Why does the state continue to support the Stadium Authority?

The authority failed to maintain Aloha Stadium over the years to the point that it is now condemned. What was the authority doing all this time?

Without a stadium, do we even need the authority? Should they be involved at all in the new stadium?

Its failure to maintain Aloha Stadium is just another example of the state’s failure to provide preventive maintenance. It loves to invest taxpayer dollars in building, but fails to fund maintenance. Examples are everywhere. Just look at the drought-stricken palms on the freeways and the deterioration of the landscape on Nimitz Highway in front of the airport and, of course, Aloha Stadium.

Clarence Toguchi

Kaneohe

Offer training programs for displaced workers

With the demise of Love’s Bakery, maybe the state could step in to offer internships or training programs for displaced workers in various industries, such as agriculture or health care. Offer an on-the-job-training stipend for any worker interested in learning a different trade to help augment his or her income.

Not everyone would be qualified or even want the opportunity, but even if 50 people are retrained, it will keep that many off the unemployment line.

Ken Takeya

Kailua

Don’t private businesses help the economy, too?

I would like to express my thanks to Liz Ho of the United Public Workers and Wilbert Holck of the Hawaii State Teachers Association for clarifying the path to economic recovery for our state (“Public workers keep economy going,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Feb. 28).

According to Ho and Holck, government workers are “the very people who provide the services that will lift us out of economic despair.”

Silly me: I thought commerce, both big and small, and tourism, including local, domestic and foreign, would have some hand in getting our economy going again. But, according to Ho and Holck, “This false, perverse notion of shared suffering will not make things better. Clearly, self-centered, crabs-in-the-bucket thinking will not move Hawaii toward economic recovery.”

So, I implore everyone: Stop trying to generate economic recovery through revenue generation, you greedy crabs. Go get a government job and help lift our economy from despair! Aloha from a capitalist crab in the proverbial bucket.

Denise Soderholm

Nuuanu

Politicians should attack problems, not each other

Do the Republican and Democratic political regimes realize that they are solely responsible for the economical and moral bankrupting of America?

For example, the Republican governor of Texas is opening up his state 100%, refuses to prod residents of his state to wear masks and, on top of that, is playing the blame game. Texas has just gone through a tremendous ordeal because the longtime Republican-run state has made imprudent decisions.

There is chaos in our political system and our politicians are driving that negative, detrimental force. They are making it difficult for our economy to swiftly come back because the government has to expend billions and trillions of dollars to put out these self-created fires.

We have so many problems, serious ones, and our politicians are attacking each other instead of attacking the issues. The insanity must stop. Compel your politicians to be accountable and responsible. And if they can’t work for all Americans, vote them out.

Judith Santos

Kailua

To make real progress, eliminate filibuster

In order to restore democracy, fight global warming, preserve constitutional rights (voting, racial and gender equality, economic fairness, environmental protection, etc.) and defeat rule by a minority of Republican senators from small, less-populated states, the Senate filibuster must be eliminated.

This relic of the past, which is based on nothing in the Constitution, was used to thwart civil rights legislation in the 1950s and 1960s. More recently, Republicans used it to deny President Barack Obama his appointment of hundreds of qualified federal judges. Republicans ditched it to give President Donald Trump three conservative Supreme Court justices, changing the legal landscape of American jurisprudence for decades.

It’s time for Democrats to restore simple majority rule and discard this undemocratic Senate relic that denies the will of the majority of Americans.

Francis M. Nakamoto

Moanalua Valley

Hawaii’s vaccination system is out of step

Hawaii stubbornly refuses to begin vaccinating kupuna in the 65-plus age group, preferring instead to identify more essential workers, many of whom are much younger and less vulnerable to COVID-19. When this issue comes up at a news conference or elsewhere, the answer is noncommittal.

More than 30 states are well into vaccinating this age group, with more added on March 1. Is there a reason that Hawaii’s priorities are different than those of the rest of the nation?

James Moninger

Chinatown

65-plus seniors among most at risk for COVID

Health and safety providers, law enforcement officers, transportation- related workers, Department of Defense employees, teachers, food-supply workers and a few more segments should be vaccinated, unquestionably. Beyond this list, priorities get blurred.

What is an “essential worker?” Do officials follow established criteria but massage definitions to accommodate special-interest-group demands? Advocates with media access understandably promote their own: tourism, restaurants, bars, retail, airlines. But, who will argue and act for the Phase 1C seniors?

The powers that be proclaim that we, the 65-plus seniors, are among the most at risk. “Protect our kupuna” is little more than a redundant news conference sound bite. While thankful that the 75-plus seniors are being vaccinated, we have been silently following the rules and patiently waiting for our turn, asking, “What’s happening?”

The message is unmistakable: 1C seniors are only kind of important. Talk is cheap. Stop the lip service. Leadership must keep their promise to prioritize “the most vulnerable.”

Les Inouye

Honolulu

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