With the close of the 2022 legislative session, our senators and representatives have once again opted to utilize gut-and-replace, and thereby totally disregarded the input and testimony of concerned citizens.

So, who decided to perform gut-and-replace? Certainly, nothing gets done without the concurrence of Senate and House leadership as well as committee chairs. Regardless of who exactly are the guilty parties, all members must be held to account for their actions or complicit nonaction. By continuing to apply this unconstitutional legislative sleight of hand, these legislators ignored the decision by Hawaii’s Supreme Court and, in so doing, have flipped the bird to all of us.

It is now time for the citizens to exercise their own version of gut-and-replace. In November, when all 25 Senate and 51 House seats are up for election, Hawaii’s voters should decide to gut both chambers of their current membership. Then, do what is sorely needed and replace these cavalier, smug legislators with new individuals who take seriously their oath of office to represent and serve us, the people.

Blaine Tsugawa

Waipahu

Hawaii’s Jakob Thelle deserved top honor

May I add a brief footnote to your excellent coverage of the NCAA men’s volleyball final (“Sweeeeeep!,” Star-Advertiser, May 8)?

It is my belief that the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) lost the plot when it elected young Bulgarian freshman Alex Nikolov as the nation’s player of the year over Hawaii’s Jakob Thelle.

Here’s why: Nikolov is a tremendous talent and certainly deserved to be in the conversation. But Thelle, one could argue, did so much more for his team than the Bulgarian did for Long Beach.

Thelle was not only the best setter in the country, he was lethal from the service line and at the net, where he knew precisely how to finish. But more than anything else, he was the team’s floor leader, the heart and soul of the team, and a calming and unflappable presence at the time of any crisis.

In a team of many parts, forged by contributions from a Brazilian, two Greeks, a high-flying Californian, and this Norwegian captain, Hawaii also set the standards in good sportsmanship, which is sometimes lacking in American college teams.

Carl Myatt

Hawaii Kai

A small minority have blocked TMT project

Why is it that the most sophisticated telescope system in the world wants to build in Hawaii, home of the greatest astronomical navigators on the planet, and yet just a few people out of our population of 1.4 million have managed so far to derail the project?

In all fairness, shouldn’t the state designate that one of the navigators from the Polynesian Voyaging Society be on the Mauna Kea Stewardship and Oversight Authority (“Mauna Kea management bill finds acceptance, opposition,” Star-Advertiser, May 6)? Just a thought.

Leilani Adams Maguire

East Honolulu

Raising minimum wage means more automation

This is what will happen (and already is happening) when government mandates a higher minimum wage for disproportionate entry-level jobs: You will eventually be replaced by a machine or robot.

Japan has vending machines that dispense ramen, gyoza, ice cream and more. It also has restaurants where you select and pay for your item at a machine, take your ticket to a human and then your food is brought to you at the table.

You can see the trend at McDonald’s now. You are encouraged to order at the kiosk screen. Airports have check-in kiosks. Longs, Walmart, and the big-box retailers have self-checkout stands. We now order and pay on our fast-food and restaurant apps.

Face-to-face purchases will decrease. Businesses gotta do what they gotta do. They’re not a make-work program, like the government. Why not be proactive and start acquiring desirable skill sets now rather than waiting for government to bail us out in the form of a minimum wage increase and complaining that it’s not a livable wage, which it was never intended to be?

Lisa Adlong

Hauula

Minimum-wage earners don’t work hard enough?

In response to Kenneth Ikenaga’s letter (“Raising minimum wage won’t help the needy,” Star-Advertiser, May 7): I’m still scratching my head after reading Ikenaga’s comment, “Do these people in need really want to work? If you look around, there are a lot of job openings.”

If I have a full-time job at the current minimum rate of $10.10 per hour, and for some reason I can’t make ends meet on that, his solution to this problem is for me to get another full-time job to make ends meet? So it’s my fault I’m not working hard enough? Or could it possibly be something else?

Jeanne Martin-Hopkins

Waikiki

Ukraine shows courage that America needs

Ukrainians inspire me! They love their country so much that they will die free rather than live with Russian boots on their neck.

Meanwhile back in America, the highest court in our land is about to invade women’s reproductive lives and strip women of their privacy and reproductive freedom. Our U.S. Senate is feckless because of an internal Senate rule (one our House does not have). When asked, our president is unsure what to do next.

I am inspired by the courage of the Ukrainians, particularly their president and members of their parliament. They remind me that “give me liberty or give me death” was once a rallying cry of my own country.

America may have had that courage once, but now our political leaders cannot even find the courage to end the filibuster and codify a woman’s right to privacy and reproductive freedom.

Glory to Ukraine! Courage to America!

Jo-Ann Adams

Waikiki

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