TNT letters: Troyer on patrol; LNG at the Port of Tacoma; the truth about CRT

Port regulations

I just turned 16, and while my parents are busy worrying about whether I’ll remember to check my blind spot, I’m in mental turmoil over whether my drive to school is immoral. This may sound ridiculous, but after watching lawmakers procrastinate on the climate for my entire life, the climate decisions I control seem like a moral minefield.

With the deadline for interim regulations nearing in Tacoma, I’ve realized that the fuel I should be worrying about is Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), not the gas in my car. While my car holds 16 gallons of gas, Puget Sound Energy’s LNG facility can carry 8 million gallons. Without strong interim regulations, Tacoma will be a crucial link in the global fossil fuel chain, allowing the industry to rely on Tacoma — despite the imminent ruin that fossil fuel executives are leading us to.

Tacoma needs to pass strong interim regulations, letting teens focus on romance and college applications, not climate policy.

Grace Dannen, Tacoma

Troyer on patrol

Re: “It’s time for Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer to resign” (TNT, 11/04/2021)

The News Tribune editorial attacking Sheriff Ed Troyer because he asked a young man what he was doing at two in the morning in a neighborhood is racial demagoguery. Troyer has served and protected Pierce County neighborhoods for 30 years. He was doing his duty, although he perhaps didn’t follow the exact protocols.

Our paper said he put the man’s life in danger by asking for Tacoma police emergency assistance; that’s an insult to our police and Troyer. Police emergency assistance saves lives, not takes lives. No one asks a roaming man a question at two in the morning in crime ridden Pierce County without the help of the police.

I want Troyer patrolling my neighborhood in the middle of the night to protect my family, not officers who fear our paper.

Donald Wilbur, University Place

The truth about CRT

Shame on those Republican candidates who seek to stoke fear among their base about critical race theory, when they and their voters seem to not even understand what they are opposing. They suggest that CRT is a tool of racial division that even Dr. Martin Luther King would oppose, when in fact the real attack on equality is from those who are afraid to learn about the laws and traditions our nation has used for centuries to support a myth of white supremacy.

If these candidates and their voters would educate themselves about the heinous crimes we have committed over centuries to keep the races divided and to deny non-whites the full rights and benefits of American citizenship, they would be relieved to find that, compared to the unimaginable suffering people of color have endured for generations, their not-so-delicate white children would have to suffer nothing more than a simple and truthful education about our nation’s history.

For their part, white adults would be invited to examine their own ongoing role in perpetuating racial division, and I’m guessing that is what they are really afraid of. I believe the children will be just fine.

Sue Redkey, Gig Harbor

This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 5:00 AM.