Step up and do your part
Last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci said people will have to bite the bullet and forgo gatherings during this holiday season due to the pandemic. The CDC said that small gatherings of family and friends are the primary cause of community spread of the virus. How depressing.
As a retired firefighter I can tell you that though it may seem hard, it is not undoable. It was a rare year that I was home for holidays and birthdays. During fire season, we were routinely called out on campaign fires for days or even weeks, sometimes back-to-back. Many times summer vacations with dad were not happening. That’s just the way it was. My police friends lived a similar life although not as many “camp outs” in different parts of the state. Cops and firefighters are nothing special. We just did what we had to do when we had to do it.
As tourists come back to Hawaii it will be up to all of us to do what needs to be done to keep our islands, kupuna and other vulnerable populations safe from COVID-19. Please step up and do your part. Stay home, wear a mask and socially distance. We can all be the real heroes in this. Mahalo.
Joseph Appleton
Waimea
Good to know
In a Friday letter to the editor (“What an embarrassment”), Dave Chrisman describes Sen. Mazie Hirono as “an embarrassment” because of her asking Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett about sexual harassment at the beginning of her question time. Perhaps it’s selective memory on Mr. Chrisman’s part or maybe he just missed Hirono’s introduction to the question: An explanation that it’s something she asks of every nominee who comes before the Judiciary Committee. However, it’s good to know what the threshold is for embarrassment, considering the near-constant flood of cringe-worthy comments and Tweets that gush daily from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Alan Silverman
Kailua-Kona
Not a great representation of a special place
As a previous 30 year resident of the Big Island, now living on the mainland, I’m hoping to return in my latter years to be with my ohana. However, Sen. Mazie Hirono, representing Hawaii nei, is an embarrassment. Brett Kavanaugh’s SCOTUS hearings demonstrated her lack of aloha and now once again her partisan bias clouds her judgment and civility. Not a great representation of a very special place in the world. Washington, D.C., can do that to some people.
Mark R. Spengler
Colorado Springs, CO
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