Thanks for making May Day special

May Day is Lei Day all month long in Hawaii, and for Na Kupuna, May Day this year was celebrated on May 4 on the lawn of the Baldwin Home Museum in downtown historic Lahaina.

It was a truly lovely occasion.

George Kahumoku Jr. joined kupuna entertaining with his master slack key tunes and croons from the Baldwin House lanai.

Whenever Na Kupuna reaches out to George, he is always there, giving with the true spirit of Aloha – never expecting anything back. He’s a true Hawaiian gentleman.

Lei were abundant, and my mo’opuna and daughter Raenelle Stewart freely offered them to visitors and residents as they walked by.

There are so many to thank for the beautiful May Day we experienced.

A big mahalo to Sissy Rogers, Joe Pluta and all the kupuna volunteers.

Special kudos to the Lahaina Restoration Foundation for hosting the May Day event for us.

AUNTY PATTY NISHIYAMA, Na Kupuna O Maui

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Airport speed bump is hard to see

Who remembers the speed bump warning I wrote about at Kahului Airport? Not me!

A week ago, I went to the airport to pick up a friend and BANG!

I hit the big one and thought I ruined my shocks.

It is still there, poorly lit at night. The good thing is if you’re a little tired from driving, this will wake you up… fast.

BRIAN EGAN, Lahaina

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Support a woman’s right to choose

Alabama recently passed the most restrictive abortion bill in the country, effectively banning abortion entirely in the state.

The governor signed it into law.

This is a direct attack on Roe v. Wade and a woman’s constitutional right to choose, and it’s just the latest move in Republicans’ war on women.

Alabama joins the states of Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Arkansas, and others in either proposing or passing extremely restrictive bills that ban and criminalize almost all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest.

In Georgia, even if a woman were to leave the state to seek access to a legal abortion, some scholars argue she could face criminal charges punishable by up to ten years in prison.

Doctors who provide women with reproductive choice could be sentenced to life in prison.

Republican men are abusing their power in a quest to turn back the clock on women’s rights, threatening millions of women’s lives, health and safety by returning us to the days of back-alley abortions – the battles we fought so long and hard to win don’t stay won.

I will continue to fight to stop the GOP from overturning Roe v. Wade and eliminating a woman’s right to choose.

In this moment, we need all the support we can get.

Together, let’s rise up and show these Republican lawmakers they don’t know who they’re messing with.

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO

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Trump battling globalists

Not since Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan has any president resisted the deep state until Donald Trump was elected. He has become an enormous irritant and resistant to the globalists, and his presidency has become an interruption and frustration to the momentum of globalization.

Globalists in the halls of Congress are either consciously (or subconsciously, stemming from sheer hatred of the President) following a historical strategy for political control: impeach the president or strip his powers and discredit him.

Trump was elected to “Make America Great Again,” which necessitates restoring and preserving America’s eminence on the world stage.

Reducing the office of the presidency is a guise designed to reduce America’s authority and independence, and hand it over on a congressional silver platter to the United Nations.

KEN KLIEN

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It’s time for Democrats to focus on policy

The Mueller Report is out, and to any fair-minded reader, it is clear that it provides no grounds for impeachment.

Despite the hype from the anti-Trump left, there was no obstruction of justice.

The report itself makes clear, first, that there was no collusion to be covered up by obstruction.

Second, the report states that Trump’s concern was that the effectiveness of his presidency would be affected by a long investigation into a non-existent “crime” – not that he was trying to protect any criminal.

Despite his legitimate concern about the effect of Mueller’s activity, Trump accepted the recommendation of his staff and allowed the investigation to continue with the cooperation of the executive branch.

We should now be able to put this behind us, but many in Congress would prefer to divert the attention of the public with loose talk about presidential crimes and impeachment.

Without this diversion, Americans might begin paying more attention to the radical agenda of open borders, destroying our energy industry, raising taxes, undermining Medicare and putting criminals back on the streets.

Let’s have a debate about policy, instead of rehashing debunked accusations against the president.

PETER J. THOMAS, The Conservative Caucus