Letters to the editor | July 16 edition
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, July 14, 2026
Protect dogs from hot pavement
Festival weekend is a wonderful annual island tradition. There is something for everyone, from games to entertainment to culinary delights and even classic cars.
Walking down Vashon Highway, you are almost guaranteed to meet family and friends, some of whom you may not have seen for years. It also is fun to visit with many employees from local businesses on their days off.
Another tradition during the celebration is to bring the canine members of our families. Something I, too, did in the past. We do this because we love our dogs, and they enjoy being with us and experiencing new smells.
While most everyone knows the importance of keeping their dogs hydrated and never left in a car — even with cracked windows — there is one serious danger that you only can avoid by keeping your dogs home: hot pavement!
The forecast for Festival Saturday is 81-88 degrees, with full sun. What sounds hot for humans is really seriously dangerous for dogs, since that translates into a pavement temperature of 126 to 138 degrees!
Unless you have booties for your dog to wear, the only way to protect them is to leave them home. Yes, it will be sad to leave your buddy home, but if you truly love your dog, you know it is the right thing to do.
Please protect your canine friends!
Scott Harvey
Vashon Municipal Airport helipad
I would like to say a public thank you to Aspen Anderson, Editor, for your excellent article about the Seattle Indian Health Board’s generous donation for improvements to the Vashon Municipal Airport helipad.
I would also like recognize and thank Commissioners Lauren Chase and Kaye Pierson. They were very much involved in developing this plan. Without their dedication, this simply could not have happened. And, of course, thank you to Esther Lucero for your work in making this donation happen.
Truman O’Brien
Praise for “state sponsored torture” commentary
Susan McCabe’s harrowing description of solitary confinement (“State Sponsored Torture,” Beachcomber, June 18, 2026) reveals our complicity as citizens in this inhumane practice.
Nothing will change until our state legislators revise the 1980s sentencing reform laws that created a prison system aimed at punishment rather than rehabilitation. Reflecting the mindset of those years (war on drugs, “hard time for hard crime”), these laws eliminated the state’s parole system, mandated long sentences for a wide range of felonies and empowered prosecutors rather than judges to determine sentence lengths.
The elimination of parole removed incentives for good behavior, job training or further education. The resulting system of punishment beyond the needs of justice or public safety disproportionately affected minority communities and fueled mass incarceration. An atmosphere of hopelessness contributes to prison outbreaks of fighting or rule-breaking that land individuals in solitary confinement.
Year after year progressive legislators try to undo some of the harms of the 1980s sentencing laws by introducing reform legislation. The last legislative session included bills to limit solitary confinement, to restore rewards for good time behavior and to reduce prosecutor’s use of sentence-lengthening weapons enhancements.
But these bills seldom get out of committee. High level legislative leaders in both the house and senate — duly elected Democrats who perhaps fear being seen as soft on crime — refuse to bring these reform bills to the floor for vote. Until concerned citizens can persuade our legislative leaders to act, solitary confinement will continue to be state-sponsored torture.
John C. Bean
Commentaries
The Beachcomber is a community newspaper. I fail to see how Susan McCabe’s article on state-sponsored torture is appropriate. While it is an important issue, it definitely is not a local issue.
If she sighted an islander who had suffered from solitary confinement or a protest at the 4-way, it might make sense. Otherwise, it belonged in the letter to the editor section.
I personally am an animal rights advocate. I abhor the cruelty found in rodeos, dog/horse racing and medical research. That said, the subject does not belong in a commentary in The Beachcomber.
Please keep our local paper local.
Scott Harvey
