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Letters to the Editor

Letter: Hold accountable those who elect incompetents

I have lived in California and Maui. Like thousands of others, I left both states because of government incompetence and misguided thinking, which drove up the cost of living. I experienced some of the heartbreak caused by the Maui wildfires. We now have the same anguish with greater devastation in California, which will cost all American taxpayers untold billions, along with a startling increase in insurance premiums. The people of Hawaii and California continue to elect politicians who are fiscally incompetent and void of common sense. Every taxpayer in America will pay for ...

Letter: Earth’s power to rebalance seen in recent destruction

The world of men has been warned, threatened, given proof of the Earth’s power to destroy in order to rebalance, but still the frozen, alien and possessed faces of men in power look more like gargoyles than human. These men whose hearts resemble dried mango pits. Or men with charred empty chambers where hearts ought to be; or men with proverbial black hearts which indicate peril and retributive karma. Not only to themselves, but to those who support, reinforce or rationalize the status of obviously malevolent figures in power. If one looks closely at the faces of Bill Gates, ...

Letter: Everything will be fine, still knowing it won’t be

I’m in San Diego with family and about to return home to Maui. We’ve been traveling and teaching for almost three weeks and are so looking forward to being back to our beloved home for over 50 years, back with some of our kids and grandkids. Looking out on the Pacific Ocean, it’s quiet; the ocean and sky a beautiful blue, the early morning sunshine starting to light up downtown in the distance. Every now and then, the silence is interrupted by the local train coming by. It’s not windy here, so if it wasn’t for news reports, we’d have no idea that two hours up from ...

Letter: Processed meat products lead to high dementia risk

Eating meat is no longer just about heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes. It’s about dementia, too. A study of 133,000 American men and women tracked for more than 40 years concluded that consumption of processed meat products leads to increased risk of dementia and reduced cognition. The study was published last week in the prestigious journal Neurology. Another study that tracked half a million United Kingdom adults over eight years found that daily consumption of an ounce of processed meat was associated with a 44 percent higher risk of developing dementia and a 52 ...

Letter: Acts of kindness come in many age groups

By Thursday night at about 7 p.m., a homeless man was sitting outside of Minit Stop in Kahului by Kaahumanu Center. This homeless, kinda big, haole man, dirty and smelling like urine with his shopping cart, has been around Maui for a long time. I think he suffers I think from dementia. The police know who he is. I use to see him around 7-11 in Kahului many years ago, I can’t believe he is still alive. This local kid, I would say about 12 years old, was eating a bento sitting on the sidewalk. He got up and gave him money. When I asked him what his name was, he said Kealoha. I ...

Letter: Extreme events increasing, both in frequency, intensity

As Los Angeles burned for days on end, scientists made an announcement that 2024 was the hottest year on record. With temperatures rising around the globe, scientists are warning that the world has entered a dangerous new era of chaotic floods, storms and fires made worse by human-caused climate change. The firestorms ravaging our country’s second-largest city are just the latest of extreme weather that is growing more furious, as well as more unpredictable. Wildfires are highly unusual in Southern California in January, which is supposed to be the rainy season. The same is true ...