Opinion – The Columbian

In Our View: Local newspapers vital for strong communities

The Columbian — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:03:55 +0000

The benefits of local newspapers are well-documented. Studies have demonstrated that communities with local reporting have lower rates of government corruption, higher rates of voter turnout and increased numbers of political candidates.

Jarvis: Small businesses in impossible bind

Lisa Jarvis — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:01:58 +0000

The healthcare affordability crisis is crushing everyone, but it has become downright calamitous for small businesses. Survey after survey after survey shows that employers expect healthcare costs to rise nearly 10 percent on average in 2027, a figure that could be twice as high for small firms.

Letter: Don’t obscure anti-suicide message

Colleen Storey, Vancouver — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:00:58 +0000

September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, a time dedicated to reminding people that help is available and that every life matters. As a facilitator of a Survivor of Suicide Loss support group, I spend time twice each month with individuals and families navigating the profound grief that follows the suicide of a loved one. Having experienced this loss myself, I understand the difficult questions that often remain: What did I miss? What more could I have done? Why didn’t they reach out for help?

Letter: Protect children, vote Democratic

Keith Jacobs, Battle Ground — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:00:38 +0000

I am tired of the Republicans in office. Representatives, senators, cabinet members and the president are not protecting children. Child molesters, pedophiles not being prosecuted. Education funding is vanishing. Child food support being cut and Big Tech algorithms complicating our children’s mental health flourishing, yet no legislation from this Republican Congress.

Letter: Remembering 9/11

Norm Krasne, Vancouver — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:00:16 +0000

I was part of a rather small group of Vancouverites who attended the 9/11 remembrance ceremony at Waterfront Park. While listening, I recalled my own personal trauma.

Letter: Primaries outlive their usefulness

Davis Evans, Vancouver — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:00:15 +0000

We just finished a long, grueling primary campaign, with competing commercials and mudslinging on all sides. Now we are starting the same thing over for the general election. But could it be that the primaries have outlived their purpose?

Letter: Support Matthews for utility

Jim Luce, Vancouver — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:00:12 +0000

Clark Public Utilities needs policy leadership from its elected commissioners. Commissioners serve as the utility’s board of directors, setting the policies that determine where Clark Public Utilities will obtain the power and transmission it needs to provide affordable, reliable electricity and keep the lights on.

In Our View: Cheers & Jeers: Veterans; phony car seats

The Columbian — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 13:03:33 +0000

Cheers: To Donny Reed. The La Center resident is putting his own experience to work as director of Veteran Rites, a Tacoma-based nonprofit that helps veterans adjust to life after the military. As detailed in a Columbian article, Reed joined the U.S. Army shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and served until 2008. But after leaving the service, he had difficulty returning to civilian life.

Montoya: Show up for democracy

Jose Montoya — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 13:01:59 +0000

Twenty-eight years ago, I was a high school student in Sunnyside when I first learned how directly politics could shape the course of a life.

Finley: DSA wants to dismantle U.S.

Nolan Finley — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 13:01:28 +0000

Michigan’s midterm election ballot is littered with socialists.

Cherwitz and Zagacki: How to win the midterms

Richard Cherwitz and Kenneth Zagacki — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 13:01:17 +0000

As the country approaches another consequential midterm election, voters are likely to hear Republican candidates — and President Trump himself — argue that, despite the difficulties Americans may be experiencing, little has gone fundamentally wrong during the administration’s time in office. Millions of dollars will be spent on campaign advertisements and public appearances designed to highlight what Republicans describe as the administration’s accomplishments.

Feldman: We still live in the broken world of Sept. 11

Noah Feldman — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 13:01:12 +0000

At 8:46 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, I was on a plane somewhere over Connecticut. The pilot told us we were going into a holding pattern because a plane had just hit the World Trade Center.

McCloskey: MAHA fails to deliver on promises

Abby McCloskey — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 13:01:00 +0000

‘Bobby Unleashed” is the West Wing’s midterm motto, according to reporting by Politico. But what exactly is Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. being unleashed to do? Because the biggest MAHA policy reforms have run into that familiar Washington foe: old-fashioned bureaucracy. And while many Americans still do want to “Make America Healthy Again,” there are now plenty of other concerns competing for voters’ attention.

Letter: Letter has it backward

Debbie S. Simonds, VANCOUVER — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 13:00:39 +0000

Just when I thought that Roy Schimelpfening had stopped drinking the Trump Kool-Aid, he comes up with something else off the wall (“Freedom is on the ballot,” Our Readers’ Views, Aug. 25).

Letter: Support Perez for Congress

Jerry Mathis, VANCOUVER — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 13:00:34 +0000

Please vote for Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. I know there are people who think it’s more important to put party over people, but they are wrong. We had a representative who was (except for one vote) a complete party puppet. Everything R was good, and anything D was bad. It is refreshing to have a representative consider everything in specific legislation regardless of which party initiated it.

Letter: Republicans in fantasy world

Michael Beanland, VANCOUVER — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 13:00:31 +0000

Got to love Donald Trump. He said he was going to give every adult $5,000 if the Republicans won the midterms. Is this a sure bet because he knows they are going to lose so he will never have to pay out? If they eke out a win, I wonder where this money is coming from. I suspect the source will be taxes or tariffs.

Letter: Put pause on data centers

Mark Leed, VANCOUVER — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 13:00:29 +0000

So called “natural” gas was once thought to be a relatively clean energy source that could bridge the gap between dirty fuels like coal and oil and renewables like solar and wind. We now know that fossil gas isn’t much cleaner than coal.

In Our View: American healthcare has multiple maladies

The Columbian — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 13:03:33 +0000

American healthcare is not well. The United States spends, by far, the most money per capita on care yet sees only middling results.

Harrop: Mamdani’s supporters don’t remember 9/11

Froma Harrop — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 13:01:38 +0000

Smoke still rose from the ruins of the World Trade Center, and the smell of nearly 2,000 deaths lingered miles uptown. A reporter asked New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani whether he worried that the city’s Muslim neighborhoods would be attacked in revenge for that Islamist-inspired atrocity.

Leubsdorf: It’s long past time for Pete Hegseth to be fired

Carl P. Leubsdorf — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 13:01:35 +0000

Pete Hegseth would have loved commanding a military force during the Crusades, leading an all-white, all-male army imbued with Christian fervor as it set off on horseback for a multi-year campaign to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims. Unfortunately, eight centuries later, he has been mistakenly placed in command of what is supposed to be a modern, multicultural fighting machine.

Westneat: ‘Radioactive’ data centers

Danny Westneat — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 13:01:13 +0000

When rookie politician John Duresky decided to run for Congress, the day after being “DOGE’d” out of the federal workforce at Hanford last year, he built a campaign around typical planks like jobs, healthcare and protecting Social Security.

Estrich: 9/11 cost us trust in our leaders

Susan Estrich — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 13:01:05 +0000

I’m not a big fan of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, but this week, he did something important that his predecessors had refused to do. On the eve of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, New York City released more than 170,000 pages of documents about the toxic air-quality levels after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center.

Other Papers Say: The hidden cost of U.S. debt

Las Vegas Review-Journal — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 13:01:05 +0000

The national debt isn’t just a big number. It’s a major anchor on economic growth. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that government bond yields are increasing throughout the globe. As these bond yields rise, government debt becomes more expensive.

Letter: Trump must be reined in

Steve Getsinger, RIDGEFIELD — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 13:00:57 +0000

In her Sept. 7 “Letters from an American,” columnist Heather Cox Richardson cites multiple examples of the ravings of a madman. Donald Trump is insane. He has renamed a sea, a lake and a building, and is considering renaming a state, Iran, the Strait of Hormuz and Canada. He is the epitome of the expression “with friends like these …”

Letter: U.S. facing potential demise

Howard Meharg, VANCOUVER — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 13:00:56 +0000

Each of the items on this list contribute heavily to the potential demise of this great nation.