Dear Mariners: It’s you, not me — so this is the end. We’re breaking up | Opinion

M’s break-up

Dear Mariners,

I don’t think it’s going to work out between us anymore. I wish I could say “It’s not you, it’s me,” but I think breakups are better in the end for everyone when honesty is upheld. So … it’s you.

I don’t feel like you want me to be a fan. I don’t think you want me in the stadium. I think we should break up.

I came into the 2024 season with an open mind and an open heart. Everything you did in the offseason pointed to a triumph. While I was guarded, I was excited. But everything you’ve done this year feels exactly the same.

The bats are frigid. The ace is winless. The defense is an adventure. The star has yet to hit one out.

It’s not fun. Baseball is supposed to be fun. But it’s not in Seattle.

It feels like you’re pushing me away. It feels like you don’t want me to watch. So I’m out. I’ll check in from time to time. But I can’t fill my life with your negative energy.

I’m sorry. I’ll always love you. But I don’t think we’re meant to be.

I wish you the best.

Andrew Monson, Puyallup

Protect victims

This letter is in response to Helena Wagner’s recent story: “Mom kills 4-year-old son as grandma was trying to get custody, Washington cops say.”

Prior to his disappearance, 4-year-old Ariel Garcia was placed with his grandmother under an emergency guardianship order. After the guardianship was granted, Ariel’s mother was charged with murdering Ariel.

Ariel’s death and the deaths and injuries of too many others show that the laws available to help those at risk from violence are too limited. In the next legislative session, our Legislature can help fix the problem by passing new laws.

As a lawyer with many years of experience working in this area of law, I want to highlight two strong examples in the newly revised Model Code on Domestic and Family Violence and in the “Kayden’s Law” provisions of the federal 2022 Reauthorization of Violence Against Women Act.

By enacting Kayden’s Law, our legislature can increase protections for children, parents and our communities. Kayden’s Law provides guidance for judges who need to consider the potential risk and protective factors that impact those at risk from domestic abuse. Kayden’s Law would also provide millions in federal funding to train Washington judges assigned to these cases.

Evangeline Stratton, Seattle

Red flags raised

Unfortunately, The News Tribune’s recent article about Northwest ICE Processing Center had no mention of the tremendous efforts made by residents before the ICE facility even opened.

Specifically, Tim Smith and the local Bill of Rights Defense Committee were tireless in their monitoring and opposition of the (then) Northwest Detention Center as soon as the project was revealed.

Every problem experienced at the place since had been previously brought to the city’s attention by residents calling out the horrors of private prison history and even pointing out (decades ago) the conflict of the $1/day wage.

So, the city had been made fully aware of what to expect and the oversight and conditions needed to implement, but Elizabeth Pauli, who served as city attorney at the time, misrepresented the private detention center as an “essential federal facility” (wrong) prompting an exception for approval despite zoning violations in the toxic area while pretending the city’s hands were tied.

In a few years, I’m sure we’ll see the same hindsight article addressing the South Tacoma mega-warehouse that by then will have choked-off critical aquifer recharge despite residents pointing out the need for hydrologic assessment, which the city refuses to properly analyze or include in critical area reviews.

When that day comes, please do a better job including the full history of how residents had given prior warning of exactly that.

Heidi Stephens, Tacoma

Ignore hacks

J. Antoni of the Heritage Foundation authored a recent column that appeared in the print edition of The News Tribune making numerous gloom-and-doom economic forecasts and claiming the “culprit” was excessive government spending, which he said created the 2022 inflation spike.

Antoni conveniently fails to note that inflation was a global phenomenon. Did U.S. overspending create inflation in all those other countries? No, it was a simple supply-and-demand bottleneck as global supply chains struggled to reopen after COVID.

There was also no mention that the U.S. inflation rate dropped more quickly than anywhere else, or any acknowledgment that since the $5 trillion COVID stimulus, U.S. aggregate national wealth has skyrocketed by $37 trillion and lifted millions out of poverty.

Antoni also absurdly argues that the COVID spending is what is keeping middle-class Americans from affording home ownership. Oh please. Every Republican policy since Reagan has enriched the already wealthy at the expense of all the rest of us. The home-ownership problem has been 40 years in the making and can be firmly laid at the feet of Reaganomics.

Please, please, please — do not believe anything authored by the Heritage Foundation. They are paid hacks working in the service of their Republican masters.

America deserves better.

Michael Thompson, Tacoma

This story was originally published April 18, 2024 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Dear Mariners: It’s you, not me — so this is the end. We’re breaking up | Opinion."