 2016, voted 84% for Democrat Hilary Clinton.

Biden/Harris did even better in 2020, with an 87.5% victory over Donald Trump on Vashon.

Still, as island historian Bruce Haulman astutely pointed out in The Beachcomber immediately following the 2020 election, that percentage means that the remainder of the vote, cast by 781 islanders, went to Trump. And on a small island, 781 people are a big crowd.

Here’s something else to remember: Those Trump voters are your neighbors on the island. So, too, are islanders who are sitting out the election or voting for a third party out of frustration with both candidates on topics such as the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

It’s worth trying to understand their reasoning, especially if you disagree with their perspective.

It’s also worth advocating for ranked choice voting in this country, which would give us more ability to vote our conscience while at the same time rejecting candidates we don’t want in the White House.

We all want and deserve so many of the same things — secure and affordable housing, better healthcare, honest work, dignity and respect, a peaceful and just world, and privacy and freedom from governmental intrusion in the lives we lead and the personal decisions we make.

These are rights that belong to all of us. And we can all find creative ways, like Jenna and Matt, to stand up for these rights as a daily practice — and to gently but confidently press our neighbors and loved ones to care, too.