Lieutenant governor has little influence

Recently we have been deluged with commercials about candidates for lieutenant governor, and I understand that it is important to get your name out there if you want to win.

However, I wonder whether the candidates and prospective voters understand what the lieutenant governor does. Essentially, the LG approves name changes and manages a few administrative matters. Depending on the governor and his or her priorities, the LG may attend Cabinet meetings from time to time, or may be assigned a few insignificant projects, but many people in government regard the LG as a “coffee boy.”

State Sen. Josh Green, in particular, is campaigning on lowering college expenses, renewable energy, women’s issues and more. While he has a good record in the Legislature, I wonder if he understands that the LG has virtually no input on policy. The same holds true for the other candidates.

If Green wants to affect policy, he should stay in his current office where he can do the most good.

Rose Suemoto

Ewa Beach

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Lava-bomb boat captain has skills

I do not personally know Shane Turpin, the captain of the boat, some of whose passengers were hurt by a flying rock last Monday (“Tourists unfazed by lava bomb accident,” Star-Advertiser, July 19). I have been a paid customer on his boat with him as the skipper twice in the last two years with my family, last Friday being one of them.

As someone used to the ocean and its ways, I have been enormously impressed with both his boat handling and the warnings he gives to prospective customers about the potential discomforts of the trip, especially about how rough it will be, offering their money back if they want to change their minds. He does not warn about acts of God.

He is careful to separate passengers by age so that the younger ones sit up front where it is the roughest and in the back for the oldest or the infirm, and his crew keep careful watch over the customers in case they are seasick or otherwise get into difficulty. Judging from the gleeful sounds that come from the younger folk up forward, they find the roughness thrilling.

Cliff Slater

Pacific Heights

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U.S. government has lost moral compass

The Thai government rescued 12 children and their coach who were accidentally trapped in a partially flooded cave, and reunited them with their families.

The U.S. government purposefully separated children from their parents because they are alleged to be illegal immigrants, although many claim asylum under federal and international law. But detention is good business for profiteering corporations with their political contributions.

The U.S. government is complicit with Saudi Arabia and others in causing the widespread famine and cholera epidemic among children and adults in the horrific civil war in Yemen in addition to indiscriminate bombing with U.S. weaponry. But that is good business for merchants of death with their political contributions.

In these and other cases, children and adults are humans with corresponding rights, regardless of legal status.

When children and adults are purposefully victimized, the Trump administration has lost any moral compass. The apathy of Congress is pathetic too.

Leslie E. Sponsel

Hawaii Kai

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Trump fails to grasp lessons of history

Edmund Burke wrote in the 18th century, “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.”

Our president’s lack of trust in the evidence about the true nature of the dictators of Russia and North Korea leave our country prone to repeat the mistakes of the past.

I am reminded of Munich in 1938, when British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned from a meeting with Adolph Hitler, proclaiming to the world that his face-to-face with the leader of Germany has produced “peace in our time.”

I worry about the future of our country and our world when evidence is called “fake news” and our leader is more concerned with rewriting historical facts rather than learning from them.

Peter Carson

Nuuanu

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President wings it without seeing risks

Prediction: President Donald Trump will now lecture America that we did not really understand what he meant during his remarks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Helsinki meeting.

He did not say Putin was innocent. He was not suggesting for a moment he did not believe his national security advisers. He was merely passing along Putin’s insistence that he did no wrong — and saw no reason not to believe him. Nothing more, he’ll say.

I have not been a fan of Trump, but have said from the get-go we all really needed to give the man an honest chance. Enough already! At any point in time, this man seems to say what in his mind alone is expedient. He does not realize the potential long-term consequences of brashly winging it.

The only thing predictable about our president is his total lack of predictability.

What’s next?

Jim Kennedy

Ewa Beach

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Trump’s brash style has no substance

Decent folks are taught to avoid people who are loud, brash, rude, impulsive and flashy. President Donald Trump is making significant advances in his agenda, but every president is expected to bring substance to his presidency. This is not about substance; it’s all about style, and Trump’s style simply is not appropriate for anyone, least of all an American president.

Instead of giving us a sense of confidence and pride, we are put off by his offensiveness. We believe basic human decency, consideration and respect is the foundation of world peace.

Mark Yasuhara

Aiea