5G networks have many applications

While Burt Lum rightfully discussed the need for legislators to support the deployment of 5G in Hawaii, we also should view this super-fast technology as a means to improve Hawaii’s health care, education and sustainability (“Wireless infrastructure upgrades shouldn’t face roadblocks,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, March 20).

Under a 5G network, expensive treatments will be available online, in real time, at a fraction of the cost. Physicians will be able to view digital imaging test results of patients from anywhere around the globe, and monitor patients’ health via wearable devices much like fitness trackers.

A stronger network will also transform Hawaii schools, offering mobile users speeds up to 100 times faster than the status quo, giving students and teachers unlimited resources beyond the classroom.

Finally, a 5G network will help Hawaii achieve ambitious sustainability — improving everything from energy and water conservation to traffic. Smart architecture under a 5G network can lower energy consumption. Residents will save on utility bills, and put fewer harmful emissions into the air.

Sabrina Lake

Ewa Beach

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Incarceration has marginal value

Our Legislature’s plan to finance Gov. David Ige’s new jail construction plans with $66 million is likely to add up to several billion dollars, when combined with other prison construction sought.

Instead, our state should be rehabilitating and releasing some of the 74 percent of people it currently incarcerates (at $141 a day) for class C felonies and misdemeanors, including traffic offenses. Incarceration does not solve most problems that cause arrests. If anyone suggested that the state fund a community protection program for $141 per person, per day, totaling $250 million annually, and after a couple years over half the people in the program were arrested again, it would be laughable.

But it’s not funny that some of our most powerful state leaders support spending on incarceration over education and social support. It is appalling that the public’s interests are ignored in favor of the prison-industrial complex and its lobbyists.

Lorenn Walker

Waialua

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Adopt universal health care now

The failed attempt by the Trump administration to repeal and replace Obamacare is a sign for our country to move toward universal health care for all of our citizens.

As a nurse, I believed in principles of justice and fairness. The only way to achieve this is to provide equal access to health care for everyone. It should not matter if you are the top 1 percent or the bottom 50 percent. Health care should be part of our taxable income in order to provide equal access for all.

Pornchai Thompson

Aiea

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Weaker Title X bad for women

Last week, Vice President Mike Pence cast the tiebreaking vote in the Senate to weaken the regulations on Title X, which supplements family planning funds for the states. The weakened regulations will enable states to prohibit Title X funding to go to clinics that offer abortion services, primarily Planned Parenthood.

In recent years, more than 4 million people in the U.S. have relied on Title X funding to meet their reproductive health needs, especially in rural and low- income areas where Planned Parenthood may be their only option. Those people may now be unable to get breast cancer screenings, testing for sexually transmitted infections, and birth control.

It is reprehensible for the anti-abortion Senate majority to eliminate access to birth control, one of the most reliable means of pregnancy prevention. U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono recently commented, “Just in case we didn’t already have enough men making decisions on women’s health.”

So very lucky we live Hawaii.

Melinda Wood

Manoa

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Start moving UH campus to Kapolei

As a resident of West Oahu, I applaud Shasha Fesharaki’s comments (“Move UH-Manoa to Kapolei campus,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, March 31).

It truly makes very good sense to move the University of Hawaii at Manoa to its West Oahu campus in Kapolei. Fesharaki is right: UH can sell high-value land in Manoa, allocate some of the units there toward affordable housing, spur economic growth where it is needed here in West Oahu, and to also take the enormous pressure off commuters in their commute into town.

UH may want to keep some important research facilities at Manoa, but for the most part it should start to dismantle its operations there and make the move to Kapolei.

Paul Pitarys

Makakilo

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Coal? Why not whale oil, too?

Here’s a suggestion for President Donald Trump in the wake of his executive order to preserve coal mining in America.

Consider bringing back another antiquated fuel source that harms the environment: Hawaii’s whale oil industry. Think of all the lamps that could be lit. Think of the jobs!

Don Chapman

Kaneohe