Remember when Ted Cruz and most of the Texas congressional delegation voted against Hurricane Sandy relief? Now with Hurricane Harvey, they want money equivalent to the funding for the U.S. Army. Remember when now- Vice President Mike Pence wanted to penny-pinch over Hurricane Katrina?

I would like to ask my libertarian and GOP friends how being hit by a hurricane is different than being hit by cancer? These same people block universal health care.

The red states talk about their independence and rugged individualism, yet I see millions in taxpayer-funded military relief assistance flowing into Texas. They are all about profits for the oil industry until there are huge losses.

Then, like Wall Street, they want those socialist dollars to bail them out. Red state Florida will come begging, too.

I am all for helping Ted Cruz types, but I just want to point out the hypocrisy.

Jim Quimby

Kapalama

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We need to accept others’ point of view

It saddens me to see all the hatred and violence in this country. We should be a people united and accepting of each other.

I am afraid that the problem is a society that thinks it is entitled to get whatever it wants, combined with a one-sided tolerance.

A good definition of tolerance is when people come together to have a meaningful discussion by sharing their points of view; in the end, we come away with a better understanding of each other.

Sadly, this entitled generation wants its own way no matter what — even to use hatred and violence. They expect everything be handed to them. If we want to stop the hate and violence, we need to start listening and accepting each other’s beliefs, so that we know each other.

The only way this can happen is by face-to-face conversation.

Alan Kim

Moiliili

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Prostate test valuable for early detection

The “To Your Health” column (“Analysis affirms value of prostate screening,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 6) provided timely information about the important and inexpensive tool known as PSA or prostate-specific antigen.

Few terminal diseases have tools such as the PSA, which can alert physicians and patients that there is something that needs further analysis.

In 2012, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (PSTF) issued a disservice to men when it recommended a “D” (discouraging the whole use of testing, asserting more harms than benefits). Now, the USPSTF is in the final stage of a new finding.

However, we in the prostate cancer advocacy community believe that testing should begin at age 45, and five years earlier if there are risks factors such as close relatives having had the disease, being African-American, having identified genetic mutations, or being exposed to substances such as Agent Orange.

We as individuals must seek the best information available and not be victims of population- based arguments of whether the PSA is tied to mortality or not. No one wants to be a statistic.

Paul Mizue

President, Hawaii Prostate Cancer Coalition