Trees are bending, leaves are flying, election season is ending. I appreciate everyone who stepped up to help our campaign.

We focused on public safety and public service and had a good time. At our last event of the ’18 season at the Swiss in Tacoma, I played “Wild Thing” and “Twist and Shout” with our unofficial campaign band, The Beatniks. I proved, once again, I’m a better writer and prosecutor than I am guitar player.

John F. Kennedy said, “If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place to live.”

Whether you’re an artist or not, we need more humanity in our politics. Time to step up. #Vote.

And thanks for reading.

This week I spoke at the City Club of Tacoma.   My closing was atypical in that I focused less on public safety and more on public affairs. In my opening, I discussed our innovative initiatives to make the community safer and reform the justice system, but in closing I told three quick stories relating to my themes of safety and civility.

Some say I stay too far above the fray, that I should get my hands dirty. I say you can rebut misinformation without slipping into the mud. That’s the semi-lofty goal, though it can be a high-wire act. In this, writers and public officials are similar: we live, as Karl Wallenda put it, on the wire. And, as the Posies sang in 1990, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

This picture from the 1960 presidential campaign is my favorite shot of JFK & RFK.

Thanks for reading.