The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that was created in 1993. It can offer assistance if you need to take time off work because of family responsibilities to care for an immediate family member — a spouse, child, parent with a serious health condition — without losing your job. It also covers time off for the birth and care of a newborn or for care and adoption of a child. Your job is protected if the guidelines are followed.

Unfortunately, siblings who need your help do not fall under the guidelines of FMLA. Such was the case for me with my two youngest brothers: one with ALS, the other with a brain tumor. Also, my sister-in-law on the mainland could have used my case management/social service experience that might have saved her life.

It’s nice to shine a light on family caregivers, but it would be equally nice to update and amend FMLA to include siblings.

Katherine O’Connor

Nuuanu

Gag orders threaten good work of boards

Regarding the article, “Proposed Hawaii Tourism Authority board rule criticized as ‘gag order’” (Star-Advertiser, Nov. 8): I was relieved to read that many board members are against such a draconian rule.

Boards in general are governing entities with broad powers, but those powers come with a serious fiduciary obligation to protect the best interests of the stakeholders.

Every board has three primary legal duties: a duty to care for the organization by ensuring prudent use of all its assets; a duty to ensure decisions are made in the best interests of the organization, not the best interests of individual board members; and a duty to follow all applicable laws and regulations, including the organization’s own bylaws.

A legitimate board is accountable and responsive to the organization it serves. It follows the rule of law and provides transparency to its stakeholders regarding processes and decisions. A board in which members are prohibited from voicing their individual opinions publicly regarding the board’s decisions or operations creates fertile ground for conflicts of interest and other illegal activities. A gag order has no place in the code of conduct for any legitimate board of directors.

Molly Brown

Ala Moana

Herd immunity isn’t likely for COVID-19

Dexter Yuen advocated against continued vaccinations, but omitted the fact that herd immunity is best achieved when there have been widespread vaccinations, including of children (“Herd immunity means stop pushing vaccines,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Nov. 8).

Furthermore, I suggest he read a very good article in Nature magazine, a peer-reviewed journal (March 18), on five reasons why herd immunity against COVID-19 is unlikely to occur. Finally he also omits the fact that without vaccinations, a lot of people will die and have died (more than 750,000 in the U.S. alone) in order to possibly achieve herd immunity.

I wonder whether he’s willing to give up his life in order to prove his point?

Ginny Ching Edmunds

Niu Valley

Lawmakers demand ethics only for others

Auwe! Gut and replace our Legislature (“Hawaii Supreme Court strikes down ‘gut and replace’ bill,” Star- Advertiser, Nov. 4).

The Legislature’s gut-and-replace tactics have gone on for too long. This tactic results in the title of the proposed bill having no nexus to the intent or purpose of the original proposal. This borders on fraud. In the business world, this classic bait-and-switch maneuver would be unethical and illegal.

The Legislature in its infinite wisdom established the Sunshine Law under Chapter 92 of the Hawaii Revised Statues in 1998.

State and county boards and commissions in Hawaii must follow it to the T to provide transparency on proposed rules, regulations and issues concerning the public.

These same elected lawmakers, the self-imposed ethical gurus who constantly advocate and require transparency in government, swear they are looking out for us, we the people, yet they often practice gut and replace.

This is a classic example of “rules for thee, but not for me.” Term limits, anyone?

Lisa Adlong

Hauula

Postal workers rise above political mischief

Despite the efforts of political appointees to eviscerate the U.S. Postal Service to hinder voting by mail and privatize package delivery, I am grateful for the USPS.

Blessed with a conscientious carrier and friendly and efficient clerks at our local post office, our letters and packages arrive in good order and at reasonable cost.

Perhaps the unofficial motto of the Postal Service, chiseled in stone on the James A. Farley Building in New York City, should be changed to, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor self-serving political appointees, stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

John Priolo

Pearl City

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