Letters to the Editor
Published 1:30 am Saturday, June 13, 2026
THE DAILY HERALD
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I’m writing for myself and for others whose lives aren’t controlled by the computer industry and who care about the survival of The Herald and real newspapers.
The day the presses stop and The Herald goes all digital, that’s the day my subscription ends.
Please join me in letting the new owners of The Herald know you feel the same way.
Thank you
P.S.
Thank you Jon Bauer for helping to make The Herald a great newspaper. I wish you all the best.
Kory Kanter
Everett
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Peter Hegseth
Many facts presented.
He is also subject to removal as he refuses accountability.
He damages the military careers subjectively. He demonstrates racist bias and anti- feminine bias also. He in my opinion needs to be dismissed as inept and toadyism. Why have we allowed this miscreant to remain in office?
Sam Bess
Stanwood
MONEY-LED POLITICS
The Fossil Fuel Industry
The world as we know it today was built on the back of burning fossil fuels. Unfortunately, this process has come at a tremendous cost. Emissions from burning fossil fuels are rapidly warming our world at a rate that has never occurred in the history of our planet. Why, then, do we continue to burn planet killing fossil fuels?
One primary reason is the tremendous control the fossil fuel industry has over our government. The industry spends approximately $250 million dollars per year lobbying elected officials. The vast majority of this money goes to Republican officials and candidates. During the 2024 presidential campaign alone, oil interests gave more than $75 million to Donald Trump’s affiliated PACs.
This lobbying money spent by the fossil fuel industry serves as a highly effective financial instrument, yielding unparalleled returns on investment by securing multi-billion dollar taxpayer subsidies, rolling back environmental regulations, and aggressively stalling clean energy competition.
In addition, our federal government spends between $20 to $35 billion a year on direct handouts to the fossil fuel industry. These perks primarily include special tax breaks, deductions, cheap access to drilling on public lands, and regulatory loopholes.
We cannot expect meaningful climate action as long as our representatives are financially beholden to the very industry driving this crisis. It is time for voters to demand absolute transparency and use their ballots to reject candidates who prioritize fossil fuel payouts over our planet’s future.
Ron Sadler
Everett
RELIGION
Chosen people?
A recent contributor to ‘letters’ reminded us that the Jews are the Creator’s specially chosen people!
I have always had trouble reconciling this with the Natural world. There are about sixteen million Jews extant today so are we to believe that these have constitutions different from the other nine billion souls; and that they have license to exploit those nine billion to their advantage?
Len St.Clare
Mukilteo
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Bringing back our communities’ officer friendlies
Gratefully our society is beginning to bring back those old days when we saw our law enforcement officers as “officer friendly.”
Over the past years it has been hard to get men and women to join the forces of being a community guardian. But several years ago, 44th District State Senator John Lovick stepped forward and lead the movement to have not just a statewide Law Enforcement Training Center in Burian, but to have four other regional and therefore local police training academies.
Our own Northwest Regional Training Academy (NWRTA) (aka Arlington Regional Police Training Academy) allows police candidates from Skagit, Whatcom, Island, Snohomish and San Juan counties to complete their 720 hours of required basic law enforcement training closer to home. With the NWRTA added academy it has greatly reduced the time for an officer to become a certified “community guardian.”
On July 29, 2025 the first NWRTA had 29 graduates. Then only four months later on December 17, 32 new officers graduated. But it didn’t end there. The June 2, 2026, and third NWRTA graduation class, had 29 officers who passed the grueling basic police academy standards.
Due to our own regional academy in less than a year it has placed 90 new community “officer friendlies” on our streets.
Then on August 10th of this year NWRTA class number 4 will begin and it will probably have another 30 candidates who will walk the stage to receive their certification of graduation on December 16th!
Chuck Wright
Mill Creek
PRESIDENT TRUMP
Fair play in letters
I cant sit idle by and let some dude named Dick proclaim in spite of overwhelming evidence that Trump is the opposite of any prophet any God would send us. His believe in his books fairytale is just like mine in Santa Claus and the Easter bunny. I encourage him to read the Bagavad Gita, and the Koran, and several other cultures ” books” so he can get the idea that his book and all the other books claim a diety and special charm like his. They all say universal truth like that’ll shall not kill, and thaul shalt not lie, but they all say to help feed the hungry, All should take in from the cold, and basically be nice to other humans on Earth. His president does none of these things. He is the most obvious anti- christ i have ever heard of in my entire life. His man makes fun of the disabled, and brags about grabbing women in public! I vote for Mayor Pete to be our Messiah, he seems fair to everyone.
Lawrence East
Everett
REBUTTAL
‘Like Jesus, we are to model humility’
A reply to Mr. Dildine’s editorial “Trump is fulfilling God’s plan.” As I read the Bible God does not “need” Israel or US for His purposes. God’s kingdom is wholly and holy other. God speaks creation & destroys enemies with breath (Genesis 1; 2 Thessalonians 2:8).
Chaos happened when humans chose not to trust God (Genesis 3, etc.). God “chose” Abraham not to exclude world but for Abraham to reflect God’s blessing to the world. (Genesis 12:1-3).
BTW, Sara gave Hagar to Abraham; not God’s plan. Sara mistreated Hagar. God had compassion on Hagar/Ishmael though plan was through Isaac (Genesis 16, 17, 21:8-21).
Exodus 19:5-6 God rescues Israel to be “a kingdom of priests and holy nation.” A priest should lead others to God. When Israel did not honor God, God even allowed nations to conquer Israel & destroy the temple more than once.
God’s promises to Israel, all humanity, to bless & restore remains. “For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16); By grace saved thru faith (Ephesians 2:8-10); God wishes not Jew or Gentile to perish (2 Peter 3:8-9, Romans 9-11).
Jesus fulfilled Law & Prophets (Matthew 5:17) reflects the Father’s heart (John 14:9-11). Jesus taught we are to love God & love others (Mark 12:28-34); Even to love enemies & pray for them (Luke 6:27-36).
Like Jesus, we are to model humility (Philippeans 2: 3-11). We do that thru Holy Spirit’s power not our own (Zechariah 4:6, John 14:12, Acts 1:8). That is God’s plan.
Shawn Ritchey
Stanwood
