New book Mayor Nicola Smith Grateful Steward chronicles Nicola Smith’s two terms as Mayor of Lynnwood, Washington. From 2014 to 2021, Nicola Smith served as the seventh mayor of Lynnwood, Washington, a small city located in Snohomish County. Mayor Smith entered the realm of politics at a much needed time in American history when true leadership is needed at all levels of government. 

I met Love 22 during my senior year at the University of Rhode Island. Love 22 slid unannounced into my life on a blustery day in November. He looked like he had been blown like a tumbleweed across the campus quadrangle. The sun was hidden behind a blank slate of sky. Wind sheared through the tops of plain grey trees that had shed their leaves.

My column today is a collection of observations that are based in part on the social isolation we’ve all felt for last 22 months. We always knew pandemics were a possibility, especially after the H1N1 scare in 2009, but our earlier national preparedness had lapsed into a broken stockpile and a rusty supply chain.