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It seems that everyone is now piling on the governor for his inability to meet or exceed expectations in his response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Blaming the governor will not result in a miraculous reversal of the woes we are now facing. Our fate was sealed when Hawaii voters decided to re-elect someone who had already displayed an inability to quickly respond to a crisis situation, such as the false missile alert.
The only viable solution is for the governor to delegate his leadership powers to someone who can make a positive difference. There is no shame in acknowledging the lack of skill sets that are desperately needed now. It will be shameful if we continue down a path toward more negative outcomes.
As Clint Eastwood once proclaimed, “A man has to know his limitations.”
John Tamashiro
Pearl City
Public school teachers can work from home
It’s a shame that schools Superintendent Christina Kishimoto has chosen to attack the teachers’ union and make derogatory remarks about the teachers’ concerns for their health and safety (“Hawaii teachers union, superintendent spar over schools reopening,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 14).
The number of COVID-19 infections is increasing daily and several teachers already have been infected. It makes no sense to have in-person instruction, but Kishimoto and the DOE are insisting that teachers must report to the school to do their virtual online teaching. This nonsensical requirement imposes an unnecessary hardship and hazard on teachers who are able to teach and do their coursework planning just as effectively and more safely from home.
Our public school teachers should have the option of doing virtual instruction either from their schools or from their homes. Teachers are extremely essential workers, and everything possible should be done to safeguard their health and safety, and the health and safety of their families.
John Witeck
Kamehameha Heights
Only places open require spending money
Regarding the latest mandates on what we may do in our daily activities, if you look over the lists of where we can or can’t go, we can go into places where we spend money, but are restricted in going to places where we don’t spend money. This is ironic in that we must spend money to risk catching a dose of the virus.
Melt Miyamoto
Aiea
Missionaries’ damaging influence ignored
The Star-Advertiser recently published a puff piece about the 200th anniversary of the arrival of Christian missionaries in Hawaii (“Rearview Mirror: Missionaries made their mark in Hawaii 2 centuries ago,” Star-Advertiser, May 8). I was thunderstruck, however, that the article gave only glowing reports of the influence of these particular missionaries. I saw nothing about how this rigid and damaging version of Christianity not only temporarily promoted literacy among the Hawaiians they found here, but also stripped them of much of their dignity and of their own culture.
Additionally, the Europeans, the “Christians,” put Hawaiians to work in the fields for profit. To my understanding, Hawaiians were hard-working but not used to working all day for someone else in harsh conditions. Many perished from the conditions and from imported disease.
How can a paper not report this at a time when we see in so many places that exploitation of people of color over the centuries has left too many of them living in conditions today that make them super vulnerable to getting sick from COVID-19?
Linda Muralidharan
Aiea
Thiessen makes false claims about USPS
Marc Thiessen’s column about the U.S. Postal Service is full of misinformation and does not deserve to be published in an objective paper like the Star-Advertiser (“Democrats’ postal conspiracy as phony as Russia- gate,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 21).
Among his many false claims:
>> Vote by mail has a much higher failure rate than in-person voting. Fact: There is no evidence this is so.
>> The USPS doesn’t need any money currently. Fact: If so, why is Postmaster General Louis DeJoy implementing cost-cutting measures?
>> DeJoy was appointed by a bipartisan board of governors. Fact: The board has four Republicans and two Democrats. In addition, several of the Republican members are members of super PACs supporting President Donald Trump. In addition, the appointment process was murky and under question of undue influence by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
>> Problems with the USPS is a made-up conspiracy by Democrats. Fact: The postal service has acknowledged current delays and possible problems in processing ballots on time.
I strongly urge you to discontinue columns that are so partisan and misleading.
Diana Chang
Waialae Nui
USPS sorting machines useful to control costs
Is Marc Thiessen your pro-Trump columnist to appease your few remaining Fox-watching readers?
The headline, “Democrats’ postal conspiracy as phony as Russiagate” (Star-Advertiser, Aug. 21) made me laugh. Well, Theissen may have chosen not to read the conclusions of an investigation by a bipartisan Senate committee that Russiagate did happen (not phony). Therefore, there is evidence of a postal conspiracy directed by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy: removing and destroying mail-sorting machines (not phony), removal of mail boxes (not phony) and no overtime.
How can costs be cut by destroying paid-for sorting machines that sort mail mechanically, have no hourly wage, no health insurance, no retirement fund, no sick or annual leave and do the job faster and cheaper than manually?
DeJoy, with his millions, should be forced to get these machines functioning again or replace them at his own cost.
Carol A Priolo
Pearl City
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