A safer idea for grocery stores
Many thanks for our grocery stores and their employees providing their life -sustaining service to the people of Hawaii. It’s financially difficult for out-of-work people to purchase prepared restaurant meals and that makes us more dependent than ever on the grocery stores. The stores that I have purchased from in Kona and Waimea these past few weeks have all their employees in masks and gloves. Great job. But only 5% or less of the customers cover their face or hands with a scarf, mask, or any kind of glove.
If COVID-19 spreads in Hawaii, I bet a lot of it is spread from close contact at grocery stores. We all need food, even the ones that don’t know that they have caught the virus and have no symptoms, yet are passing within inches of you in the narrow aisles spewing airborne droplets of virus to float into your face, hair, clothing, etc.
I suggest that all stores open to the public initiate one-way-only aisles. Tape some direction arrows on da floor. It ain’t hard to do. What’s hard is avoiding unknowing or uncaring uncovered people coming at you in aisles that are less than 6 feet wide. Virus-safe two-way traffic would require a 12-foot wide aisle (6 feet safe space and 3 feet for each cart and person.) That’s impossible, can’t happen. But one-way aisles will eliminate all people from having to pass each other in close proximity to each other in very narrow aisles. We can then stay at least 6 feet behind those shoppers that are in denial or don’t care if they catch or spread the virus because they won’t cover their face or hands.
Again, a huge mahalo to our many heroes working safe and hard to provide us safe shopping. Please consider adding one-way-only aisles to your Social Distancing Tool Box.
Larry Boucher
Kailua-Kona
Teachers miss their kids!
I’ve had this letter formulating for days; now it’s become necessary to share it. Teachers all around are feeling our communal pain. We miss our kids and the human interaction of our daily classroom routines.
We miss the smiles and funny stories, and everyday human interactions of our classroom routines. For many of us, we worry about those students whose only meal is at school. Others worry about students whose only safe place is at school. Our hearts ache for our students, and their missed opportunities. We wish we were back in the classroom, sharing our daily struggles with our kids.
Sadly, there is a concern about the lack of accessibility to computers for our students. We know many of our families are suffering — working just to put food on the table. I’m sorry our school complex policy does not allow us to hand out laptops to our students. I understand their hesitancy, especially in light of possible budget cuts next year. Our complex administrators have made the hard decision to hold off distributing computers to kids.
Teachers are doing their best to accommodate the changing needs; and hope our kids can keep up, but the system is not perfect. Many of our students are not online, or have limited access to computers. We have a long way to go until that gap is filled. Again, that’s where community support is needed. (Spare laptops, anyone?) We’re all in this together. Teachers love you, students! We can’t wait to see you again!
Toni Reynolds
Kailua-Kona
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