Don't mess around with
health plans to fix no-fault

With all due respect, I submit that we all make mistakes, including our lawmakers. Being human beings, we are just not infallible. Therefore, could our legislators please not tamper with our health plans, in an attempt to "fix" automobile insurance?

We very well could find ourselves with both screwed-up auto insurance AND health plans. Also, please keep in mind that not all individuals have their health plan costs covered by an employer.

Shifting the cost of auto injury insurance to the employer, thus increasing his or her cost to do business, is no way to improve the state of our economy!

Donald Brown
Kapolei
(Via the Internet)

Laws are designed to limit
Hawaiians' access to lands

This year's Legislature has taken it upon itself to determine and regulate the traditional and customary practices of native Hawaiians. HB 1920 and SB 8 seek to protect the rights of private property owners and developers.

Private property owners do not want people tromping through their lands to get to the mountains or the beaches. They do not want us gathering on their property.

The reason we have to do this is that these resources have been effectively wiped out by landowners and developers. Look at Oahu. That is the future of Hawaii.

We have planted freeways, subdivisions, condominiums, hotels and golf courses. I see the lights of Makakilo creeping over the Waianae range. At Ko Olina, I see the ogo (seaweed) dredged under for beautiful lagoons to swim in, where no fishing, camping or cooking is allowed.

Hawaiians were never exclusive. They have always been willing to share their culture and lands with everyone.

The future of Hawaii is at stake here. Let us be vigilant and watchful.

Vicky Holt Takamine
Aiea

A Con Con would help
clear up legal issues

This nation was founded with the economy of finances and laws in mind. Issues of a standing army, a national bank and taxation resulted in long, sometimes acrimonius debates concerning what would be the guiding governing philosophy of our nation, federalism or state's rights. Which vision would serve the people and also protect the people from each other?

Each session of government sees new laws, regulations and taxes, with almost never a reduction in return. There are indeed so many that they now conflict with each other as well as perhaps with the Constitution.

We in Hawaii cannot do much to influence the federal government, but that is not the case for the state and county. The Constitutional Convention should be as important to us as our freedom or at least as much as laws, regulations and taxes.

Nick Dizon
(Via the Internet)

This country needs
another political party

Syndicated columnist Bob Herbert is correct in his assessment of the growing gap between the financial elite and the rest of us (Star-Bulletin, Jan. 28).

For many years after World War II, American society was marked by a broadly shared prosperity. That is no longer true. The U.S. is looking more and more like a Third World society, with a callous financial aristocracy at the top, a struggling middle-class and the poor.

We need a leader like Theodore Roosevelt, who, about a century ago, called for a "square deal" for the middle class and the poor.

At a time when both major parties, including the Democratics, have betrayed the interests of the vast majority, maybe it's time to form another - more progressive - political party.

We must reclaim our government by forging a progressive coalition of the middle class and poor. Next year will be the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Robert Kennedy, who was a champion of progressive ideals.

Bob W. St. Sure

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