Adoption ethics needed to stop abusive practices
A commentary by Dylan Armstrong, the Manoa Neighborhood Board chairman, on the topic of Marshallese adoptions, is spot-on (“Legislature must act against baby mills,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Nov. 24).
His suggestions about Hawaii joining the majority of the states to codify legal adoption ethics is a timely measure that the Legislature should consider in the coming term.
Arvid Youngquist
Kalihi Valley
Republicans ignore facts to protect president
U.S. Senate and House Republicans have no guts to stand up to the president. They simply look the other way, ignoring the facts presented at the House impeachment inquiry by reliable witnesses who have come forward to tell the truth.
Are they saying that these witnesses are making up stories and are not to be believed? As an old cliche goes, “Birds of a feather flock together.”
They let the president have his way, no matter the consequences. These congressmen and congresswomen, along with a self-serving president, have no respect for the Constitution, which was written by our forefathers so that elected officials would unite to protect and defend it.
And, by the way, Trump has friends on the Supreme Court who have blocked his financial records from the House Judiciary Committee. They, too, are making a mockery of the legal system. Anytime Trump needs help, he dials up the five conservative justices to run interference for him.
John Keala
Waianae
Profit motive hinders more affordable homes
The recent introduction by U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s “Homes For All Act” 2019 should occasion not only public support but especially the support of the entire Hawaii congressional delegation.
The homeless need homes. Those housed need the security they will not be gentrified onto the streets by market-rate rents.
Working people cannot afford the fiction of market-rate driven “affordable housing,” since that is beyond our stagnant incomes.
These goals are incompatible with a housing market totally monopolized by private, profit-hungry interests. To succeed, this demands our economy put the poor and working people as priorities.
Omar’s legislation goes a long way to recommit to building public housing and making housing a right.
Besides the recent convention of the Communist Party USA making defeating President Donald Trump a key priority in this upcoming election season, we in the Hawaii Club of the CPUSA have made the issue of homelessness in Hawaii one of our main focuses.
We not only see the growing numbers of homeless but also are ourselves affected as renters.
Lowell B. Denny III
Chairman, CPUSA Hawaii Club
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