A new Pierce County airport is a terrible idea. Let’s be creative, not destructive

Pierce County airport

Building another airport is not environmentally responsible nor is it economically feasible. As climate change is accelerating faster than we expected, cutting down acres of trees and replacing them with a heat-absorbing tarmac is not the answer.

Who wants the Mount Rainier corridor blocked with more smog, airplanes and noise pollution? Not only would building an airport here displace people and their rural lifestyle, it would displace wildlife and destroy habitat. We need to explore creative, synergistic relationships with existing airports such as the one at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. We also need to stay along the I-5 corridor and not destroy more habitats with miles of new roads.

Let’s be smart about this. We need to evolve our decision-making skills to consider the irreparable damage we’re causing to our home, the Northwest, our state and the planet.

Diane Burke, Tacoma

Child tax credit

Do you know a family struggling to afford necessities such as rent, food, gas, utilities, childcare and clothes for their kids? I sure do, and support for families seems to be in short supply.

In 2021, the expanded Child Tax Credit helped raise nearly 350,000 children out of poverty in Washington state and helped families afford necessities such as rent, food, gas, utilities, childcare and clothes. Ending the CTC expansion sent those children back into poverty, and inflation is sending more families into poverty every day.

Congress is headed back to work and expected to take up a corporate tax bill during the lame-duck session. Please contact U.S. Representatives Marilyn Strickland and Derek Kilmer and Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell to insist that the legislation also include an expansion of the CTC.

Families must come first.

Jennie Vano, Fircrest

Republican agenda

I was dismayed, even alarmed, with Kevin McCarthy’s outline of the Republican agenda for the coming years. Whereas there was much talk of inflation during the campaign, it appears Republicans have abandoned that issue and want to govern by initiating a vast array of investigations.

With pride, McCarthy spoke of these investigations. I wonder how this will filter down to the actual needs of regular Americans. We need to be enlivened by quality, affordable education, nourished by easy access to provisions from local groceries and food co-ops, and sheltered from the more frequent storms projected due to our climate crisis.

It’s time to put some thought into transforming the Golden Rule of treating others as one would like to be treated to the Platinum Rule of treating others as they want to be treated. That is what our representative government is all about, and I don’t think this myriad of investigations is going to achieve that.

Marty Webb, Tacoma