Your Views for January 27

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Your voice matters

Your voice matters

I, as well as millions of others who participated in the Women’s March or observed it worldwide, was able to feel a part of something powerful and righteous!

My heart was renewed as I watched all the people, men and women, black, brown, white, young and old, marching together peacefully to send a message that we are supporting the rights of humans everywhere.

We were watching and participating in this democracy and we will stand strong together and continue to speak up and will not let the truth be undermined by “alternate facts” that Kellyanne Conway stated. Falsehoods are falsehoods, not alternate truths.

So, everyone who felt despair, remember only 25.4 percent of the eligible voters voted for the president. The remaining 74.6 percent are starting to stand together and the momentum is building. Trump and his supporters need to come to grips with the fact that 74.6 percent of eligible voters did not sign on to this agenda.

That is a fact.

Take hope and participate in this process. We are the people of this country and our voice matters. We are unified, no matter what they spin, not divided. It was plainly seen Saturday all around the world.

This is our country, so please participate and speak up! Write a letter to or call Congress or a newspaper with your concerns. Stand up and be heard. Your voice matters.

Helen Behrmann

Waiohinu

Save E.K. Fernandez

Ringling Bros. and Barnum &Bailey Circus is closing after 146 years because of abusive and bogus litigation. In 2000, it became the target of a coordinated legal assault by animal rights groups.

Ringling Bros. prevailed in court, but the frivolous, unreasonable and groundless lawsuit stretched for years and cost the company tens of millions of dollars.

Animal acts have long been a major part of state fairs and circuses, but following Ringling’s removal of key animal acts from its shows, ticket sales declined, operating costs rose and the business became unsustainable.

Similarly, special interest groups, including the Humane Society of the United States, Animal Rights Hawaii and PETA, have targeted E.K. Fernandez Shows Inc.

If these groups are successful in their efforts to have animal acts banned in Hawaii, an entertainment icon for the past 114 years might well follow Ringling Bros. into the realm of nostalgic remembrance.

Don’t let what happened to Ringling Bros. happen in Hawaii.

Scott Fernandez

Kapolei, Oahu