Tourism economy
I have heard the report that the governor and the legislators are considering reducing the pay of Hawaii employees! How dare you!
The same people who put their lives on the line every day for you and yours — to care for you, protect you, educate you, clean up after you and do your bidding — and you sit there in your ivory towers and give no notice of them. In this hazardous time, they must forego your dictates to “stay at home and practice social distancing” to care for, protect, educate, clean up after and do your bidding.
They were all qualified in their respective duties, but in this new environment they must learn, on the job, how to perform those duties without getting this virus and how not to take it home to their families.
You people have foolishly chased after the tourist dollar for so long that you forgot about the people who live here.
Now that the tourist dollar has gone away, you are set to punish those who serve their communities, while you should be on your knees, thanking God for their devotion to the people of this state.
You should be trying to figure out how to make this state self-sustainable. Now you must wake up to the fact that the tourist might or might not come back.
Michael F. Militano
Mountain View
Returned items
Stephen Gross’ letter (Your Views, Tribune-Herald, May 5) about returned items makes sense, and I have a solution to suggest to retailers.
Accept the returns with gloved hands, and then put the items in a corner for a few days — or two weeks, if they want to be super cautious.
Studies show the virus will not be alive on any surface after that time.
Deb Scrivens
Hakalau
‘Wear your mask’
Same storm, different boat.
A circumstance-forced reliance on others’ common sense for one’s well-being, and that of family, is an undesirable and fragile symbiosis of community under the best of circumstances; it is a dreadful, if not untenable, proposition in an era in which the common man’s world view rests on an education secured in the halls of social media and an understanding of history and current events mastered in the parlors of infotainment outlets.
No matter what rights you believe you have, no person has the right to jeopardize the health of others because of ignorance, obstinance, selfishness, anti-authority leanings or any other reason.
Wear your mask (including over your nose, please), keep your distance, be a good community member. (And, no, this has nothing to do with Big Brother.)
John Atwell
Kurtistown
