Letters to the editor: 05-19-18

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Could vog fallout be positive, too?

I’ve been tackling a single coqui frog the last few days, and finally sacked the critter.

The process and the eruption’s spike of sulphur dioxide in the air gave me an idea: The rain mixed with the SO2 (and our own tears) makes sulphuric acid. That’s a whole lot more damaging to living tissue than the citric acid used today to kill coqui frogs.

Will this eradicate the frog population plaguing the Hilo area? Will the vog concentrations in Kona be enough to do the same with the growing problem here?

Will this acidic environment also affect the mosquito populations around the island?

We’ll see.

Dennis Lawson

Kailua-Kona

Tax addition not too taxing

I wanted to know what a .5 percent increase in my excise tax would mean to me. I collected all my receipts for one month and added up the tax.

Accuracy is difficult as some of the tax we pay is embedded in the transaction. Since the retailer collects and pays the state, and they are responsible for tax on the tax, we are actually paying 4.16 percent. After the increase we will be paying 4.7 percent, an increase of .054 percent. Anyway, my share, for 30 days, totaled $76.99.

The increase should cost me about $4 a month. Not too bad, especially if the road crew stays busy. Henry Street is so smooth now. Thanks guys. Now, how about the mauka road?

William Lawrence

Queen Liliuokalani Village

WHT should do better leading community conversations

I used to enjoy reading your paper over the last 18 years I have been living here. Since Trump’s election, not so much.

Your paper seems to have forgotten that it is a Hawaiian newspaper read by those living with and loving the aloha spirit. Your paper is full of Trump hatred, daily displaying viscous anti-Trump cartoons and printing hateful articles and editorials against Trump.

I am not writing this in defense of Trump or saying that he doesn’t deserve a lot of criticism — he does — but this much hatred from you every day is mean-spirited on your part! I get it, you hate Trump, most of your readers do also, no problem. Please stop beating us over the head with all the hatred every day, it’s not what I believe is the aloha way!

Taky Tzimeas

Kailua-Kona