I must disagree with state Sen. Kurt Fevella for seeking to halt the $50 payment to inmates for getting vaccinated. This amount is a pittance compared to the cost of the state to care for an inmate infected with COVID-19.

If this what it takes to make our prisons and jails safer, it must be offered. The voluntary vaccination would also help protect other inmates and corrections staff. Fevella is wrong on this matter, considering this is a life-and-death situation impacting our correctional system where options are limited.

Will Espero

Ewa Beach

Masking with aloha will let all breathe easier

Aloha means “the breath of life.” Nothing is more human and meaningful of humanity than the sound of breathing. Yet, during this pandemic, our breaths have brought suffering and death.

However, aloha is more than just a manifestation of life: The spirit of aloha is also coded into our laws. Hawaii Revised Statutes, Section 5-7.5, states that the Aloha Spirit “was the working philosophy of native Hawaiians and was presented as a gift to the people of Hawaii. ‘Aloha’ is the essence of relationships in which each person is important to every other person for collective existence.”

Let us mask when appropriate and get our vaccinations not only for ourselves, but also for the vulnerable around us. Although we have personal freedoms, let us think of the freedoms of our fellow residents, kupuna and keiki. May we all continue to breathe and our breaths be that of life. Aloha.

Daniel Nakamitsu

Puunui

Doubts on costs, benefits of Build Back Better plan

President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better program is popular for people who are eagerly waiting for it as long as it’s free money. This program is the epitome of this party’s well-known policy of “tax and spend.”

Notwithstanding the media hype of every minute detail of these new tax ideas, it is unrealistic to assume that the shortfall will not be substantial over these programs’ intended 10-year period, given government’s track record.

Very few people have considered the harmful effect of these taxes on the economy, corporations and rich people. What the heck — they can afford it, right?

Also very few people are looking at the long-term result of whether these programs will benefit society, as to making those receiving the benefits become productive contributors, versus ending up where they started before these programs, or lower.

Carlton Chang

Waialae

Build concert venue at Kapaa Quarry in Kailua

It’s time we discuss something big, bold and beautiful.

Let’s follow the example of Red Rocks near Denver and turn the Kapaa Quarry in Kailua into a concert venue. It’s perfect.

As much as possible has been taken from the mountain on the north side, and it’s just sitting there. It has a natural amphitheater shape, is far from Kailua residents (so no complaints about the noise), and is right on the H-3 so getting there from the rest of the island is a cinch.

It would be a world-class venue for music groups, a place for our many halau to hold events; it can show films, hold flea markets and yoga classes. It would be an extraordinary venue and another reason for our tourists to visit.

Also, three former governors are right, against pouring any more money in the Aloha Stadium, and instead, to build a stadium at University of Hawaii-Manoa and much-needed housing at Halawa.

Libby Ellett Tomar

Kailua

Haiku Stairs worth fixing for residents and tourists

I came to Hawaii in 1998 as a son of kamaaina, and as an avid hiker, learned about the Haiku Stairs. I heard that access was illegal, but plans were in the works to resolve the problem. So I decided to wait for when I could hike it legally.

Now, 20 years later, I am 65 years old and still waiting. Although I can climb the ridge without the stairs, I’m not sure how much longer this will be true, and hiking steps involves less erosion and personal risk.

I very much appreciate Bill Cunningham’s recent column, by a “resident of the neighborhood adjacent to the Stairs,” advocating for their preservation (“Haiku Stairs worth saving, plan options do exist,” Island Voices, Star-Advertiser, Nov. 1). As he has noted, we do not destroy other attractions because their popularity creates problems, and it is an attraction for locals as well as tourists.

The money spent removing the Stairs could instead be spent fixing the problem, and converting it into another contributor to the economy as well as for locals’ enrichment.

Dan Suthers

Punchbowl

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