We are in the middle of a very serious health and economic crisis. As with the flu pandemic of 1918, the Great Depression and World War II, life is far from what we want it to be.
I am an older person. Personally, it’s a little frustrating to witness people being so impatient with the current situation. I understand it’s tough. Younger people don’t have the perspective that kupuna do.
I think about and feel for the families who have lost their loved ones, lost their jobs and have to take care of their children at home. It’s a challenge!
I’m a public middle school teacher. Trust me, we teachers are pushing ourselves and working together to attempt to provide a meaningful and effective education for our keiki. Teachers, more than anything, want to be with our students.
This situation is not going to last forever. I would like parents to see that and try to teach their young children how to read (read to them!), to do basic math and talk to them about current events.
Parents, as busy as they are, are the No. 1 educators of their children.
Louise Furniss
Kalihi Valley
We must sacrifice for the greater good
The opening and closing sentences of Carole Mandryk’s letter — “I want to walk on the beach” — fully exposes the primary problem with the pandemic (“For the sake of health, beaches should be open,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Aug. 15). Instead of focusing on the greater good, it’s all about me and what I want. What happened to our social contract, especially in Hawaii where we’ve generally cared for our neighbors?
No one would argue it’s good to be outside and we need to be outside, but get a clue. Do you see the beaches on the weekends? They are packed full of people having gatherings like COVID-19 never existed. It’s unfathomable social negligence and the reason the city has to shut down the beach. The public’s actions made this decision, not the city.
So sacrifice for a little while longer. It’s not about you or me, it’s about us. Rearrange your thinking, behavior and priorities around the community that surrounds you. The sooner this happens, the sooner people will be able to walk on the beach again.
Patrick Kelly
Kaimuki
Keep enforcing the law after lockdown
Great letters to the editor were written by Anne Niethammer, Peter Barrett and James Roller in the Aug. 13 edition. They point out the city had scheduled a lockdown to end before Labor Day, a big party weekend; crowd enforcement was needed a month ago, before the infection rate took off; and we should use the hotline to report violations of the law.
These letters beg the question: Will the mayor keep 160 police officers enforcing the law, and keep the hotline open after the lockdown is over? If not, it is just a question of time until we are locked down again.
Everyone is punished because the city does not punish violators when it makes a difference: before the infection rate gets out of control.
Bruce A. Fink
Makiki
Gabbard should help, not criticize
After months (years) of disregard for her constituents back home in favor of following her own ambitions, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has reappeared to criticize contact tracing in Hawaii (“U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard calls contact tracing numbers ‘a lie,’” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 15).
The system certainly needs improvement, but it seems like the only way Gabbard knows how to respond to any problem is to condemn and attack. She would be a much more effective public servant if she lent a hand and moved us toward a solution.
Barbara Nelson
Punahou
Nature will counter human disruption
The Earth is commonly regarded as a living organism that survives by being in balance. There is an interconnection among all Earthlings. Bees pollinate plants, trees support each other, and microbes in our gut digest our food. Everything dies, decomposes, and becomes food for the planet.
We humans take, and never contribute, not unlike showing up hungry at a potluck with nothing to offer. Every time.
Nature will deal with a disruptive undesirable species that creates such an imbalance in the natural system.
We don’t have to be the problem child; we can grow up, belong, and be responsible Earthlings. We have the gifts of communication and creativity; we just need to make good use of them instead of being greedy and taking all we can, while we can.
“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us.” — Aldo Leopold
Nicholas Blank
Kaimuki
Hire someone to get tourism reopened
It’s been six months since the travel quarantine went into effect for folks entering Hawaii, and Hawaii’s leaders have not been able to figure out how to reopen tourism, which is the No. 1 employer of the state. Gov. David Ige has had months to develop a reopening plan. If he can’t figure out how to do it, hire someone from the outside to formalize and implement a reopening plan.
Dawson Jones
Haleiwa
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