Republicans pushing gerrymandering? Time for Washington to join | Opinion

Time to embrace gerrymandering

It’s time for Washington Democrats to scrap the Washington Redistricting Commission and join California and Virginia in redistricting their state to counteract Donald Trump’s push to rig the 2026 midterm elections. Republicans are in the process of redistricting Texas, Missouri, South Carolina to eliminate Democratic representatives. Without the commission, Washingtonians can respond in kind.

All Republicans have given America in the 21st Century is government debt, two lost wars, recessions, a mishandled pandemic and a failed insurrection. This week, the Trump administration has lifted export control of the United Sates most advanced computer chips and allowed them to be sold to China. These chips, Nvidia H200s, are six times more powerful than the ones that China currently uses in their AI computers and missiles. Not anymore; in exchange for a cut of the proceeds, Trump will allow the Chinese to use our computer chips in their weapons.

During all this, Reps. Dan Newhouse and Mike Baumgartner have supported Trump. Without the WRC, we can gerrymander both out of their seats and fill them with Democrats.

Christopher Nutt, Tacoma

University Place traffic dangerous

I’m writing because the traffic situation in University Place has reached a point where it’s not just inconvenient, but actively disrupting daily life for students. When my family moved into our house ten years ago, turning onto Bridgeport was a simple, automatic task. Now it’s an exercise in patience and probability. I routinely sit at the same stop sign for nearly ten minutes, watching an uninterrupted stream of cars waiting for a chance to go.

This congestion doesn’t just make mornings annoying; it makes them unpredictable. Despite leaving earlier and earlier, I still end up late to school through no fault of my own. And taking the bus isn’t a solution; it’s the same problem, just with more people and less personal space. By the time we finally get moving, it feels like everyone on board has already given up on the day.

As a local high school student, I can see that our infrastructure wasn’t built for the volume of traffic we now have. I hope the city will take this seriously. Students shouldn’t have to factor in near-gridlock conditions just to get an education.

Alex Bachmann, University Place

Stop funding genocide

The US has sent $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel in the past two years. Our tax dollars are the engine that drives the genocide in Gaza.

The UN, International Association of Genocide Scholars, B’Tselem (Israeli), Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, all accuse Israel of committing genocide.

Amnesty International recently said that Israel “continues committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza without pause, despite the ceasefire.” Hamas has released all of the hostages, and Israel did not stop killing Palestinians, making clear that those who said “all Hamas has to do is release the hostages” were lying on behalf of a genocidal apartheid regime.

These actions have catalyzed what has become known as the biggest anti-war movement since the 1960s invasion of Vietnam. Now, like then, calls for justice, accountability and equal rights are being ignored, particularly by politicians who eagerly accept money from a foreign lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

What would it look like if instead of sending billions of our tax dollars to Israel they were instead pumped into our schools, healthcare, infrastructure and small businesses?

Michelle Ryder, Bonney Lake