Looking for positives, you can be sure that I forevermore will appreciate the many cultural and sports events that Hawaii has to offer. And I will support and enjoy so many of our wonderful island enrichments.

I won’t be missing or forgoing the operas or the symphony. I’ll attend Diamond Head, Manoa and Hawaii theaters, and other theatrical wonders that I have often underappreciated. I’ll even go to church more often.

I’ll attend more sports events. I’ll visit the Bishop Museum and other Honolulu museums. I’ll say aloha to the zoo animals and gape at the Waikiki Aquarium and sea life seawonders.

If tempted to be lackadaisical, I’ll remember when Mr. Corona shut our planet down, and get off my okole.

John Wollstein

Waikiki

Restrooms needed for those waiting for test

As the public waits for testing, has the state or city considered the need for public toilets along the waiting line?

It would be very frustrating if after hours of waiting, someone needs to find a toilet, especially an elderly person.

It also would be great if those in the last car to be tested could be identified early to avoid hours of waiting, then finding the test stations are closed.

Let’s not frustrate the public any further.

Loke Leong

Kalihi

Green’s criticisms not helpful during crisis

I would like to thank Lt. Gov. Josh Green for his efforts to share accurate information with the people of Hawaii on a daily basis.

I was frustrated and outraged over the state Department of Health’s failed contact-tracing efforts and its downplaying of the pandemic. But when there is a concerted effort on the federal, state and county level to get this pandemic under control, I feel Green’s constant barrage of negativity is undermining this much-needed effort.

I am specifically addressing his comments in the Star-Advertiser: “It probably would have been better if the mayor had gotten on the same page with the Surgeon General from the get-go so that these tests weren’t wasted” (“About 1,000 COVID-19 surge tests botched because of mislabeling,” Aug. 31).

I feel it was a mistake made by people working on the front line, which sometimes happens when tackling such a monumental task.

As someone who aspires to be the head honcho in 2022, Dr. Green should rein in his endless criticism. This is not a time for politics as usual.

Donna Maeda

Pearl City

Identify COVID-19 cases with low viral loads

Regarding a recent New York Times article about positive COVID-19 tests detecting relatively insignificant amounts of coronavirus: Please do more digging and investigative reporting.

Yes, the number of COVID-19 reported cases has increased significantly for several weeks. But of those numbers, who and how many are asymptomatic? What percent have low viral loads and are less likely to spread the virus? And who and what percent have high viral loads?

There is much anxiety over the increasing number of cases. More detailed information will inform public health policy to take more targeted actions and maybe even reduce anxiety. Perhaps people whose tests show a very low viral load and are unlikely to spread the disease could avoid a 14-day self-quarantine and go about their life, go to work, go to school, care for loved ones or keep their business open.

Sue Berk

Hawaii Kai

‘Fudge’ Matsuda guided energy crisis response

In 1973, the worldwide energy crisis hit Hawaii especially hard because of our growing population. Hawaii’s 1973 allotment of gasoline was only 65% of the previous year’s allotment.

Needless to say, long lines started to develop at all gasoline stations. An emergency quickly developed and state government was called upon to come up with a plan to alleviate the suffering.

Acting Gov. George Ariyoshi appointed a seven-person task force to remedy the problem, and named Dr. Fujio “Fudge” Matsuda as the chair (“Fujio Matsuda 1924-2020,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 30). As the state’s director of the Office of Consumer Protection, I was named to the task force.

We had two night sessions. Within several days, the task force approved a plan created primarily by Chair Fudge, went to public hearing on Saturday and Sunday for testimony, and implemented the plan on Monday. The chaos that had emanated was quickly quelled, thanks to Fudge’s well-thought-out and brilliant plan.

Ronald Amemiya

Kaneohe

Electoral College gives presidency credibility

The Electoral College preserves our representative democracy.

It is the continuing compelling political imperative to calculate the needs and interests of each state that underpins and gives credibility to the power of our president to lead as our head of state.

To eliminate representative democracy’s use of the Electoral College and of the U.S. House in a tie (in order to preserve the relevance of the states in electing the president) and to replace it with democracy as a whole would eliminate the duty and power of the president to serve credibly.

It would substantially undermine the key to the transcendent and highly credible presidential power to persuade.

That’s because the president then becomes a mere politician, elected by the majority of all voters and subject to the dictates of the prevailing political party.

We then would become just another unstable political democracy.

Robert Barnes

Kailua

Taxpayers on hook for former police chief

Honolulu Police Department reform is unnecessary? Let’s see if I understand this correctly.

The taxpayers paid the salary of the highest-ranking police officer while he led the police department into corruption. Then we paid him extra to stop, then we paid for an investigation, then for a trial, for the prosecution and maybe part of the defense. And all the time we paid him some combination of salary, benefits or retirement.

With his conviction we will pay for his incarceration, all the time paying benefits. When or if he is released, we will continue rewarding him for the rest of his life for betraying the public trust. This must be either a most disgraceful example of how apathy and financial incentive combine to make corruption an institution in Hawaii, or a compelling argument for capital punishment being the most equitable punishment for crimes such as this. Maybe both.

Walter Sparks

Manoa

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