On Tuesday, I awoke feeling extremely sad. I had no idea who would be the winner of this extremely painful presidential race. But I was pretty sure that close to 80 percent of Americans would not be happy with the choice of our next president. I draw this conclusion from campaigning for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the past year. Speaking with Americans across the nation, I learned the unfortunate truth that most voters were voting out of fearing the other candidate. And perhaps even sadder still, that a large number of voter-eligible citizens would be choosing a third-party candidate or not voting at all, discussed or distrustful of our political system.

Consider this possibility, that close to 50 percent of the votes cast on Tuesday were for the opponent of our next president and another 30 percent or so of adult citizens either did not vote or voted for a third-party candidate, perhaps Snoopy!

Our nation deserves better than this. My hope is that rather than celebrating their victory, the winners of this election will seek to understand those who fear the next four years. And that the losers of this election rather than judge and dismiss their neighbors who do not agree with them, will seek to understand why so many could not vote for their candidate.

Sol Riou

Port Townsend