Letters to the editor for Dec. 20
Collins is clear choice for 10th District
The South Sound is one of the most progressive areas in Washington and the country. It’s time we had representation to match our forward-thinking values.
With 10th District Congressman Denny Heck retiring at the end of this term, the opportunity for a change is clear. We need a representative who will fight for the well-being of working people in our district, by championing policies such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, abolishing ICE, and stopping endless overseas wars.
Those who want a better future for our communities should support Joshua Collins in August’s congressional primary. Collins is a working-class long-haul truck driver, and a staunch supporter of Bernie Sanders’ platform. Whereas centrist Democrats in the political establishment have largely told us to be content with a failing status quo, Collins is a socialist with bold policy proposals on health care, housing, the environment, immigration, LGBTQ rights, and criminal justice. He has been in the 2020 race for the 10th District from early on, and is endorsed by progressive and socialist organizations locally and nationally.
To defeat both President Trump and the system that created him, our country needs a radical transformation of our politics and economy – an agenda that will energize those left behind by our political system, and bring them out to the polls. To accomplish it, we need leaders such as Sanders and Collins in office, and we all must stand together in our demands for a just society. A better world is possible. Socialism can win.
Local Catholic Diocese should join call to abolish nuclear weapons
In November, Pope Francis called for the global abolition of nuclear weapons while paying homage to the victims of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nagasaki was a city destroyed by atomic weapons with plutonium produced in Washington’s Catholic Diocese.
The Holy Father declared: “With deep conviction I wish once more to declare that the use of atomic energy for purposes of war is today, more than ever, a crime not only against the dignity of human beings but against any possible future for our common home.”
Washington Against Nuclear Weapons says Washington state has the largest collection of deployed nuclear weapons in the Western Hemisphere at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor on Hood Canal, just 20 miles from Seattle. This nuclear weapons installation makes our state a primary target in the event of a nuclear exchange.
As people of faith, we call on religious leaders in Washington state, especially the Seattle Archbishop, to heed the words of Pope Francis in Nagasaki, to join other faith-based members of the Washington Against Nuclear Weapons Coalition and actively preach to congregants that the continuing possession and so-called modernization of nuclear weapons is immoral.