In Denmark, 84% of the population over the age of 12 is fully vaccinated and 86% have received at least one dose.

As a result, this is what life looks like today in Copenhagen, a city not much larger than Honolulu where I am visiting.

>> No one is required to wear a mask anymore, except at the airport.

>> Schools are in session.

>> Shops, nightclubs, restaurants, bars and hotels are open for business at full capacity.

>> Streets and sidewalks, parks and playgrounds are bustling.

Copenhagen is alive again, liberated and breathing in deeply. And even as the days are beginning to grow colder and grayer, its people are working, playing and thriving.

In Honolulu, we’ve heard loud talk about lost freedom lately. But to stroll through an unfettered Copenhagen is to see firsthand that joyous normalcy is the most precious lost freedom during a pandemic.

Copenhagen’s comeback is what personal responsibility during a shared crisis looks like. This is easily what Honolulu could look like as well.

Dave Koga

Pearl City

Nothing tyrannical about vaccine mandates

Michael Lee wrote, “There is no difference between mandates and dictates. We have dictators. In 1776, they would be called tyrants” (“Public, private mandates are examples of tyranny,” Star- Advertiser, Letters, Sept. 16).

He is repeating a steady drumbeat emanating from right-wing media, and may not know that the nation’s first vaccine mandate preceded our current Constitution. Facing the prospect of a smallpox epidemic in 1777, George Washington ordered the entire Continental Army to get vaccinated. Was the father of our nation a tyrant?

Lee closed his letter by asking, “What happened to ‘my body, my choice’?” That question was answered by Justice John Marshall Harlan in the Supreme Court’s 1905 decision validating state vaccine mandates. Real liberty, he wrote “could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own [liberty] … regardless of the injury that may be done to others.”

Don Armstrong

Waikiki

City would unfairly limit property owners’ rights

The city proposes to tromp on the rights of many law-abiding property owners through further limiting short-term rentals (“Planning Commission closes public testimony on Oahu short-term rental bill,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 9).

Our Waikiki building was created as a condo-hotel 50 years ago. For 25 years we have rented in compliance with regulations, paying taxes, with no neighbor complaints. We own so we can visit — we love Hawaii and its people, and have many dear local friends.

Recent regulation changes already limited our rentals to a minimum of 30 days, which has been difficult, especially during the pandemic, but we have complied. Now they would require 180 days minimum, double our property tax and charge higher fees.

Why? The stated goals would be to fund enforcement, simplify enforcement, or limit the impact on residential neighborhoods. The changes would achieve none of these, and only benefit hotels. We, and others, will have to sell. If they can take our rights, they could take yours next.

Karen and Greg Cochran

Santa Cruz, Calif.

Kudos to witness in Makaha car crash

Three HPD officers in separate cars were relieved of duty following a serious single car crash in Makaha (“3 Honolulu police officers suspended, face possible criminal charges following high-speed crash that left boy, 14, paralyzed,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 17).

.A witness reported the officers were in a high-speed chase that led to the crash, which critically injured at least two of the five to six young occupants. The witness also reported the three officers immediately left the scene after the crash and later returned to the site feigning ignorance about the horrible event.

The witness showed civic responsibility; he remained at the scene to render aid and when the officers returned he confronted them and spoke the truth. To all citizens nationwide like this man, who speak up when they see something that is not right, who do more with their smartphones than photograph their daily lives, who question people in power or just speak the truth, I applaud you.

Keep it up and pull all of us along. We are paying attention.

Mew Yau Ching

Kapahulu

Rail transit should be turned into a bikeway

Richard Borreca rightly praised Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s decisiveness in closing Haiku Stairs (“Blangiardi’s decisive ‘no’ to Haiku Stairs could be template for other long-stalled decisions,” Star-Advertiser, On Politics, Sept. 19).

Do we dare hope that the mayor will be as decisive in putting an end to the financial carnage inflicted on Oahu by the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART)?

Perhaps the rail system could be repurposed as an elevated bikeway, a type of infrastructure that is increasingly popular in large cities. If so, “The Hannemann-Caldwell Bikeway” would be an appropriate name. Turning it into a bikeway would probably cost us no more than another $1 billion or so (only $1,000 more per Oahu resident), which is insignificant compared to what has been spent so far. And by the time HART is finished, bicycles will be the only transportation most of us will be able to afford.

Neil Frazer

Kailua

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