Kudos to Stephen Tsai for the heart-warming article on Makani Kema-Kaleiwahea (“Faith rewarded,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 8).

I wish Kema-Kaleiwahea nothing but the best throughout this season, and our prayers go out to him to have a highly successful season.

Hopefully, he will have a shot at playing for the NFL.

Don Akiyama
Pearl City

Reward work and you’ll get more of it

The Cato Institute, in its “The Work versus Welfare Tradeoff” study in 2013, shows that Hawaii ranks No. 1 in the nation for total value of welfare benefits.

The alphabet soup of today’s social programs — TANF, SNAP, Section 8, LIHEAP, WIC, Medicaid and TEFAP — brings into question the wisdom of creating generations of welfare citizens. All of these social programs are “tax free.”

Yes, safety net programs need to be there for those who truly need them. But when a welfare system becomes more attractive than work, a dysfunctional, unsustainable society is created.

The Cato report makes clear what should be done:

>> Reward work (increase the minimum wage to a living wage).

>> Encourage work by strengthening welfare work requirements and removing extraneous exemptions.

>> Tighten welfare eligibility for able workers.

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.

Chris Nakamatsu
Kailua

Taxpayers will tire of being abused

Anarchy is a phenomenon resulting from lack of public trust in political leadership.

The homeless are a minority afforded special treatment. They don’t pay property taxes, yet they live on public property. They litter, leave filth in their path and disrespect the aina in every way. Yet they are not held accountable.

Our wise leaders plan to throw more money at them and reward them for their behavior and unaccountability.

Many have an entitlement mentality that cannot co-exist with the majority that plays by society’s rules. That majority, constantly being taxed, will grow tired of supporting those who don’t contribute along with the flaccid leadership allowing it.

We deserve so much more from our elected officials. It’s embarrassing: a crumbling infrastructure and now a homeless crisis second to none, with a nation watching our bumbling ineffectiveness. How can our politicians expect respect when they don’t respect us? Anarchy looms.

Bryan Holmes
Maunalani Heights

TMT debate really a matter of trust

I respect and admire the desire to maintain sacred ground and what it represents to Hawaiians.

However, I am appalled at how badly this situation has been handled. For seven years the public process invited all to speak their mind about the Thirty Meter Telescope.

The permits were issued with public and governmental approval, and at least tacit approval from the “protectors.”

After serious commitments were made to many countries, scientific organizations and financial institutions, a relatively small number of people, previously silent, have opted to try and cancel the project and dishonor the commitments made. In doing so, Hawaii has dishonored its word and damaged its credibility.

There will be other projects in the future. They will require the trust of those proposing projects. Hawaii needs to take a serious look at this and ask itself: Are we people who honor our word?

Ed Daugherty
Kaneohe

Hawaiians did speak but were ignored

Those who are standing guard over the mountain are simply against any more desecration of Mauna Kea. What part of “no more desecration” do some people not understand?

For more than 100 years, Hawaii and Hawaiians have suffered degradation and exploitation. There are already more than a dozen telescopes atop Mauna Kea. We cannot change what happened in the past, but as Hawaiian sovereign rights become re-established, and the culturally based education movement continues to thrive, our kuleana (responsibility) to protect our cultural heritage becomes imperative, of which Mauna Kea is upmost.

In the hearings for the Mauna Kea Management Plan, before the Thirty Meter Telescope application, many Hawaiians and others testified against more development, but the people in charge apparently ignored this critical input and favored more degradation and exploitation (for jobs, science, marvel and money) by others of influence.

True public servants would have then, and should now, advocate “no more desecration!”

Luana Jones
Pohoiki, Hawaii island

GOP’s angry birds come home to roost

I was interested in Thomas Sowell’s commentary regarding the GOP’s problem with Donald Trump because it was one of the few times I completely agreed with him (“Trump a distraction for GOP and trump card for Clinton,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 8).

It almost makes me feel sorry for the GOP. Almost.

What Sowell doesn’t say, though, is that the GOP is being hoisted on its own petard. There has always been an “angry white man” contingent in the party, but the GOP has been feeding him red meat as a part of its partisan battle against the Obama administration, encouraging suspicion and disrespect for the government and the president personally.

The angry crowd has responded with birthers, hunting down RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) and lots of obscene and angry on-line chatter. So now they have drunk the Kool-Aid and they are sick and tired of politicians — all politicians, not just Democrats. They were ripe for a bombastic anti-establishment candidate like Trump.

The law of unintended consequences strikes.

Jim King
Hawaii Kai