Dear John:

I remember it like yesterday.

When I walked onto the campus of the brand new Evergreen State College, it was still under construction, but I arrived early to get a summer job from one of the building contractors. My glamorous responsibility: scraping the plaster off the walls of the new lecture hall.

Still, I was filled with excitement and anticipation. A new college with a new (interdisciplinary) approach. One with an emphasis on learning and critical thinking. And one with a commitment to study big issues — issues like the future of our planet.

I studied ecology and life sciences. My studies instilled in me a lifelong belief that this giant orb we all occupy requires our constant stewardship. That came to me naturally. After all, the prior year, my senior year in high school, had been the very first Earth Day celebration.

The effort to leave our children and grandchildren a better planet, a healthy world with clean air and water, is our eternal quest. And it continues today.

Washington state leads the nation in many environmental efforts including the gold standard of combating climate change, the Climate Commitment Act. But, an effort to repeal that historic law is on this November's ballot.

The stakes are huge. To begin with, whether our state will do its part to ensure we have clean air and clean water and whether or not we will participate in the rapidly growing clean energy economy, not to mention the good paying jobs that accompany it.

But believe it or not, the stakes are even bigger. Because we help lead the nation with the Climate Commitment Act, other states are watching us closely. If we take a step back, they won't take a step forward. In a very real sense, the stakes are for our entire country.

We have a chance to continue to do our part and to set an example by voting NO on Initiative 2117 this November — refusing to repeal the Climate Commitment Act — and support climate action.

Clean air. Clean water. A healthy planet.

Sounds worth it to me.

Denny