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Editorial

Vaccine skeptics and derision

You’ve likely seen the headlines about COVID-19 killing radio hosts and activists who opposed vaccines and masks. Several of those headlines were about Caleb Wallace, a Texan who helped organize a “freedom rally” this summer to protest mask-wearing. Some corners of the internet reacted with ridicule to news of his death last month, sparing no thought to Wallace’s grieving wife and daughters. It’s important that we all resist the impulse to scream, “I told you so!” Yes, it’s maddening to find ourselves swept up in yet another wave of COVID-19 cases eight months into the ...

We are in the same canoe

A friend who works for the county was using his cell phone to record some video of a rally in front of the Wailuku State Office Building recently when he found himself surrounded. “Take off your mask,” shouted a woman. “This is a maskless demonstration, why are you wearing a mask?” demanded another. Our friend explained that he had as much right to wear a mask as they did not to while protesting outside. In the course of his duties, he has since had other interactions with people against mask requirements and vaccine mandates. Wednesday, he said he received his first death ...

National debt and tax evasion

A new Treasury Department report finds that the United States is losing $163 billion per year because of tax evasion by the top 1 percent of earners. The story is mind-numbingly familiar: phenomenally rich people finding new and creative ways to boost their wealth even more by cheating the rest of the responsible, taxpaying public. The $163 billion that the richest 1 percent evade annually accounts for a whopping 28 percent of all unpaid taxes by Americans, according to the report by Natasha Sarin, deputy assistant Treasury secretary for economic policy. That total lost revenue ...

Lies about the Capitol riot

The lesson lawmakers should have learned after the riotous attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 is that violent words can incite violent acts. When lawmakers cross this line, the rebuke should come swiftly. With the exceptions of Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, congressional Republicans have been troublingly silent on North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s inflammatory warning that there will be “bloodshed” if elections continue to be “rigged.” Cawthorn’s comments to supporters in late August blatantly perpetuated Donald Trump’s lie that the ...

When America Stood as One

Where were you when you heard the terrible news? Most of us in Hawaii were asleep when hijackers smashed passenger jets into the World Trade Center and Pentagon on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. The first aircraft hit the North Tower at 2:45 a.m. HST. Some of us were roused by frantic phone calls. “Turn on the TV, we’re under attack!” That’s how we learned of the unfolding disaster. By then, both towers had collapsed and another hijacked jet had crashed in a Pennsylvania field. The news hit like a punch to the gut. Along with the rest of the world, we watched the horrific ...

Afghan war reshaped US

Is America safer after its 20-year war on terrorism in Afghanistan has resulted in the Taliban’s victory? The answer, like the war itself, is muddled. The lack of resolution should cause considerable discomfort to Americans who lived through the trauma of 9/11 and cheered the U.S. military’s quick routing of al-Qaeda and its Taliban hosts in 2001. After the World Trade Center’s collapse, Americans had every right to believe President George W. Bush’s declaration from atop the wreckage that the United States would make the terrorists pay. Instead, radical Islamist terrorism has ...