In Other Words, Leadership: A Governor’s Life-Saving Choices in the First Pandemic Year & One Woman’s Inspiring Letters of Support

Two very different women from opposite poles of power forge an uplifting bond through good, old-fashioned letter writing that helps them navigate the COVID crisis

Both bring civility, grace, wit, and wisdom to the challenge of protecting those who depend on them - in other words, leadership

This trip to the Vacationland of Maine-where the state motto is I Lead-offers an inspiring tale of civility and purpose, of doing the right thing and not just surviving, but prevailing. Led by a freelance reporter who’s written for The New Yorker and many national programs on public radio this is a journey readers will want to experience.

When Janet Mills - the first female governor of Maine - delivered her first state of the state speech in January 2020, she thought the lowest point of her first term had already happened - a tragic propane explosion at a business in her hometown. That same day, the US reported its first confirmed COVID case.

That March, Ashirah Knapp, co-owner of a family farm and school for sustainable living skills, wife, and mother of two school-age children, wrote the first of 50 weekly letters to Governor Mills expressing empathy and support for the difficult choices she was having to make. The governor came to look forward to those letters, memorialized them in her journals, mentioned them in speeches and responded to Ashirah with personal letters of her own. Thanks in no small part to Governor Mills’ steadfastness, Maine has had one of the lowest COVID death rates in the nation, despite having its oldest population.