Mahalo for providing
voter information
Thanks to Dr. Don Claeys for his letter (Oct. 16) encouraging the need for a voter’s pamphlet. I fully agree. And then thanks to Rosemarie Muller of the League of Women Voters of Hawaii County for her informative response (Oct. 20) suggesting the Vote411 section on the League of Women Voters website. The descriptions of the Charter amendments and the pro/con section for each amendment was very straightforward and informative. I highly encourage anyone as baffled as I was over these 16 issues to consult the LWV website. In lieu of a comprehensive voter’s pamphlet, I was also happy to donate to the LWV for the use of this important voting information tool.
Linda Goeth
Kailua-Kona
Don’t downplay deaths
I’d like to express my alarm with the tone of communication addressing deaths due to COVID-19 in Hawaii County over the last seven months. I feel that the tone has led to a sense of invulnerability among citizens of Hawaii Island.
To my knowledge, almost all deaths (as reported by the county) have downplayed the seriousness of this novel virus by including the term: the deceased individual was elderly, and with underlying conditions; this may be a component of the victim’s demographics, but should never have been included in official public communication.
Just as the Department of Health has guarded information on race, ethnicity and communities due to privacy and not wanting to expose clusters of cases within racial groups, I feel that exposing this data about health conditions has conditioned many residents to rationalize the risk of COVID-19 as being a virus that will not affect them personally. Sadly, people don’t conclude what their culpability might be when acting as a vector for a novel virus. At some point in the chain, their contacts may be exposing people that are going to have worse outcomes.
So I really feel like this has been a failure of the communications team at Civil Defense. It was as though the agency sought to “balance” the news with less alarming language, creating the notion that this virus is only dangerous to those individuals who were already very ill and at the end of their lives. And this failure has led to many citizens not taking the virus seriously.
Raymond Pajek
Kapaau
Our burning country
Looks like our planet is on fire. It also looks pretty clear that global warming has something to do with this so I just hope whoever becomes the president, that person will help save our country from these out of control fires.
All the industrialized nations must come together to help cut down our emissions and reduce global warming or we are all doomed.
Colleen Miyose-Wallis
Kailua-Kona
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Editor
West Hawaii Today
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Kailua-Kona, HI 96745
