Support president on Presidents Day

Presidents Day, like most holidays, is a day for family, fun and relaxation. It may also be a day for reflection and concern.

Over the years, Americans have honored the office held by the president. They may not have voted for him, but they acknowledged the significance of the office and the respect it deserved.

Today, we are witnessing an unprecedented level of political rancor and obstructionism by the opposition party during only the first few weeks of a new president’s administration.

The political campaign with all its divisiveness is over. It’s time now to put aside disappointments and anger and give the president reasonable time to initiate his plans to make our country even greater.

God bless the new president and guide him through this challenging period and throughout his presidency.

God bless our country and help all aspire to greater civility and respect at every level of government and in our interpersonal discourse.

William Posenecker

Haleiwa

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Trump’s tax returns need to be opened

Outside of the Kremlin, the most vocal defender of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been President Donald Trump.

In light of recent events regarding the resignation of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, it seems more urgent than ever to get to the bottom of the president’s relationship with Russia and Putin. To that end, it is essential that Trump’s past tax returns be examined.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem this is likely to happen. Trump has said that his lawyers and accountants have told him that he should not release his tax returns. It seems like the only people who have told him not to release those records also are the only people who have actually seen them.

They know what’s in those tax returns, and know they must not see the light of day.

Greg Harding

Waikiki

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Red-light cameras raise van cam issues

The proposed red-light cameras would violate the most basic principle of American justice: that a person is innocent until proven guilty (“Red-light cameras bill advances,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 16).

Moving violations must be issued to the driver of a vehicle, not the owner. Citing registered owners places them in the position of having to prove that they were not driving the vehicles when the violations took place.

As I recall, the main objections to the previous van cams were not because a private company was involved, but because they raised this same legal point.

Do we have to go through this yet again?

Edward Conklin

Waikiki

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Protect Medicare from voucher plans

The intention of Congress to turn Medicare into a voucher system is alarming to many of us Medicare enrollees in Hawaii.

The potential increase in health care costs from this change could alter our quality of life in disturbing ways.

For many of us who have paid into this system with the assumption that medical costs will be affordable in our later years, this change is basically unfair.

Congress should commit to protecting Medicare and find other creative ways to address the rising costs of health care and drugs for our seniors.

We are standing by President Donald Trump’s promise to keep Medicare and oppose all voucher proposals.

Masato Inaba

Makiki

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Thoughtful words on true sportsmanship

Most readers of the Sports section are in it for the numbers, cheering their favorites and relishing defeat of opponents. I urge parents and coaches of school athletes to look back at Dave Reardon’s recent column (“Forget the insanity and remember the humility,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 13), and contemplate the words instead of numbers.

Reardon wrote a perceptive commentary on how skewered the concept of sportsmanship can and does become. If young people are driven to turn honest and honorable competition into a gladiator event meant to demolish and humiliate opponents and flout the rules, where is the guidance of the older, presumably wiser generation?

It’s easy to blame our cacophonous modern culture of violent themes in entertainment, the constant battering of insulting and belligerent speech up close and afar.

Shouted cheering is great, but what kids need and deserve is a quiet word of praise or of course correction when needed. Sportsmanship is a word that still does mean something.

Cheers to Reardon for pulling himself out of the tangle of words he loves to bring profound philosophy to the sports pages.

Mary Adamski

Palolo

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Democrats’ tax plans chasing people away

When the incumbents in the Democratic-controlled Legislature were re-elected (unfortunately) in last year’s election, I sensed that there would be some sort of tax increase imposed on the overtaxed citizens of this state.

With the election behind them, lawmakers are considering Gov. David Ige’s proposed fuel and vehicle weight tax increases. Ige wants to raise the gasoline tax to 22 cents from 16 cents a gallon.

Senate Transportation and Energy Committee Chairwoman Lorraine Inouye wants to increase that to 26 cents a gallon (“Ige plan to boost gas tax, other fees advances,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 14). Can you sense that the election is behind them?

On the city side, Mayor Kirk Caldwell also has called for increasing the fuel and vehicle weight taxes.

Have the tax-addicted Democrats gone mad? The continued increases in the fuel and vehicle weight taxes, and ongoing rail tax surcharge, are pushing local families to move to the mainland.

Melvin Partido Sr.

Pearl City