All educators should be applauded and supported for their efforts to keep schools open during this pandemic. As a retired educator, I would like to commend teachers, administrators and all school personnel for their heroic and gallant efforts to keep going during these extremely difficult times.

I can only imagine how stressful and chaotic it must be to keep functioning with the current staff shortages. Educators deserve the community’s full support and gratitude.

We all now realize how important face-to-face instruction really is. Technology is great, but it definitely has its limits. My own school-age grandchildren definitely will attest to that.

Let’s not wait for teacher appreciation day. How about joining me by doing small things for our educational staff in your neighborhood to let them know how much they are appreciated?

Gail Fujimoto

Kailua

Keep pressure on Navy to get fuel out of tanks

The public, the Sierra Club, the Board of Water Supply, the state Department of Health and others must keep the pressure on the Navy to move its fuel from its Red Hill tanks.

A similar situation happened in Camp Lejeune, the U.S. Marine base in North Carolina, from 1953 to 1987. During those years, tens of thousands of people may have been exposed to toxic chemicals, which only now Congress is trying to remedy. We cannot wait 34 years and beyond to solve this problem.

Sandra Barker

Hawaii Kai

Blangiardi needs to lead to curb COVID spread

Despite the heavy COVID-19 caseload, Mayor Rick Blangiardi refuses to follow the firm advice of the state Department of Health to institute stronger restrictions on activities that expose people to the virus. Blangiardi preaches the virtues of relying on “personal responsibility and good judgment” to do the job (“Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi asks residents to use good judgment amid COVID surge,” Star-Advertiser, Dec. 30).

Really, Mayor? Where have you been over the last two years? How much personal responsibility and good judgment have large sections of the American people shown in refusing to get vaccinated, thus infecting themselves and others? The mayor’s claim that “two years into this disease people and businesses know what to do” is at odds with our lived experience since 2020.

Perhaps at the heart of Blangiardi’s refusal to use governmental power is his fatalism.

“We can’t really get out in front of this disease,” he said. “It is that virulent.”

No, Mr. Mayor, we surely can’t, unless we enforce lockdowns and vaccination mandates and testing for people at jobs and recreation. On Oahu, right now, the high costs of political misleadership are becoming ever too clear.

Noel Kent

Manoa

Most religions support COVID-19 vaccinations

We often hear individuals citing religious beliefs as a reason to not be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

I have to wonder if these same individuals refused all vaccinations in their lifetime? Do they shun all medicines and doctors?

How many religions shun medicine? Religious leaders around the world encourage vaccinations against the coronavirus.

I encourage employers to challenge their employees on their stance of refusing to be vaccinated on “religious grounds.” Employers should require documentation. And unions should stop supporting this lame excuse. If you must, find something more plausible. Don’t use religion as a scapegoat.

It is your right to refuse a vaccination. But is the well-being of yourself, your family and co-workers, plus the possibility of losing your job, worth the risk?

D.J. Freitas

Kaneohe

Republican leaders try to restrict voting process

Republican state legislatures in the lower 48 states continue on their path to suppress and subvert our voting rights process.

True, the voting legislation they passed does not remove the right of every American to vote. But it places many limitations on the voting process, such as limiting the number of voting places, reducing hours or days, criminalizing giving food and/or water to citizens standing in long lines to vote, reducing “mail-in” balloting, and more.

In a lawsuit, an attorney representing the Republican Party said these actions will almost guarantee Republicans will win elections. Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.

Unfortunately, our conservative Supreme Court justices are more than willing to support Donald Trump’s positions, which are contrary to democratic principles. Perhaps Trump was correct to publicly boast that the justices he appointed ultimately will support his thinking and rule in his personal favor on voting laws, abortion and other issues.

Gilbert Horita

Ala Moana

GOP rigs voting laws in effort to win elections

Having just watched President Joe Biden’s speech on Jan. 6, I checked Fox News to see if it was given coverage. Of course not.

Given that the vast majority of the GOP falls in line behind Donald Trump; the misinformation media machine (Fox, etc.) keeps the falsehoods fresh in their supporters’ minds; and GOP legislators in swing states have changed voter laws in their favor, the probability of a Trump win in 2024 is reasonable.

Even if the GOP voter suppression, gerrymandering and other tools do not lead to a majority in the swing states, then the party’s new policy of allowing a partisan (GOP) group to oversee the final election count would ensure a Trump win — democracy be damned.

Pat Caldwell

Kailua

New Waikiki studios really aren’t affordable

Your front-page story, “Affordable rentals available in new Waikiki high-rise” (Star-Advertiser, Jan. 10), says that studios will rent for $1,320 monthly.

You call that affordable? What a joke! What world are you living in? That’s not much lower than market value. An “affordable” studio shouldn’t rent for more than $800 a month.

Dan Aregger

Kuliouou

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