About the new lockdown rules (“Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell extends stay-at-home, work-from-home order,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 9): Why is a person allowed to walk on the beach only if he or she is alone? Wouldn’t allowing couples, like husband and wife, to walk on the beach together make more sense and be safer?

Also, members of the same family who live in the same house should be allowed to be together on the beach because they already are together at home. Being on the beach together would be the same, except safer because it is outdoors.

Antonio Tan

Waialae Iki

Activities done alone could be dangerous

Just when you think that those in charge can’t get any more ridiculous, the mayor makes it legal to engage in activities by yourself, but not with your family or a friend or partner.

We have heard all our lives, “Don’t swim, hike, dive, etc., alone.”

But now that is the only way we can do these things? I can drive to the beach with my wife, but can’t legally sit next to her? It is scary how dumb our “leaders” are.

Alan Poepoe

Kailua

Resolve health crisis, then fix economic one

Mahalo to Dr. Sarah Park and Bruce Anderson for their services and for humbly stepping aside. It wasn’t easy but necessary for the greater good of our state. Now let’s get this done right.

Let science (our scientific experts), sacrifice (all of us residents) and perseverance (from our leaders) lead us to the path forward to stability. We need folks who are used to handling crises and emergencies. That will be Lt. Gov. Josh Green, Dr. Libby Char and Emily Roberson. They need our support to get us through this health crisis, and once we have a good handle on this virus, we need our business leaders to get us through the economic crisis — in that order.

Our kupuna, front-line health care workers and our own ohanas’ lives and livelihoods depend on how well we work together to get through this. We cannot afford to fail this time. Now is a good time to remember President John F. Kennedy’s words: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

Raymond Bihis

Kakaako

State paying price for reopening too soon

My concern is about the stay-at-home order given by Mayor Kirk Caldwell for two more weeks. I blame both the governor and the mayor for what is happening to our island right now. Both of them let up because we had the lowest outbreak of the coronavirus. Both of them decided to reopen our state. Look at what our state has become. We now have one of the highest percentage of cases in the nation.

Joey Lee

Waipahu

Ellison can afford to support Lanai residents

News that Larry Ellison is ceasing support for his employees on Lanai, because wealthy tourists will not be returning as soon as he thought to stay at his two luxury hotels, begs the question: How many billions do you need before you’ve got enough (“Lanai no longer isolated from high unemployment,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 3)?

The people of Lanai are Ellison’s captive audience, as far as employment goes. What will the working families do now? They will almost certainly still be there when Ellison decides to reopen his concessions.

The last few years of run-ups in the stock market have easily offset the costs Ellison has incurred by his show of “generosity” on Lanai.

How rich is rich enough?

Kevin O’Leary

Kalihi Valley

Trump’s ‘losers’ rhetoric reopens war wounds

I am a Vietnam veteran. I served for a year in Vietnam and left behind a lot of dear friends and my best friend, Roland, in May 1967. It took a long time for me to get rid of the pain and anger that I carried around for reasons I could not understand as a 22-year-old.

In November 1967, I came home to the anti-war protesters who called me a baby killer, sucker and loser for fighting that war. There was a lot of pent-up anger and regret for serving my country at the time and I was ashamed to tell people that I was a Vietnam veteran. But time has a way to resolve old wounds and soften the hurt.

The report that Donald Trump (he is not my president) called the wounded warriors, the fallen heroes and veterans losers and suckers, have re-opened the old wounds, and I cry (“Trump denies account of him calling U.S. war dead ‘losers,’ ‘suckers’,” Star-Advertiser, Top News, Sept. 3).

I cry for my family currently serving in the military, the friends and family who never made it back alive, and for our great country.

Ben Toyama

5th of the 60th, 9th Infantry Division

Ewa Beach

Thomas ignores GOP’s role in federal debt

Thanks for running conservative columnists who offer arguments that keep us liberals somewhat tethered to reality. But you can do better than Cal Thomas. His columns show commendable love of remembered American values, but often his assertions so avoid mainstream knowledge that he loses credibility.

His latest column (“In Washington, there’s little interest in reducing the debt,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 8), argues against spending policies of “today’s Democratic Party,” and says we might be “mortgaging our present” by voting the Biden-Harris ticket because it promises to “spend trillions more on unproved ‘climate change’ and the rest of the Bernie Sanders socialist agenda.”

The majority of column space is devoted to anti-debt quotes from John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and notable Founding Fathers. But no room for a single sentence noting that the national debt has increased far more under Republican than Democratic presidencies.

How convincing is a guy who still believes climate change “unproved,” and avoids dealing with the major fact that controverts his argument?

Dan Binkley

Makiki

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