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Letters to the Editor

Green’s silence on obvious issues in address deafening

Gov. Josh Green’s attack on Maui short-term rentals in his State of the State address (The Maui News 1/21/24) is either seriously misguided policy or a deliberate attempt to shift blame from the appalling governmental incompetence, neglect and malfeasance that likely caused 100 innocent people to lose their lives in the most horrific way imaginable and thousands others to lose their homes. If the governor gets his way and short-term rentals are used to house permanent residents, where are the tourists (who are the backbone of Maui’s economy) going to stay? The negative economic ...

FEMA landlords should know who tenants are

My wife and I just put our West Maui home in the Federal Emergency Management Agency program to help those displaced in the fire. We have a friend who is in the FEMA program as a tenant looking for a place to live. We tried our best to make sure FEMA put connected her to our home. We felt confident she would take care of our home. We were just told by FEMA that this isn’t going to happen because it’s “discriminatory.” This is craziness. Now, we are in a situation where we wanted to help someone and could not. We have no idea who will occupy our home or if they will ...

Clear and present threat to American democracy

On display on Maui Feb. 9-13, and called The Wall That Heals, a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial presents pointed ironies. Americans who died in Vietnam and other wars were “suckers” and “losers,” says presidential candidate Donald Trump, who dodged serving in Vietnam with a phony bone spur excuse. Trump still attacks John McCain, who spent five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Incredibly, tens of millions will still vote for this deplorable egomaniac to be president. More ironies? We supposedly fought the Vietnam war to protect American democracy. ...

More needs to be done with traffic flow, housing

I applaud everyone who has assisted in any way since the devastating fire. As a full-time resident in Lahaina, just outside of the burn zone, more needs to be done by our leaders in terms of transportation of trucks and general traffic flow. We have essentially one way in and one way out. Traffic has already been a nightmare. What happens if an ambulance is caught in this traffic? Will the temporary light turn green? Will they let the vehicle go down through Highway 30 and historical Lahaina? Where is the plan? Housing is critical and that effort needs to continue, but if it is ...

Short-term rentals not problem made out to be

Contrary to Gov. Josh Green’s statement that short-term rentals are the cause of the lack of housing for Maui’s fire survivors, short-term rentals are actually the solution. Remember, every legal, short-term rental permitted since the 1970s has been approved by the government. Every single one. The real problem? Lack of affordable housing on Maui even before the fire. Too much red tape to get a project going. Green has decided short-term housing created the problem. But the truth is in the mirror. The government is now providing incentives for STRs to rent long-term to our ...

Divest from genocide, end ‘strategic partnership’

Hawaii needs to divest from genocide by ending the “strategic partnership” then-governor Ige signed with Israel in 2022. Nothing excuses the heinous acts of Oct. 7th during which Israeli civilians and soldiers were killed by both Hamas and the Israeli military, but everything that has followed has been indiscriminate and unjustifiable. Even if every lie told by Israel were really true, it still wouldn’t justify killing 30,000 people, over 10,000 of whom are children. The American-fueled Israeli military has completely destroyed an area less than half the size of Molokai, ...