Lobby lawmakers to support vaccinations

To prevent further spread of the Coronavirus, we should require everyone to get fully vaccinated (including a possible third dose), unless exempted by a sincerely held religious belief or medical condition.

We should write to our legislators and executives at all levels of government.

ALVIN BLAKE, Lahaina

Amend the Maui bed and breakfast bill

The Maui County Council’s proposed bed and breakfast bill will require the applicant to have owned their home for five years prior to applying for a permit. The more pono amendment would be to require the applicant to have resided on Maui for a minimum of five years.

This will ensure that local people benefit from the tourism industry.

Corporation Counsel has claimed that requiring the applicant to have been a resident of Maui for five years is discriminatory. However, both the requirements that the applicant live on-property and that they have owned the property for five years are also discriminatory. Maui County can’t have it both ways.

There are 74,000 homes on Maui and 149 bed and breakfast permits. Only .002 percent of Maui housing is being used for B&Bs. The cap is 400 units, which means that 63 percent of permits are still available.

The proposed amendment will make it harder for locals. Yes, it may prevent some speculation. However, it also prevents many residents from applying for a permit at a time when our community is financially suffering.

The five-year ownership requirement will keep the tourism money in large corporate hotel chains. Their profits have risen by 43 percent since 2019 –enough already!

We want to support our local ohana. Keeping the ordinance as-is, by not allowing the bill to pass, protects Maui.

This will improve our local economy and support the culture of aloha worldwide.

NETRA HALPERIN, Maui BnB Permits

The dairy industry is scarier than Halloween

Little scares me about Halloween or trick-or-treating. Ghosts, zombies, skeletons and witches have nothing on all the milk ingredients in candy and the frightening truth about the dairy industry.

This is the industry that has spent billions convincing humans that drinking the milk of another species is okay.

This is the industry that feeds millions of dairy cows in favor of feeding starving humans.

This is the industry that creates pastures for dairy cows, which accounts for a substantial reduction of forestland and other wildlife habitats.

Add to this that the digestive system of cows discharges large amounts of methane, and their waste discharges nitrous oxide, both contributors to global warming.

This is the industry that perpetually impregnates cows in order to keep them lactating to produce milk meant for their offspring and then kills them off after they are “spent.”

The dairy industry is more frightening than any Halloween nightmare.

But, we’re lucky. Our local supermarkets offer a selection of plant-based milks, cheeses and ice creams, as well as a colorful display of fresh fruits and veggies. And the dairy industry reporting slumping sales is just the treat we need this holiday season.

LEX NAKAHARA, Lahaina

Don’t cut care

If President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda passes, many long-term nursing home patients could get an amazing opportunity: living at home.

But as Democrats negotiate to bring down the plan’s price tag, many worry that investments in home care — and the workers who provide it — will get cut.

President Biden has proposed a $400 billion investment over ten years to expand access to affordable home or community-based care.

This would allow more aging and disabled Americans to stay in their own homes rather than expensive and potentially dangerous for-profit nursing homes.

But a few conservative lawmakers want to bring down that price tag. A draft House bill allocates $190 billion for home and community-based services, which advocates say is not enough to eliminate the current waiting list of 800,000 people for these services.

The full Biden plan would also let home care workers bargain collectively to improve wages and benefits.

Home care workers currently earn on average just under $17,000 a year. One in six live below the poverty line.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased awareness of the yawning gaps in the nation’s care infrastructure.

With school closures and nursing homes becoming hotbeds for infection, caregiving responsibilities were outsourced to others, in particular women and mothers, resulting in a “she-cession” of women leaving the workforce.

Meanwhile home care workers, who are unable to work remotely, put their lives on the line each day to care for others.

President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda could be fully paid for through increasing taxes on billionaires and large corporations.

But with a handful of conservative Democrats balking at the price tag, budget reconciliation negotiations are still raging on Capitol Hill.

Care workers, for their part, are continuing to remind us that a stronger care infrastructure would benefit everyone.

REBEKAH ENTRALGO, Otherwords.org