Letters to the Editor
Published 7:13 pm Sunday, January 18, 2026
Keep up the great generosity going on Jan. 24
The holidays are over. This community was very generous with donations to our food banks during the holiday season and your generosity is greatly appreciated.
We know that hunger is not seasonal and the need for assistance from our food banks has not diminished. The Good Trouble Gang has decided to continue with our food drives. The first drive of the year will be Saturday, Jan. 24, from 12 noon to 2:30 p.m. at the Chinook School, 810 US 101, Chinook.
Some specific needs expressed by the food bank people are condiments, flour, sugar, pasta sauce, cereal, and canned fruit. Cash always works to help with overhead and the purchase of specific items as the needs arise. All donations are divided between the three peninsula food banks, Chinook, Ilwaco and Ocean Park.
We look forward to seeing you on Saturday, Jan. 24.
Sincerely and with gratitude,
THE GOOD TROUBLE GANG
Emily Meyerding
Joanne Cronin
Cheryl Cheney
Lyle Stoudt
Mike and Diana Haering
Sarah Sexton
Eastham running for Pacific County sheriff
Greetings Pacific County! I, Sean Eastham, 49, have recently announced I will be running as an Independent candidate for Pacific County sheriff this upcoming November election.
I am excited to share a little about myself and the direction I would like to take the sheriff’s office. My family and I live in Naselle, and I am currently a deputy with the sheriff’s office and have been for the past 20 years. I’ve been a police officer for going on 31 years now — three years as a reserve officer for South Bend PD (95-98) and over seven years with the Camas Police Department as a full-time patrol officer (98-06).
Though I fell a little short of votes in 2018 when I ran for Pacific County sheriff, I’m driven by an intense sense of urgency for 2026 as I feel the stakes couldn’t be higher and I am now in a much stronger position to help make huge positive changes at the sheriff’s office that will greatly impact our communities.
Here is some of what I will accomplish if elected sheriff:
Create a culture of unity and collaboration between the sheriff’s office and every organization, division, and governmental agency within the county and beyond. PCSO will get along and work well with everyone, and I will make sure that happens!
I will work to re-establish a Pacific County Regional Drug Task Force (DTF). Law enforcement in Pacific County can’t give up the war on drugs! We have the authority and responsibility to care for our communities by battling the evils of drugs that our killing our people.
PCSO will establish a Community-Oriented Policing model with a focus on community risk reduction. I have strategies and tactics I will implement, with the help of the community, to reduce risk associated with crime and public safety. My ideas are solid, practical, and are based on more than three decades of law enforcement experience, advanced education, and training.
I have a plan to resolve nagging issues that have plagued the internal workings of the sheriff’s office for decades that include staffing and the patrol schedule, span of control, division of labor, case management and investigations, personnel evaluations, excessive and wasteful overtime spending, and the transition of authority/power after an election.
There are 18 commissioned members of the sheriff’s office from the sheriff down. We are fully staffed and should be able to provide amazing police coverage for our communities, but this is not happening I believe because of a lack of knowledge of how to staff and structure the agency to meet these needs efficiently. I will elaborate more in the future about my plan to have mandatory 24-hour police coverage every day, with deputies having back-up and not having to work alone in high crime areas.
My ultimate goal will be to prioritize the communities and people of Pacific County over the self-interests of the sheriff’s office. I ask that you trust me, educate yourself on the issues, and please vote in November. I can’t do this without your help! Let’s work together to make Pacific County better! I greatly appreciate you all and thank you in advance!
SEAN EASTHAM
Naselle
Is America great again yet?
It’s been a year since Donald Trump set out to make America Great Again. He started off by pardoning the Jan. 6 insurrectionists that vandalized the Capitol and beat the hell out of the Capitol police. He then rolled back civil rights protections by eliminating civil rights and ethics offices responsible for investigating and enforcing civil rights and the ethical conduct of elected officials.
He cut food assistance, HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis funding to Africa, resulting in the death of over 350,000 Africans. He threatened and insulted our allies (Canada, Mexico, Denmark, etc.) — referring to Canada as America’s 51st state, calling that country’s prime minister a governor, and suggesting that America would take Greenland “one way or the other, we’re going to get it.”
He accepted a $400 million aircraft from the government of Qatar (a clear violation of the emoluments clause in the U.S. Constitution), and pardoned convicted drug traffickers and cryptocurrency racketeers — raising the question: Are pardons in exchange for money or favor legal?
His domestic agenda included slashing health care, education, Head Start, and school nutrition programs, while providing tax cuts for his billionaire donors. He also raised the prices on imported goods by imposing unauthorized import tariffs.
He threatened American universities with funding cuts — lest they bend the knee to him. And directed the Justice Department to prosecute his political opponents — James Comey, Letitia James, Jerome Powell, John Bolton. He also instructed DOJ to slow-walk the release of the Epstein files to shield him from having the details of his encounters with underage girls exposed.
Lastly, he authorized Homeland Security to use armed masked ICE agents to terrorize America’s immigrant communities, resulting in the recent murder of 37-year-old Rene Good in Minneapolis, who was shot in the head by a masked ICE agent.
And now he boasts that in just one year he has restored America’s greatness.
“They will terrorize you and call you a terrorist.
They will threaten you and call you a threat.
There is blood in the snow where her life drained out.
Is America great again yet?”
FREDERICK LEHR
Grays River
