I am tired of seeing Justin Waiki’s picture in the newspaper. I can understand it being there while the manhunt is in progress to assist the police in capturing him. But once he is captured or killed, he should immediately disappear into well- deserved oblivion.

This is especially true of the story in Sunday’s edition, which is supposedly about the officer who was killed (“Big Isle police grieve as service set for slain officer,” Star-Advertiser, July 22).

Why not a picture of him rather than Waiki?

Raleigh Ferdun

Manoa

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Case has dubious voting record

The Star-Advertiser Editorial Board endorsed Ed Case for the Congressional District 1 race in Hawaii (“In Dem primary, choose Ed Case,” Star-Advertiser, Our View, July 22).

Case, having served previously in Congress, has a voting record that the public can examine and compare with values generally held in the islands.

For example: In 2005, Case was the only Democrat to vote, with Republicans, to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood, PBS, and NPR.

He opposed a firm timetable for withdrawal from the Iraq War quagmire.

Case introduced a controversial amendment to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that threatened the education of students across the country and led to widespread parent protests.

The amendment required that attorneys’ fees be awarded, not by courts as in every other civil case, but by the state governor. It would have discouraged attorneys from taking cases. Parents who do not have attorneys do not usually prevail in court.

Larry Geller

Downtown Honolulu

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Don’t disempower sex workers

Before its current anti- prostitution campaign, the director of the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women was drawn into a Facebook discussion about the rights of consenting adults who choose to charge or pay for sex.

As an occasional sex worker, I tried using my light-skinned male privilege to convey that, by blurring the line between adult consensual sex workers and people affected by human trafficking, HSCSW stigmatizes and endangers populations of all genders, across every social and economic class.

Immigrants, mentally ill, queer folk, houseless and other marginalized people sometimes turn to the sex trade to survive under systems of oppression. But HSCSW social media and radio spots say women who engage in sex work “give up their right to consent to sex.”

This is dangerously disempowering. Sex workers benefit most and are best-suited to help stop exploitation in the sex industry. Please hear us out.

Doug Upp

Makiki

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Medicare for all does cost less

Jim McDiarmid conflates Medicare and U.S. private health insurance with claims of the high cost of Medicare (“Beware of high costs of Medicare for all,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, July 23).

Americans pay twice as much for private health care — the highest in the world — compared to many countries with Medicare-type health care.

Medicare costs half as much because all health care taxes (substituting for premiums) are put into a single pool of money. The unused “premiums” of the 80 percent who are well — who don’t use all money they put in — pay for the care of the 20 percent who are very sick, with money left over.

For a large self-sustaining pool, you need a population of more than a million, like Hawaii. Vermont has only about 600,000 and can’t swing it.

Why Maryland (population 6 million) charges businesses 10 percent and citizens pay $2,800 I don’t know. American car manufacturers operate in Canada because businesses don’t pay for health care there, and Canada’s per capita health cost is about $3,600 per person.

Renee Ing

Makiki

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Has Hanabusa helped UH?

On Saturday, I received my absentee mail-in ballot. Timed perfectly and arriving on the same day was a large color brochure from the University of Hawaii faculty union (UHPA) supporting Colleen Hanabusa for governor.

I took the time to look at the UHPA flyer to see why the UH faculty union endorsed Hanabusa. To my surprise, there were absolutely nothing mentioned about how Hanabusa helped UH, the faculty union or higher education. With 18 years as state senator and congresswoman, she surely must have some record in higher education.

The UHPA brochure again tries to highlight Hanabusa’s “strong, compassionate, decisive leadership to solve problems.” Someone once said that a leader is judged by his or her accomplishments.

We need to know what are her accomplishments in education. The voters deserve to know.

Estelita Dimacali

Kalihi