Bureaucracy stifles state travel program

There is safety, and there is pedantism. There have been numerous stories in the paper during these past two weeks about arriving passengers being stuck in quarantine because they didn’t get tested by a “trusted” partner.

If a testing clinic meets a worldwide standard, who is the state to say that the test is inadmissible? Not only are we inconveniencing people, we also are biting off the proverbial hand that feeds us. Does anyone really believe that guests who have negotiated the gauntlet that is COVID-19 testing and the Safe Travels Hawaii website are really going to return to our islands if we don’t accept their lab results?

The bureaucracy in Hawaii is well known for rigid adherence to many rules that make little or no sense, abandoning all common sense in the simple name of micro-management. There is little or no downside to allowing those who have been tested in proper labs to travel to Hawaii without quarantine, particularly when the spread here seems to be from within the community rather than from tourism. Wake up.

Kent Sharrar

Ewa Beach

Tourists definitely bringing virus here

First, I’d like to applaud Mayor Kirk Caldwell for questioning the state’s visitor testing protocol (“Mayor Kirk Caldwell questions the validity of the state’s traveler surveillance testing program; Lt. Gov. Green defends it,” Star-Advertiser, Nov. 20). Something is definitely wrong.

I absolutely do not believe that some of the new COVID-19 cases are not coming from visitors. We’ve had over 100,000 arrivals since Oct. 15. The state Department of Health apparently is not specifically tracing visitor-initiated infections. But we know with certainty that among 100,000 arrivals, there were infected people who either got a false negative test, or went into self-quarantine and violated it. Then a case pops up in a residential area and it’s classified as “community spread.” Community spread is still a problem, but it won’t end until the virus stops arriving.

When are we going to focus on cleaning up Hawaii and preventing visitors from bringing the virus back in? We can’t keep straddling on this. If we don’t solve the health problem first, we will not solve the economy problem later.

Brian Barbata

Kailua

Don’t let exemption undermine shoreline

I greatly respect and admire former President Barack Obama for many reasons, but I do not believe anyone should circumvent the law — especially a law designed to protect the common good (“Oceanfront property tied to Obama granted exemption from Hawaii’s environmental laws,” Star-Advertiser, Nov. 18).

Granting an exemption to build a seawall at this beachfront property is wrong. The law helps protect all Hawaii’s beaches from erosion due to rising seas from climate change. How difficult will it be to make others conform if an exception is allowed in this instance?

Remember the first monster home? Now how many are there? I urge the city Department of Planning and Permitting to rethink and rescind this decision.

Jan Pappas

Aiea

Trump could learn from Little League

As a child, I played Little League. When the game was over, win or lose — and no matter how fierce the rivalry — we always did a cheer for the other team, followed by a cheer for our own. Then we all lined up and exchanged “fives” with the other players and coaches, saying, “Good game, good game … ”

This practice helped us to build character; respect our opponents; keep winning and losing in perspective; and remember that, though we were on different teams, we were all part of one league.

And though our coaches sometimes disputed an umpire’s call during the game, they never blamed the umpires for our losses, nor did they suggest (or allow us to suggest) that the other team had somehow cheated. In short, Little League taught us to be good sports and (hopefully) to be good people.

Perhaps President Donald Trump should go play some Little League.

Adam T. Kahualaulani Mick

Kaupo, Maui

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