Dear Editor:

“Life isn’t easy, and leadership is harder still.” – Walter Russell Mead, Distinguished Academic

We are living through what will surely go down in history as the most divisive, chaotic and dangerous time our nation will have faced in multiple generations. The threat to the physical, emotional and psychological health of individuals and our communities is real as we watch the death toll from the coronavirus mount daily throughout the country. Just as real and perhaps even more dangerous is the toll the current political climate is taking on the health of our democracy.

It is in times like these we must turn to leaders of integrity who can demonstrate their willingness, even at tremendous personal cost, to roll up their sleeves and step into the fray to improve the lives of the people they represent. Not just the people who voted for them but the whole of the community they represent as elected officials.

We have, in Holly Stover, such a leader — a person who has proven her readiness to serve the community in a way that lifts us all.

Holly’s record is clear. She has supported the Seafood Trade Relief Program, the expansion of broadband services, the Rent Relief Program and more equitable access to good health and dental care for all who need it. She lists job openings on her Facebook page and works to create permanent, affordable housing for young adults and families who want to live where they work. She voted for more state support for education and teachers, and for workforce training. She’s involved in efforts to create safe, non-medical transportation opportunities that will help ensure that seniors can age in place — all issues of primary importance under normal circumstances but more immediately concerning as we face a future fraught with medical, social and political potholes that threaten the very underpinnings of society as we know it.

I trust Holly’s leadership and will support her bid for Representative of House District 89 on Nov. 3. I hope you will too.

Carole Zalucky

Southport