Why Seattle-Tacoma International Airport will always be Sea-Tac, and never just SEA

Elaine Thompson/AP

Sea-Tac Airport

The effort by the Port of Seattle to verbally rebrand Seattle-Tacoma International Airport as “S-E-A” instead of “Sea-Tac” should be resisted. The City of Tacoma paid $100,000 toward the original construction of Sea-Tac with the agreement that Tacoma would always be included in the airport’s name.

The airport code is SEA, because airport codes are limited to three letters. Bellingham is BLI, Portland is PDX and Sea-Tac is SEA. Generations of Washingtonians and aviators have known the airport as Sea-Tac.

The Port of Seattle is reneging on a decades-old understanding as they verbally rebrand the airport as “S-E-A” instead of SeaTac. Seattle and Tacoma are a great city pair.

We take flights to Dallas-Fort Worth and Minneapolis-St Paul. Don’t erase Tacoma from our region’s airport. Tacoma is a great American city, and our airport should retain the name of the City of Destiny.

Seattle-Tacoma International. SeaTac.

Not “S-E-A.”

-Elliott Smith, Suquamish

‘Just Say No’

I will always have the opinion that drugs are dangerous, and will always protect my right to live in a drug-free nation — which becomes more difficult to envision as long as people give incentives and excuses to use drugs.

I read Matt Driscoll’s opinion about the payouts from pharmaceutical companies to help people with drug addictions receive treatment. United States government agencies monitor pharmaceutical companies for safety. So, I’ve got this question: How did billions of dangerous pills get out of the building?

A 90-year-old person cannot legally buy a bottle of alcohol without showing a driver’s license. So, again I ask: How did the government miss billions of dangerous pills going out of the building?

The best thing humans can do is to trust themselves and not use drugs.

Deana Veldhuis, Edgewood

Financial aid

For many professions — such as journalism, which I am pursuing — a college degree is important in landing a job.

Coming from a low-income family, my dream of earning a journalism degree hinged on financial aid from programs such as the Washington College Grant. The grant allowed me to focus on work during the summer and direct my full attention during the school year to my coursework at Pacific Lutheran University, including career-related extracurricular activities like editing the school newspaper. These activities gave me skills and connections instrumental to my future success in journalism.

To ensure that all eligible Washington students can take advantage of financial aid, access to opportunities such as this grant must continue to expand. I applaud the efforts of state legislators in the 2022 legislative session in working toward this goal, but we are far from done.

I urge our legislators and community leaders to continue working to ensure that students like me can realize their dreams of completing their education after high school.

Brennan James LaBrie, Tacoma

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