Letter: We owe our grandchildren better than this

Published 1:30 am Thursday, April 16, 2026

I’ve never written a letter to the editor before, but today I felt compelled to put my thoughts in writing. My hope is to open a dialogue about what we’re doing to our grandchildren and how we might help make change for them.

When I think about my grandsons and the world they’re inheriting, my heart breaks.

Those born in the late ‘80s, ‘90s, and 2000s have endured crisis after crisis during their most formative years. They watched families lose their homes in the financial collapse. They learned lockdown drills before they learned multiplication tables. They’ve grown up with a constant drumbeat of uncertainty and fear, and now face the prospect of being sent to fight in conflicts they don’t understand and didn’t choose.

This cumulative trauma – wave after wave with no time to recover – should weigh on all of us. Instead, we’ve lost the ability to even talk to each other about it.

Everything has become a football game – your side versus my side – when in reality, nobody wins. Our young people certainly aren’t winning. They’re just trying to build lives while carrying weight that previous generations never had to shoulder.

I don’t have all the answers. But I know we owe them more than chaos and tribalism. We owe them adults who are willing to listen, speak respectfully, and put their best foot forward instead of feeding the division for their future.

Sincerely,

A Concerned Grandmother

Rebecca Baleisis

Snohomish