Letters to the editor: 01-16-19

Safety check

Two op-eds appeared on the editorial page Saturday disparaging the wisdom of a wall.

My only question to the authors is this: “Do you lock your doors at night? If so, why?”

Chuck Jonas

Kailua-Kona

Pay attention

When will the Democrats wake up to the fact that the election is over and voters won? Trump won because of the wall.

When are the Democrats going to pay attention to the voters? Also, the Republican leadership should pay attention to the voters who pay the bills.

The shutdown is wrong. Cut off the pay for Congress, do your job.

Jim Koubele

Kailua-Kona

Paychecks vs. perks

No matter what side you are on it seems like a slap in the face to our hard-working federal workers who do not have the luxury right now to go on vacation or even be able to pay their bills.

So let’s get this straight while thousands of federal workers are unpaid and with the ongoing security border issue, our politicians we elected are off in Puerto Rico. They’re basking in the sun at a seaside resort for $429 a night and let’s not forget a “Hamilton” play with tickets up to $5,000. But good old Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) found time to discuss our national issues with a bikini clad young lady on the beach. I’m glad, Bob, you are always working to get younger people’s prospectives of our government issues. Right!

Come on. Let’s get back to work, all you politicians, for the well-bring of all the American people and stop this pompous attitude and get these issues resolved and do your job we hired you to do.

Laura Bollman

Kailua-Kona

Don’t care how, just get wall done

Thank you West Hawaii Today for once again providing what in the military would be called a “target rich environment!” The Sunday edition featured a couple regular Trump haters plus a sad article concerning federal workers.

First, let’s deal with the easy targets. John and Tom have been watching way too many liberal talk shows featuring the same talking heads parroting one another with the quote of the week (manufactured crisis). If you lived on the border or even ventured there for a week you may find a real crisis. Better yet, try and set up a tent and sleep over night on the border without a gun and a pit bull at your side.

A wall is only part of the issue. Until Trump came into office the liberal politicians that are in such favor in the island chain were in total favor of a wall or barrier on the southern border and time after time funded walls with our tax money for other countries.

As far as trade negotiations with China, Mexico, Europe and Canada are concerned, when or who was the last president who stood up for the American worker? I guess in your books running a deficit of $400 million with China and a couple hundred more with the other three is just fine? That trade deal with Mexico will indirectly help pay for the wall. The people who support Trump do not care about how it gets done as long as it finally does. Same on trade. Same on Korea.

It’s always easy to dump on the person in charge, but not so easy taking personal responsibility. Gutless politicians abound in the swamp! Drain it! Stand up for term limits and force the ruling politicians to live by the same rules they apply to us! It may end up taking a revolution to get control, but I will support Trump rather than the alternative.

Now to the subject of the sad issue of the government shutdown. It is always sad when innocent people get caught in the cross fire of bad public policies and this issue of the border has been kicked down the road for decades. Please understand that this situation you are in is deplorable but necessary to bring our ruling class to finally address this issue. It will not lesson your pain, but hopefully will help millions caught in these bad policies and ultimately strengthen our great country.

For those of you who work for the government and are affected by this please remember that it was less than a decade ago when our great country was devastated by the Great Recession and during that period, you were paid while the rest of the country was financially cut in half.

The private sector is still recovering from not having a government safety net such as yours. You will be paid and, unlike the private sector, you can bank on it.

Bob Johnson

Kailua-Kona