Ka‘ū News Briefs, Friday, August 21, 2020

Women of the Century from U.S. Territories include Tulsi Gabbard and her U.H. professor aunt. See more below. Images from USA Today

Hawaiʻi Statehood seven-cent airmail stamp print is lettered with "Pray for Peace."

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THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS RECORDED ITS 19TH STRAIGHT DAY OF TRIPLE DIGIT NEW CASES OF COVID-19 TODAY. At least 227 victims across the state are hospitalized, threatening to fill up Intensive Care Units. Hilo Hospital reports treating several COVID-19 patients. Eight cases are reported among employees at Charter School in Hilo, which shut down all three campuses.
     There are 13 new cases on Hawaiʻi Island, according to the state Department of Health. County Civil Defense reported five new cases.
     Healthcare Association of Hawaiʻi President Hilton Raethel said that support staff from the mainland may arrive to Hawaiʻi hospitals as early as next week. See more COVID statistics below.

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HABITAT FOR HUMANITY HAS LAUNCHED A LINK TO APPLY FOR MORTGAGE AND RENT ASSISTANCE. Habitat and five other nonprofit organizations partnered to launch the Hawaiʻi County Rent and Mortgage Assistance Program. Applications will be available starting this Monday, Aug. 24 at 8 a.m.
     RMAP is funded by County of Hawaiʻi with Federal CARES Act dollars and will provide a rent or mortgage payment of up to $1,000 per month for an estimated 1445 households that income qualify and can prove hardship due to COVID-19 for each month they receive assistance from March 2020 to December 2020. Funding will be limited to one grant of up to $1,000 a month.
     Applications will be processed by RMAP nonprofit partners - Habitat for Humanity Hawaiʻi Island, Hawaiian Community Assets/Hawaii Community Lending, HOPE Services Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi First Federal Credit Union, Neighborhood Place of Puna, and Hawaiʻi Island Home Recovery. All partners encourage Hawaiʻi Island residents who are at least 18 years of age and lost income or work hours due to COVID-19 to prepare ahead to apply.
     For more information, contact any one of the RMAP nonprofit partners or click on the Habitat for Humanity Hawaiʻi Island website. Also call the Habitat hotline at 450-2118 or email rmap@habitathawaiiisland.org.



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TULSI GABBARD IS ONE OF USA TODAY NETWORK'S TERRITORIAL WOMEN OF THE
CENTURY. Her aunt, the Samoan writer, poet, and professor, Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard, is also on the list.
     The USA Today Women of the Century celebrates U.S. women receiving the right to vote a century ago. It distinguishes women from the Territories, saying: "While women in the United States celebrated obtaining the right to vote in 1920, women in the country's territories stood on the sidelines - and to this day, many are still waiting there. People in the U.S. territories can't practice all
the rights granted by the law. For example, residents in U.S. territories can't vote for the U.S.
president and they don't have representation in Congress. But thanks in part to the efforts of women who fought to expand voting rights, today people on these islands can at least practice their right to vote for governors, senators, representatives, and local officials.

Her bid for the presidency was among the efforts that landed Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard on the Women of the Century list for U.S. Territories. Photo from NPR

     "Women in Puerto Rico obtained the legal right to vote in 1935, while women in the Northern Mariana Islands had to wait until 1978. In 1950, President Truman signed the Guam Organic Act, which established a government in Guam and declared those born there to be United States citizens; the act also granted women the right to vote. Women in the U.S. Virgin Islands – composed of St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas – were granted the right to vote in 1936, after the ratification of the Organic Act established the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the U.S. Virgin Islands government and prohibited 'any discrimination in qualification [for voting rights] ... based upon difference in race, color, sex, or religious belief.'"
     While territories ratified women's suffrage several years after the mainland, USA TODAY Network named women from U.S. territories with significant contributions to their communities as Women of the Century.
     Seven come from Pacific Islands. Women from American Samoa are U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, Medicaid Director Sandra King-Young, and American Samoa Professor Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard.
     From the Northern Marianas is District Court Judge Ramona Vilagomez Manglona.
     A dozen Women of the Century are from islands off the southern and eastern U.S. Coast. From the U.S. Virgin Islands are feminist author Barbara Christian, nurse and midwife Myrah Keating-Smith, and Senator Ruby Rouss.
     From Puerto Rico are poet Julia de Burgos Garcia, humanitarian Isolina Ferre Aguayo, tennis Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig Marcha, West Side Story star Rita Moreno, Puerto Rico's surgeon general Antonia Novello, Reggaeton artist Ivy Queen, first black and lesbian head of Puerto Rico's Bar Association Ana Irma Rivera Lassen, director of the Center for Investigative Journalism Carla Mine Santos Santiago, and Puerto Rico's first female attorney to work for its Department of Justice, Nilita Vientos Gaston.
     The segment on the Hawaiʻi Congresswoman describes Tulsi Gabbard: "Born on Tutuila, the main island of American Samoa, Tulsi Gabbard and her family moved to Hawaiʻi when she was 2. Since 2002, she has represented Hawaiʻi's 2nd Congressional District in the House of Representatives. She is the first Hindu to be elected to Congress, as well as the first Samoan-American voting member. In 2003, Gabbard enlisted in the National Guard, serving a 12-month tour in Iraq. She later served a 12-month tour in Kuwait. In 2013, she received the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award on behalf of her advocacy for veterans. She became the first female combat veteran to run for president when she joined the Democratic primary in 2019."

Caroline Sinaviana-Gabbard is one of the Women of the Century from U.S. Territories. Photo from University of Hawaiʻi

     The segment describing Caroline Sinavaiana-Gabbard says: "A scholar, poet, activist and environmentalist, Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard was the first person of Samoan ancestry to achieve the highest academic ranking (full professor) in the United States. She taught creative writing and Pacific literature for nearly 20 years at the University of Hawaiʻi in Honolulu. An accomplished author who has written both academic and non-academic books, her poetry collection, Alchemies of Distance, published in 2002. In academia, she focused primarily on Samoan/Pacific Islander literature, mythologies and folklore and how those texts help ancient traditions and wisdom be passed on to the present day. Additionally, in the early 90s, she founded the first environmental nongovernmental organization in American Samoa. She is Tulsi Gabbard's aunt."
     Read about all the Women of the Century from the U.S. Territories at USA Today.

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PROSPECTIVES ON CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWNS around the state come from Keliʻi Akina from Grassroot Institute of Hawaiʻi. In this morning's editorial, he writes: "When it comes to Hawaiʻi's coronavirus lockdowns, it seems like deja vu all over again. After clamping down in March on Hawaiʻi's economic and social activities, then gradually reopening ever so slightly, lockdown measures more strict than ever were imposed this week with the promise of lasting at least through mid-September.

Strolling during the pandemic past boarded-up businesses. Photo from Grassroot Institute of Hawaiʻi

     "To call the public's reaction 'mixed' would be an understatement. Some people are worried that we are on the cusp of a very serious wave of infections and deaths. Some worry that our economy cannot weather the impact of another lockdown. Some argue that generalized lockdowns were never an effective way to address the virus, that the state isn't equipped to follow through with tracing and other methods, or that additional restrictions won't be effective.
     "Just to be clear, the Grassroot Institute isn't here to engage in second-guessing the state leadership. Nor are we here to nitpick. We are here to offer constructive policy options intended to expand individual liberty, accountable government and economic prosperity for Hawaiʻi's hard-working families, just as we do during 'normal' times.
     "Trying to formulate the right response to the COVID emergency isn't an easy task. It is less a
matter of finding the perfect path and more a case of balancing different and often conflicting interests.
     "For example, consider the different public concerns and criticisms mentioned above. None of those worries are misplaced. All have merit, and all need to be considered when charting a path forward for our state.
     "In a strange way, the situation reminds me of the problems faced by the Honolulu rail project. When you think about it, the fundamental challenge faced by the rail project — and by its supporters — was a lack of public trust. This, in turn, came from a lack of transparency that continues to surround the project to this day.
     "Now we are looking at a similar problem. We have plenty of information about the general dangers of COVID-19 and the number of infections and deaths in Hawaiʻi, but there is a lack of public trust in the decision-making process. In short, we need more COVID transparency. The public isn't alone in wanting to see more of the data. At a recent meeting of the Hawaiʻi House Select Committee on COVID-19 Economic and Financial Preparedness, committee members wanted more data so as to provide better transparency and accountability in addressing the crisis. Committee members pointed out that if they had better information about the source of new cases, it would improve both policy and public communications.
     "Some members recognized that a selective approach to new restrictions could be more effective, but it isn't possible to be more targeted if you don't have enough data to know what to target.
     "As University of Hawaiʻi economist Carl Bonham pointed out, the public is understandably skeptical about rules that close parks while leaving gyms open: 'These just don't make any sense, and the public knows that.'

Keliʻi Akina of Grassroot Institute

     "When we don't know the 'why' behind the current restrictions, it's inevitable that public trust in the handling of the COVID crisis will erode. Hawaiʻi's residents need to know why they are still in a state of lockdown. They need to know why some businesses are being allowed to operate, while others are closed. They need to know why situations that seem low-risk, like visiting a park or sitting on a beach, are forbidden. They need to know why those decisions are being made and how they will help.
     "Most of all, they need to know that all of their concerns about the COVID crisis — including the economy, jobs, mental health, and other issues — are part of the cost/benefit analysis being employed in considering these serious and disturbing restrictions on our liberties.
     "Whether you're frustrated by those who oppose lockdowns or by those who support them, you must admit that a little more transparency and data would go a long way toward bringing us together to end this crisis. E hana kakou! Let's work together!" See more at Grassroot Institute of Hawai`i.