Letters to the Editor
Published 1:30 am Thursday, June 18, 2026
VETERANS
Gaming offers more than just entertainment
A recent survey found that 86% of veterans say video games provide a healthy outlet for stress and anxiety, 81% say gaming helps them cope with difficult times, and 77% say it helps them stay connected with others.
As someone who has spent years working with veterans across Washington, those numbers don’t surprise me.
One of the biggest challenges many veterans face after leaving military service is maintaining a sense of connection and community. The transition to civilian life can be difficult, and too many veterans experience isolation, loneliness, and mental health challenges along the way. That’s why finding spaces where people can connect with others is so important.
Today, many people—including veterans and young adults—are finding that connection through video games and communication platforms like Discord, Xbox Party Chat, and Steam Chat. These platforms allow people to stay in touch with friends, build communities around shared interests, and maintain relationships regardless of where they live.
While these tools are often discussed as technology products, their real value is much more human. They give people a place to gather, communicate, and feel like they are part of something larger than themselves. In many ways, they serve the same purpose that veterans organizations, community groups, and local gathering places have served for generations.
I’ve seen firsthand how powerful community can be when someone is struggling. Whether it’s a veteran walking through the doors of our organization for the first time or someone logging on to talk with friends after a difficult day, the principle is the same: people need people.
As conversations continue about gaming and online platforms, I hope we remember that for many Americans, these spaces are not just about entertainment. They are about connection, belonging, and supporting one another through life’s challenges.
Raymond Miller
Founder, President, and CEO
Vets Place Northwest – Welcome Home
Marysville
ARC de TRUMP
Proposed arch would be a false idol
Washington has a presidential monument known as The Washington Monument built to honor George Washington.
It is 555 ft. tall. It has a high speed elevator to a viewing room near the top. Its corner stone contains numerous items. It was started in 1833, finished by the US Army Corps of Engineers and dedicated in 1885.
Abraham Lincoln, Pope plus IX, and others earlier participated.
It cost $1.187 million then. The San Jacinto arch in Texas is taller
No mention of an arch in American history. The Bible Warns against these idols but not monuments. This fantasmagoric Arch, claimed Donald Trump, should honor him, another proposed idol.
Samuel Bess
Stanwood
HOMELESSNESS
Take action on a real plan to end homelessness
Thanks for the articulate and enlightening commentary on homelessness, including the best way to deal with the problems. This piece deserves to be read and put into action by those we elect at all levels of government. (‘A false choice between housing stability and accountability’ By the members of the Snohomish County Partnership to End Homelessness Executive Committee, The Daily Herald, June 9, 2026) Instead of putting our resources in one pot or another claimed solution, a “full spectrum of options” is necessary. It is time our elected officials listen to those on the front lines and put their plan into action. Each of us can help by letting those we elect know the critical importance of this approach, perhaps send them this Herald article: https://www.heraldnet.com/2026/06/08/a-false-choice-between-housing-stability-and-accountability/, telling them you agree, and ask them to use it.
Willie Dickerson
Snohomish
HOUSING STABILITY
The link between ACES, homelessness and drugs
People with behavioral health issues, substance abuse, and a history of housing instability often share a common factor – significant adverse childhood experiences or ACES. (A false choice between housing stability and accountability, June 9, 2026).
Years ago, the state of Washington was the first in the nation to take action on the direct link between ACES and a long list of problems that people, and society, face.
This common denominator seems to have been forgotten or ignored as community leaders, support agencies, and local and state governments confront a continual and growing list of social challenges.
Too often the symptoms of these problems get the attention and the funding. Time to get back to the cause and stop wasting time and money on feel good measures. After all, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Ted Neff
Edmonds
FATHERS
Ask lawmakers to increase cigarette tax
Father’s Day is celebratory for many, but a reminder of deep loss for others. How many of our fathers have been lost to cancer and specifically to those types of cancer caused by tobacco?
We can let our dads know we want them to stop smoking so they can be in our lives for years to come, but the grip of addiction is too real for too many. Big Tobacco does all it can to keep as many folks addicted as possible and bring in new customers as well. That’s why cigarette taxes are a good thing. Revenue from the tax can fund and improve our state’s prevention and cessation efforts, which lag woefully behind recommended levels and is badly outpaced by the nearly $85 million in marketing poured into our state alone each year Big Tobacco.
Higher taxes on tobacco products are a good thing on so many levels. All data indicates they make people less likely to buy these deadly products and fund efforts to educate and help folks quit and keep others from ever starting. Our state has not raised the cigarette tax in 17 years and we all pay the price in the form of addiction, poor health outcomes and preventable death to the ones we love.
We can’t keep kicking the can down the road. I ask lawmakers to make this a priority in 2027 and support a $2 per pack tax increase on cigarettes. The lives we save are worth it.
Robin Thomas Sparks, MPH
Marysville
SPEEDING TICKETS
Why are we paying fines to Florida?
I received a speeding ticket from the Mukilteo Police Dept.
Fair cop. But the fine is paid to some outfit in Florida, which probably skims off twenty five percent for themselves.
Not only that but they charge a ‘convenience’ fee if you want to pay by phone or on-line, which is outrageous.
Why can’t the Mukilteo Gurus do their own dirty work?
Len St.Clare
Mukilteo
TRUMP
The President has usurped Congress’ powers
President Trump has taken the reins of power not only in the United States, but across the world. Recently he said, “I could run for President in Israel.”
He also said about the proposed Arc de Trump, “We don’t need anything from Congress.” That may aptly be called the motto of the second Trump administration. He has usurped Congress’ legislative power, its revenue raising power, its power to declare war, its power to reorganize the federal government, its power over treaties, its appropriations power, and its oversight power. All of that belongs to the Boss of the World now.
Recently he asserted immunity for himself and his family from IRS audits; set up a $1.8 billion dollar slush fund to provide restitution for aggrieved MAGA supporters; relaxed regulations on “super pollutant” hydrofluorocarbons (HCFs); and paused a $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan after his visit to the man he calls the “great leader” of China.
The President is really on a roll, isn’t he?
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
