Please tell me the following is a bad dream: The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) is proposing a gambling casino in Kapolei, with all the well-known problems, including financial risks, drug use and a social springboard for more of the same development on all the islands.

Compare this idiotic proposal to the Hawaiian community that came together in full encampment on Mauna Kea to protest (with the apparent approval of many of the Hawaiian people) the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), which promises to bring billions of dollars, from construction to years of scientific research that will place Hawaii in the forefront of studies of the universe and the future of life for all humanity.

How can we be so stupid as a community?

Ron Nagy

Kaimuki

A better place to put casino than Kapolei

DHHL has proposed a casino here in Hawaii to pay for the development of Hawaiian homelands. I have a suggestion. Put the casino in Las Vegas and just send the profits to Hawaii.

Roger Garrett

Kapahulu

Gambling would hurt Hawaii’s vulnerable

The idea that a casino resort in Kapolei is going to be a money cow for DHHL — when we have no tourists, when local people scramble to pay rent and wait in mile-long lines to get food for their families — might be fodder for a late-night monologue.

In reality, it is a sick joke from an agency supposedly existing for the betterment of the Hawaiian peoples. Gambling (please don’t use the euphemism, “gaming”) is the one vice Hawaii doesn’t need, in any way, shape or form.

Las Vegas, our “ninth island,” serves whatever gambling our residents require. It always strikes hardest at the most vulnerable, who are least able to afford it, and is a drain on resources.

I am asking, please, do not give this bill the light of day. Otherwise, we’ll see a dark night on Hawaii’s shores.

Lori Arizumi

Ewa Beach

Stop use of gas-powered landscaping equipment

The state has set an ambitious goal to be reduce fossil fuel use, which is an outstanding goal. The use of electric buses is a great step forward (“Honolulu unveils first of 17 new electric buses,” Star-Advertiser, Dec. 15). The new buses are quiet, do not burn fossil fuels and do not emit noxious gases and particulates.

Why not continue down this path, and stop the use of gas-powered landscaping equipment? Battery or wired leaf blowers, hedge trimmers and lawnmowers have been around for decades. One of the major annoyances of sheltering in place is to have to listen to these noisy devices.

European Union countries mandate their use. Why don’t we?

Jack Schneider

Waialae Iki

Keep inmate infections in daily COVID-19 count

Mayor Kirk Caldwell has petitioned Gov. David Ige to remove prison inmate COVID-19 counts from the daily counts because it skews the results.

Doing that would hide the problem at the prisons by not presenting a transparent picture of the outbreaks there.

Not only should we continue to include areas of cluster infections in the daily counts, but we should also target these locations with initial vaccinations as they become available.

Cluster outbreaks have to be controlled before allowing the COVID-19 vaccine to be made available to the general public.

Incarceration would be cruel and unusual punishment if the state does not do everything possible to stop the surge of infections in our prisons.

Stuart Shimazu

Kapahulu

Trump’s behavior suggests mental problem

I seriously feel that President Donald Trump has some mental health issues. His thinking is not rational. How many times must he be reminded that he lost the election?

He has even contemplated declaring martial law. Enough is enough. Maybe Vice President Mike Pence should be looking into invoking the 25th Amendment and having Trump declared incapable of performing his duties as president because of his mental state.

The president is putting the U.S. in serious trouble because of his lack of leadership.

We are seeing hacking by foreign powers to see if they can undermine the U.S. Trump needs to give President-elect Joe Biden access to the Pentagon so he would be up to speed when he becomes president.

Trump refuses to acknowledge anything other then his reelection. Enough is enough. Trump lost the election, period.

George Higashi

Kaneohe

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