Rules being flaunted
I’ve not been to town since March. I was on Alii Drive, by the ABC Store, recently, and people/tourists were not wearing masks. Young boys on skateboards, no masks. The business next door had a man standing outside with no mask luring people with gifts to book tourist trips. No social distancing. It was shocking and eye-opening to see rules being flaunted.
Is there a plan to monitor Alii Drive? Citations must be issued, especially since the virus numbers are creeping upwards.
Susan Howarth
Captain Cook
A scene from Stanley Kubrick’s movie ‘2001’?
“Deep in the basement of the county building in Hilo,” West Hawaii Today reported Wednesday, an incredible hands-free vote-counting machine performs five tasks on arriving ballots. Officials “park them in locked cages” until it’s time for a counting machine to make the tally.
My clever spouse Hermine, on hearing of technological ballot-processing in 2020, replies, tongue in cheek, “open the pod bay doors, HAL.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that … I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do. Look (election worker_, I can see you’re really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.”
Unstressed we all will be, awaiting the vote count.
Niel Thomas
Waimea
Don’t defund the police, defund the unions
I say, don’t defund the police departments, but reform them because we need them.
I also say, get rid of the unions who are only in business to support their own political agendas while lining their financial pockets.
Cut out the middle man in other words.
The unions in Hawaii have become so political, that they have literally encroached themselves on the rest of the community by invading our political system with their political propaganda that they believe we should all follow.
Gone are the days of Hawaii’s figureheads being appointed for us.
Unions have been around since the early 1800s, long before computers ever existed.
So I ask? Why pay a middle man dues from your hard earned money when you can keep that money for yourself? And can you be assured that your retirement money that the unions invest for you will be there when the time comes? With so many financial experts out there, why rely on a union to decide how to invest your money? If you or other employees have an issue with an employer, then hire an attorney and file a class action lawsuit.
Basically, what unions can do for employees today, employees can do for themselves.
If we want to stop all the political corruption in Hawaii, we first need to get rid of the unions that are no longer serving their union members, but rather serving the interests of political candidates.
Think about it, if the unions spent as much money and time on their members as they do on their political interests, then there wouldn’t be thousands of people waiting in line for food, and/or thousands still waiting for their unemployment checks correct?
Where are the unions now? And, where have they been through this entire crisis?
Lisa Malakaua
Hilo
Letters policy
Letters to the editor should be 300 words or less and will be edited for style and grammar. Longer viewpoint guest columns may not exceed 800 words. Submit online at www.westhawaiitoday.com/?p=118321, via email to letters@westhawaiitoday.com or address them to:
Editor
West Hawaii Today
PO Box 789
Kailua-Kona, HI 96745