Cancel exercises
I find it deplorable that with 4,000-plus sailors being offloaded in Guam for exposure to COVID-19 on the USS Roosevelt, and U.S. military at domestic bases are told not to travel, the Department of Defense would not immediately cancel the mammoth RIMPAC military exercises scheduled off Hawaii in less than two months.
RIMPAC brings more than 25,000 personnel and more than 200 ships, submarines and aircraft from 20-plus countries.
Save resources — human, fiscal, medical — for the true threat to U.S. national security: a virus, not bombs and bullets.
Cancel RIMPAC.
Gary Harrold
Hilo
Not a fair decision
Finally, our mayor is showing his true colors! He wants to get rid of vacation rentals and is attempting to use the pandemic to achieve his goal.
Note that the ban was only on vacation rentals and not hotels.
He says “most hotels and resorts (are) closed to all but first responders and medical personnel.” Unlike Oahu, we have very few cases of the virus on our island, so there is almost no need for hotels to house first responders and medical personnel.
Many Airbnbs already offered to host first responders and medical personnel, free, should the need arise. If these kinds of rules are made on our island, they should apply equally to hotels and vacation rentals.
Instead of working to keep tourists off our island (the mayor did not sign the petition the other mayors did), he is doing nothing to stop them from arriving here (other than half-heartedly implementing the governor’s weak actions).
Most bookings at vacation rentals and hotels for two to three months have already canceled. The police have enough on their plate monitoring those tourists who have arrived at our island, and instead of sheltering, they are moving about freely.
Now, the officers are supposed to make sure nobody stays at a short-term vacation rental. This is ridiculous!
If tourists come here, make them get on the first plane back or stay here and shelter in either a vacation rental or a hotel. Let’s be fair!
Marlene and Hartley Phillips
Pahoa
