Letters: Events must stress need for masks and distancing; News articles should give facts, not opinions; Unemployment office workers patient, helpful

Mayor Kirk Caldwell needs to require some COVID-19 guidelines for his weekly Sunday Open Street Waikiki jam session on Kalakaua Avenue. The two pillars of controlling the virus, social distancing and masks, are being ignored by several hundred participants. These pillars should be required.

We are all in agreement that the public needs to experience some outdoor activity and the retail businesses welcome the traffic, but the virus is still among us. Evidence is the increase in COVID-19 cases the last few weeks, especially on Oahu.

Lt. Gov. Josh Green’s concern about the city’s “Dine-in Chinatown” events encouraging people to congregate in large groups during our surge of cases should apply here as well.

Let’s not let our guard down. Hawaii is still one of the few states in the nation that has decent control of the virus, and rolling back our progress is not an option.

Hal Omori

Mililani

News articles should give facts, not opinions

The Star-Advertiser uses the Associated Press, among others, as a source of articles on national and international events. The AP heads its internet site with the slogan “Advancing the Power of Facts.” However, this news service has turned into a tendentious interpreter of facts and its articles should be relegated to the opinion page.

Recent AP headlines in the Star-Advertiser include “Trump pushes racial divisions, flouts coronavirus rules at Rushmore” (July 3), and “For Nation’s Birthday, Trump stokes divisions within the U.S.” (July 4), to cite a few.

Many people interpreted Donald Trump’s recent speeches as a patriotic defense of American culture and history with no divisive overtones. Who gives the AP the authority to judge Trump’s comments in the context of reporting the news? The AP’s mandate is, as is that of the Star-Advertiser, to report the facts. Interpretation should be left to the reader, or be labeled opinion, and not presented as a reputable presentation of the facts as they happen.

Robert A. Wall

Kaneohe

Unemployment office workers patient, helpful

I received a call recently from the state unemployment center; thank you to the news channels for recommending putting the number in one’s phone contacts to answer its call.

The original caller was concerned about my situation and when she could not solve the issue, she brought someone higher up to the phone.

This second woman was also concerned, and spent over 1-1/2 hours helping me. She was patient and even consulted with their IT person as to why I was unable to access the Department of Labor website while continuing to receive an error message.

This is a trying time for everyone, and I wanted to recognize the kindness and hard work of the callers from the Unemployment/Department of Labor volunteer center on July 10.

Virginia Hong

Hawaii Kai

Heinous history can’t be erased, so learn from it

I believe the frenzy to get rid of all statues commemorating a horrible part of our history is misguided. All thinking people abhor the many facets of racism in our history, but are we to erase this history from our school books also and pretend it never happened?

Perhaps the greatest mass crime in history was the Holocaust, but Jewish leaders rightfully do not cover it up, but rather, tell us not to forget it lest it happen again. Auschwitz and Dachau could have been razed to the ground, but have been preserved so people can see what horrors they represent. We are rightfully warned not to forget by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in our nation’s capital.

Rusl T. Bjork

Koloa, Kauai

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