The state Department of Health (DOH) must resume daily reporting of COVID-19 cases. Out of sight is out of mind and with updates provided only weekly, many residents and visitors are wrongly assuming that the worst is over, with no need to mask up or take precautions.
Numbers have been skyrocketing, and COVID-19 rates are higher than they were this time last year. Several new variants are present and positive cases and deaths have risen steadily over the past nine weeks. The DOH says positive cases are grossly underreported due to home testing. It is critical that we have current data in order to safely and successfully learn to live with COVID-19.
Daily reports in the newspaper and on the news will help remind everyone that this is not the time to let our guard down. Resume this crucial aspect of managing COVID-19 for the safety of our residents and visitors.
Helen Gibson Ahn
Hawaii Kai
Next governor needs to support schools
Is our next governor really serious about improving our troubled public educational system, or is it just campaign rhetoric? Teachers are underpaid, overworked, and lack the support of government. They could use some help.
The state Board of Education should be elected. An elected people from the rank-and-file will do a better job than a politically appointed yes person.
Provide substantial funding. Increase teachers’ pay. Hire more teachers. Have funds available for upgrades and other needs.
Public education shapes our youth and needs serious commitment. Past governors have neglected to help and have allowed our public educational system to deteriorate into a sorrowful state.
Clarence Chun
Kalihi
Continuing teacher shortage in Hawaii
Schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi said that one of the goals that he intends to focus on is the teacher shortage problem. This has been a problem for many years.
The state Department of Education needs to stop spending money recruiting mainland teachers to come to Hawaii. The DOE needs to focus on helping our own students to become effective teachers and to develop a community of local teachers.
The Hawaii Alliance for Future Teachers, a nonprofit organization of educators, established a program 10 years ago to home-grow our teachers. It wrote the teacher education curriculum, trained teachers and held staff development workshops for the DOE through its Career and Technical Education Pathways. The DOE needs to support teacher academies in high schools to interest and motivate students to consider teaching as a career.
Also, teacher salaries need to be improved so teachers will stay in Hawaii. The high cost of living is definitely a deterrent to our keeping a workforce of effective and committed teachers.
Linda Shimamoto
Punchbowl
Give Logan a fair chance to lead, improve HPD
To those who have said that Arthur “Joe” Logan should step aside as the chief of the Honolulu Police Department, because of the misdeeds of his 36-year-old son, Zane: I say give him a chance to see what he can do. Based on his commentary in Sunday’s newspaper, he has not seen his son in three years and only spoke to him twice via phone during that time (“I’m prepared to help build a better HPD,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, June 5).
Logan was with the Police Department 20 years ago and has national and international experience at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and in Afghanistan. He is a retired major general and worked as a criminal investigator with the state attorney general’s office. He is also a local guy who understands the unique culture of Hawaii.
Although I’ve never met him, he seems to be a man of integrity and has unique qualifications to lead HPD. Give him a chance and don’t condemn him for the actions of his adult son.
Wesley K. Yamamoto
McCully-Moiliili
Hawaii’s culture helps keep down gun violence
Regarding recent public statements, an article in the Star-Advertiser and a letter to the editor crediting Hawaii gun laws for the low incidence of the gun madness gripping the mainland, I am astonished by the confusion of cause and effect.
Hawaii has good gun laws because of the prevailing culture we enjoy. The cause of our relative safety stems from the aloha culture bequeathed to us by our Native Hawaiian ancestors. We should give credit where it’s due.
Jim Newman
Waianae
Law professor ignores politicization of courts
How is it that law professor Matthew Lawrence can claim that overturning Roe v. Wade is first a question of values (women’s autonomy versus religious beliefs), in a country based on the separation of church and state, rather than a question of the politicization of law (“What Roe reversal would mean for rule of law,” Star-Advertiser, June 5)?
How is it that he privileges a judge’s “good faith view of what the law says” rather than their explicit politicization of legal rulings? And shouldn’t he be identified as a contributor to The Federalist Society, a major source of this politicization?
I do agree with Lawrence that law is like Tinkerbell — its strength relies on our faith in it. Unfortunately, Tinkerbell has long left the room with this Supreme Court.
Samuel Pooley
Manoa
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