If Hawaii hotel rates are the highest in the nation and occupancy is high, why isn’t this translating into better wages, better health benefits and pensions for the hotel workers?
Instead, it seems every time contracts are up for negotiation, the workers have to beg or threaten to strike to get a few pennies more.
If all the hotels are doing with record profits is sending the money out of state, how is this industry a good thing for Hawaii, given that it blocks our view with concrete monstrosities, sends strangers into our residential neighborhoods because they can’t afford the room rates, uses up our water, and contributes to the garbage and sewage-handling problems facing the counties?
Diantha Goo
Manoa
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Provide more info for potential officers
I have complete empathy for Honolulu Police Chief Susan Ballard (“Lack Opens in a new tab of officers is hurting operation of HPD, chief Opens in a new tabsays Opens in a new tab,” Star-Advertiser, April 23).
HPD’s problem is not new but has been increasing steadily over a very long time. For many candidates, the police mindset is a rude awakening and a stark reality on the first day of training.
Most prospective recruits have little knowledge of what’s in store, from training to the real-life experiences in a career that will forever change their lives. For many, the shock is too much and many leave disillusioned.
Like the arts and sciences that prepare people to become participants in our society, there could be more emphasis and HPD involvement in exposing people to potential law enforcement careers, or at least making them aware of the paths available before any decision is made. The HPD Explorer Program, Cadet Program, college courses, federal and military police training programs, and citizens academies are some ways to encourage the pursuit of this career.
Benjamin Ballesteros Jr.
Haleiwa
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Keep pesticide away from Hawaii’s keiki
Do we, the people of Hawaii, love our children ten times less than Californians love their children? How else to explain why use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos may be used ten times closer to schools in Hawaii than in California?
Perhaps Hawaii’s research on the toxic substance is superior to that of California’s, but I doubt it.
The substance in minute quantities is known to cause permanent damage to the brain of developing fetuses. Senate Bill Opens in a new tab3095 Opens in a new tab, introduced by Russell Ruderman of Hawaii island, is a mild precaution in comparison to what must be done to prevent harm to our keiki.
Tomas Belsky
Hilo
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Rename airport for Daniel Akaka
With all due respect, U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye has many places dedicated to him. It would be fitting to rename Daniel K. Inouye International Airport to Sen. Daniel Akaka International Airport.
Sen. Akaka embodied the true spirit of aloha to all the people he met. It is fitting that his memory and legacy as a great Hawaiian man continue in greeting all travelers to Hawaii with aloha.
Roy Gonsalves
Manoa
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Trump advances peace in Korea
Six months ago, the Democrats and their media counterparts vehemently called the president insane and mentally unstable, saying he was bringing us to the brink of nuclear war with North Korea.
Now, these same people are saying that he’s being too soft on Kim Jong Un and that he’s giving away too much. The president hasn’t given away anything. Instead of bringing us to the brink of nuclear war, he’s brought us to the brink of a historic moment — the denuclearization of North Korea, ending the war between North and South Korea and the unification of both Koreas.
Bert Oshiro
Hawaii Kai
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Decisions degrade human dignity
Rachael Wong was brave to speak for so many women and men who have experienced sexual harassment, calling it degrading when those victims are ignored or not believed (“Complicity Opens in a new tab via silence is second hidden crime of sexual Opens in a new tabharassment Opens in a new tab,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, April 8). She is right to call those behaviors a detriment to society.
I add them to the list of previous decisions that are breakdowns in our society: the normalization of abortion, the legal killing of babies before birth and, now, the legal permission to kill with the passage of physician-assisted suicide.
What do these decisions say about “the world we are creating for our children and each other,” as Wong asks? They are all negative. They are all degrading to the dignity of the human race.
Bob Badham
Kailua
