This leads this writer to wonder “was anyone paying attention to what was going on in Washington when it came to CARES and HEROES money?”. It was apparent by at least the end of July if not the start of August, to anyone that was paying attention, that whatever was wished for in April was not coming to pass.
These letters provide a window. What they envision is not business as usual anytime soon. And to boot, many whose livelihoods are based on these jobs may not see them come back for some time.
For us to fix anything means that leadership needs to come forward and state clearly what the numbers mean and what we should be concentrating on. Personally, to me, the answer is that the infection rate is just that, an infection rate and that we should be focused on hospitalizations and death rates when it comes to making policy.
Over the past week, our government officials in Hawaii have been pivoting their “public” focus from the re-opening of the local (we call it Kama’aina) economy to that of the tourism economy.
To many, an exclamation of “about time” was raised as it is very clear that no real recovery can be made to Hawaii’s economy without the re-introduction of tourism into it.