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Trees ‘butchered’

I’m very concerned about the easement management of Hawaiian Telcom here in Volcano.

I have lived here in this rural neighborhood for 40 years. We are a small subdivision blessed with large ohia trees and other native trees.

Telephone came in first, followed by electric 15 years later. No one ever butchered the easements’ trees like recently done by Hawaiian Telcom.

When contacted, which is very difficult, my neighbor was told no one else complained, and they will grow back!

Splintered ohia will not grow back, and they have exposed this whole rainforest region to invasive rapid ohia death.

This is just so WRONG!

Carolune Campbell

Volcano

Protest funding

Who is funding the Maunakea “protectors” — a bunch of folks are spending their days and nights protecting the mountain?

It would seem that they do not have other jobs. Is the internet at the tent camp good enough for them to be working from their tents?

And who pays for the tents, building materials, food, food preparation, warm clothing, vehicles and fuel to bring all this up the mountain? Picking up aluminum cans could not pay enough for this project of barring the Thirty Meter Telescope. Who benefits by investing in this effort to stop science?

Lois Margaret Drake

Volcano

Right-wing cartoons

I choose to subscribe to the Tribune-Herald because I want to learn and stay informed. This includes reading opinion pieces and even political cartoons.

In order for political cartoons or satire to teach and entertain, they should contain at least some degree of truth.

Nothing could be further from the truth than depicting Speaker Nancy Pelosi as sitting on a “throne of lies” as the Tribune-Herald recently did. And another recent Tom Stiglich political cartoon attacked Rep. Jerry Nadler for advancing impeachment proceedings and arguing that the people should decide through the ballot box instead.

But what this right-wing cartoon ignores is the fact that the Trump administration is corrupting the very electoral process that is supposed to remedy these types of crimes.

Trump has called for and gotten foreign interference in our elections from our biggest political adversary, Russia (as the Mueller report showed). Free and honest elections are what our democracy is based on, and it is a crime that Republicans in Congress and right-wing pundits like your political cartoonist would have it otherwise.

The Tribune-Herald should be ashamed of itself.

Ron Schoenherr

Naalehu