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Editorial

Grads defined by resiliency

Twenty years from now, social scientists will check in on the Class of 2021 to see how the COVID-19 era graduates are faring with their lives and livelihoods. Though nobody wants to endure the types of struggles that qualify them to be the basis of a case study, that is a distinction the graduates of 2021 will have to bear. Will researchers find the pandemic negatively impacted careers and relationships, or that it produced a more technologically savvy group of adults that went on to thrive in a global economy? Maui High Principal Jamie Yap says while island students missed out on ...

Right to protest is in danger

One night in 1773, a group of about 60 men who had disguised themselves as Native Americans boarded three merchant ships at a Boston wharf and dumped dozens of chests of imported tea into the cold dark waters — an act of civil disobedience that damaged private property in protest against government tax policies. Conservatives these days hail that moment; a faction on the right co-opted the name Tea Party as its own. Yet conservative state legislators across the country have been behaving less like the revolutionary rebels and more like British colonial overlords by introducing, and ...

Roe vs. Wade at stake

For the nearly five decades since the U.S. Supreme Court decided that a woman has a constitutional right to an abortion, that right has been under attack by state legislators. But the high court has stood by its landmark decision in Roe vs. Wade over and over in the rulings that followed. Now the justices have taken a case that could result in that bedrock precedent —a pillar of a woman’s ability to control her body and her life— being overturned. The high court has agreed to weigh in on a Mississippi state law that bans abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy. A federal district ...

Feeling empty without fair

Screams of happy children, throbbing music, clanging bells and whirling machinery — the sounds build as you approach the glow of War Memorial Complex. Borne on the wind, savory whiffs of shoyu chicken, chow fun and flying saucers mingle with dozens of other local favorites as they drift over the fence to welcome the crowds converging on the Maui Fair. Once inside the gates there comes an important decision, what to do first? Eat, hit the rides, take in the exhibits and entertainment, or maybe check out the latest in new-fangled home improvement products? Is it time to spend money ...

Respect is a capital idea

Friends of ours (a husband and wife) called recently after they noticed Associated Press stories in The Maui News started capitalizing the “b” in Black but not the “w” in white. They asked why the “b” was capitalized, but not the “w.” Good question. We are sure others have had similar thoughts. In June and July of 2020, the AP, Columbia Journalism Review, the New York Times and others changed their stylebooks. The Maui News’ newsroom follows the AP stylebook. The Associated Press wrote on June 19, 2020, “The Associated Press changed its writing style guide Friday ...

Where are the workers?

Policymakers at the state and federal level have a conundrum on their hands. While trillions of dollars are being handed out to boost our economy’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, some are beginning to wonder if all that stimulus hasn’t reached the point of doing more harm than good — to the job market, anyway. U.S. employers posted a record number of available jobs in March. Job gains are weak not because there is not potential, but because employers can’t find people to fill the jobs they already have. Job openings rose nearly 8 percent to 8.1 million in March, the most ...