To the editor:

Fellow Islanders, as the current health crisis continues to escalate, many of us on Bainbridge Island are fortunate enough to enjoy a financial safety net sufficient to sustain us through a veritable lockdown that could last months.

As somebody who has lived most of his life without a safety net, subsisting paycheck to paycheck, perpetually harboring anxiety regarding my livelihood, I’m writing this letter on behalf of those who don’t enjoy this safety net; our landscapers, housecleaners, and caregivers, our childcare providers, dog walkers, and pest controllers.

This letter is intended as a gentle reminder that these people whom we depend on also depend on us. Thus it is for the benefit and health of our community that I humbly beseech those who can afford to do so to please consider offering these people paid leave until the crisis passes. This gesture of goodwill promises to have far-reaching implications for the health of our community, not just physically, but philosophically and ideologically.

Among the many reasons we’ve chosen to make Bainbridge Island our home — it’s natural beauty, its small town charm, its rich and colorful history — let’s not forget its vital sense of community.

Again I humbly urge those who can afford to do so to extend the benefit of their generosity and financial security to include those service providers currently walking the razor’s edge in these troubled times. You have the means to save lives and strengthen the fabric of our community.

JONATHAN EVISON

Bainbridge Island