Recently, late in the afternoon, my husband and I went for one last swim at Kaimana Beach before the closure. As usual, the beach was packed with little social distancing.

As we returned to our car in the darkness, there were three hotels in the distance which were all dark, except for lights shaped in hearts on the side of the hotels. It almost made me cry. My husband said, “That’s to give us hope.”

In Hawaii and in many parts of our country, the beaches were packed with little social distancing. Why can’t we be like Canada, where all the people are being so careful in order to take care of each other? Canada’s virus rate is contained, kids can go back to school, and their death rate is half the rate of the United States per capita.

I want to thank Gov. David Ige for trying to keep us safe and to the hotels with heart lights giving us hope. May we all continue to be lights in the darkness and give each other hope.

Annabel Chotzen

St. Louis Heights

Private tennis clubs should be reopened

The decision to close city parks and also tennis courts and pools in private clubs, while leaving gyms and golf courses open, in an effort to stem the recent surge of COVID-19, is somewhat puzzling. We know that many of the infections have come from parties, funerals and other gatherings where people did not follow guidelines on social distancing and mask-wearing.

Why are open-air private club tennis courts and pools forced to shut down, allowing gyms (in enclosed or partially enclosed structures) and golf courses to stay open? Tennis is not a team sport unless playing in a competitive league. There are no more than four players required on a tennis court at any time. It is a safe and healthy outlet. Clubs carefully monitor COVID-19 guidelines.

I am hoping that Mayor Kirk Caldwell will reconsider and allow tennis at private clubs to resume immediately.

Ann Kelminski

Hawaii Kai

HEALS Act faulty; pass HEROES Act

When the restart of trans- Pacific travel was set to begin on Aug. 1, with testing of passengers at their point of origin, local businesses, including the tourism industry, had a glimmer of hope for recovery.

Now with COVID-19 cases spiking, the reopening target date of Sept. 1 seems less likely. Business leaders and workers are less optimistic. Due to the tourism shutdown, Hawaii’s unemployment rate is worse than most mainland states; about 150,000 Hawaii residents are on the unemployment rolls.

The so-called HEALS Act, floated by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republicans, is sorely lacking. It includes no new aid to states and counties, nothing for Medicaid, no OSHA safety standards and provides only strings-attached funding to public schools.

Stop the partisan bickering and help the people who will continue to suffer. Let’s pass the HEROES Act.

Randy Perreira

President, Hawaii State AFL-CIO

Political debates need more substance

One thing COVID-19 has changed about this election campaign is that it is harder to hold town halls and face questions from the public. That’s a problem, both locally and nationally.

At the presidential level, the debates have become little more than a series of questions that tee up a two-minute mini-speech, pre-rehearsed and mostly scripted. So what the public ends up with is less a true vetting of a candidate and something akin to a dog-and-pony show. That’s bad because presidents are never just figureheads — they can make a difference.

We need more virtual town halls, with at least one town hall where the questions come only from policy experts in various areas. Why? Because big ideas often fail in practice on the details.

We’re picking our leaders, not a brand of canned tuna.

Lloyd Lim

Makiki

Not all businessmen make good leaders

The voters of Oahu have decided that their next mayor will be a businessman with no elected political experience. The current president had the same resume prior to taking office. How is that working out for us?

At lease we can be grateful that neither Keith Amemiya nor Rick Blangiardi are self-identified sexual predators (see “Access Hollywood”) or denigrate Gold Star parents, Gold Star spouses and Purple Heart recipients. Hopefully both candidates will spend the next several weeks providing specific details on how they will work with the City Council, Gov. David Ige and the Legislature in addressing our many significant issues.

May the best man win.

John Priolo

Pearl City

Monk seal release offers good news

In these days of loss, in the news it was refreshing to read the good news about the release of four monk seals on Midway (“4 monk seals released on Midway Atoll refuge,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 13). Thank you to the many different agencies that made this possible. It takes lots of unrecognized behind-the-scenes work to save the threatened monk seal population.

Barbara Littenberg

Kailua

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