Your Views for March 11

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Postpone Merrie Monarch

With the state of uncertainty worldwide and the situation changing daily, and getting worse, wouldn’t it be prudent for the Merrie Monarch Festival to be postponed?

Is it fair to the citizens of Hawaii Island to have any large gathering that involves groups of people traveling from beyond our shores and congregating here during this time of concern?

Is it fair to impose this extra burden on our kupuna who are in the crosshairs of this crisis?

As a kupuna with an underlying health concern that renders me a candidate to be likely killed by the CONVID-19 virus if I am exposed to it, and a belief that extreme caution is warranted at this time, I am writing to ask the organizers of the Merrie Monarch Festival to reconsider their decision.

Dorian Weisel

Honokaa

Cancel Merrie Monarch

Merrie Monarch Festival or not?

I see this festival as a clear and soon-to-be present danger — travelers coming by air, by ship, at the time of the novel virus COVID-19.

Why subject Hawaii, especially the Big Island, to possible rapid-fire spread? It could aptly be renamed Hula Flu or Hilo Flu.

In my humble opinion, the event should be cancelled!

It’s not brain surgery.

John L. Turner (neurosurgeon)

Hilo

LWV and gambling

The League of Women Voters of Hawaii has a good solution for what the public needs to know prior to Election Day (Tribune-Herald, March 6).

Yet, why does the LWV not want the public to vote for legalized gambling here in Hawaii?

Could it be because the league doesn’t think that adults can make their own decisions regarding gambling — yet, they are they listed as being a member of the Hawaii Coalition Against Legalized Gambling.

I find it comical that the league sponsors candidates’ forums with this prohibition against legalized gambling as a talking point.

As for me, I am an adult who can make up my own mind regarding how I want to throw away my money. And gambling is not one of them. But every adult should have the same opportunity without ANY influence from the League of Women Voters of Hawaii.

Michael L. Last

Na‘alehu