Letters: Support UH football by attending games; Tell life stories of those who died from COVID; Look at big picture for solar project tax breaks

Those who think the University of Hawaii football games should be televised for free should realize that it costs money to run a successful football program (“Give public free access to UH games on TV,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Nov. 10). What is needed is for more UH football fans to attend the games, not only to provide money for the program, but to show support for the team.

A winning football team brings our community together. Remember the Colt Brennan years? I know we all want a winning football team. But we need to do our part and support the program in bad times as well as the good times. Go, Warriors.

Cliff Toyama

Moanalua

Cartoon on Rittenhouse verdict inflammatory

Shame on you for publishing the cartoon in Tuesday’s edition suggesting that the Rittenhouse verdict was somehow unjust (Star-Advertiser, Nov. 23). Although not perfect, we have one of the best justice systems in the world and to cast doubt and sow discontent at the verdict is irresponsible.

Were you on that jury? Did you see and hear all the evidence presented at the trial? Were you given instructions as to how to interpret and apply the law in reaching a verdict?

Of course not. But yet you publish an inflammatory cartoon suggesting that the verdict was unjust. I hope that you, or any of us, are never to be tried in the court of public opinion but are tried by a jury of our peers after careful examination of all available evidence and after careful application of the law.

Tim Gedney

Hawaii Kai

Tell life stories of those who died from COVID

As we reached the sobering benchmark of 1,000 people in Hawaii who have died from COVID-19, it’s just unthinkable that many of those deaths could have been prevented with a simple vaccine.

In spite of this tragic statistic, there are many people in Hawaii who still think the virus is not a serious threat, or worse, not even real at all.

Here’s an idea to bring a reality check to this segment of the population.

Publish a special section in the newspaper that has, with the family’s permission, the photos and personal information about all of these very real people who have lost their lives due to this very real pandemic: photos, names, ages, occupations, and a personal remembrance from their family.

These victims all left behind loved ones and most had productive lives cut short by COVID-19.

I can’t think of a more poignant way to put an end to the vaccine controversy once and for all.

Matt Nakamura

Hawaii Kai

Sensationalist headlines mislead on COVID deaths

Sensationalist headlines like “Hawaii surpasses 1,000 COVID deaths” (Star- Advertiser, Nov. 21), is fear-mongering.

The headline suggests this number is statistically significant. Instead, the Hawaii death rate as of Nov. 23 was 0.01151843294, indicating that 99.99% of Hawaii cases have resulted in survival.

The reported death count is spread out over nearly two years, meaning COVID-19 deaths account for approximately 500 per year.

Per the state Department of Health, cardiovascular disease kills 3,000 in a single year. That’s six times the amount of annual deaths caused by COVID-19.

If the goal is to frighten the populace, continue with the sensationalist headlines.

If the goal is to report ethically and provide readers with useful information, ditch the sensationalist headlines and provide context.

Justine Adams

Volcano, Hawaii island

Cal Thomas leaps from militias to vigilantes

Cal Thomas’ opinions continue to bemuse and befuddle. His column, “When police stand down to rioters, you need a militia” (Star-Advertiser, Nov. 23) concluded that you would be glad to have an untrained, armed, confused teenager patrolling the streets during a riot.

Apparently, the leap from militia (e.g., the National Guard) to vigilante (those who take the law into their own hands) is intellectually a small one for Thomas. The biggest problem with this confused approach is self-evident. It gets people tragically and unnecessarily killed.

So, no: You don’t need, much less want, a vigilante wannabe patrolling the streets during a riot.

Edward B. Hanel Jr.

Kailua

Don’t kill marine life, choose a vegan diet

Tourist numbers are heading back up, and many of us are fed up with visitors touching and harassing seals. But if we eat fish or go fishing, we could be causing these animals and other wildlife even more harm than a touch.

A Hawaiian monk seal was rescued last month after swallowing several fishing hooks. This is not an isolated case. My son found some fishing line floating in the water at Kaimana recently, the same place we often see monk seals. More than 640,000 tons of discarded fishing gear, including hooks, enter oceans every year — and this “ghost fishing gear” can mutilate and kill marine animals for many years afterward.

Fish, turtles, dolphins and seabirds can become tangled in fishing line, leading to painful injuries or suffocation. Hooks caught in a beak or mouth can make eating excruciating or intolerable, resulting in death by starvation.

Fish are clever, social animals, and they feel pain. They don’t want to die for anyone’s dinner. We can protect all animals by hanging up our fishing rods and going vegan.

Jason Baker

Diamond Head

Look at big picture for solar project tax breaks

The City Council should take a step back and consider the big picture of Bill 39, which would reduce the property tax rate for large-scale solar energy facilities on land zoned for agriculture (“Property tax assessments jeopardize Oahu’s clean energy projects,” Star-Advertiser, Nov. 16).

That decision should be made based on the general merits of such a change, not the fate of a single existing project. As we saw with Superferry, legislative decisions must be general, and cannot be made to bail out a specific project.

It should be determined whether similar reclassification would put the 20 or so other large-scale photovoltaic projects in similar financial jeopardy. If those 20 projects do not all require passage of Bill 39 to be financially viable, that would argue against its passage.

We as a community also should ask how much sense it makes to cover agricultural land with PV panels, when a quick look at satellite views of our island show many acres of rooftops and parking lots that could be covered with PVs. The state Department of Transportation sets a good example at the airport.

Nobu Nakamoto

Aiea

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