Take a gamble with bus ridership

Is the shortfall in the funds required to maintain TheBus really due to low ridership? If so, here's a way to guarantee more people will ride TheBus. Every bus passenger gets a transfer with a detachable coupon with a number on it, which they tear off and keep. Every month the city randomly selects one of these coupon numbers, and whoever is holding that number wins $1,000. If this does not increase ridership, I'll eat my transfer! Remember, you read it here first.

This strike has been coming for some time; some of those in power were aware it would happen, and may have wanted it to happen. Then they could further promote mass rail transit, which could be largely automated, hence take down the union and promote rail-system contractor profits to the lowest bidder -- or is it the highest campaign contributor?

Unions should share in profits they help promote, but where they don't help provide profits, such as in government-related work, and then walk out, it's like having someone in the family going on strike when asked to do their chores. If money is an issue, don't work for the government!

Smoky Guerrero
Mililani

Firemen, teachers and cops get more time off

To compare the city bus drivers with police officers, firemen and teachers is simply not fair! Police officers get 21 days of vacation and 21 days of sick leave a year, plus 13 holidays (14 during election years). They get free life insurance and children's dental coverage. They get a uniform allowance, weapons allowance, car allowance and special duty pay of $25 an hour. They also get to retire after 25 years, or at age 55.

Firemen have many of the same benefits and report to their duty stations only 10-11 days a month. This leaves them with 20-21 days to earn more income elsewhere or spend time with their families. They may stay at the station for a 24-hour period, but hey, I don't get paid for sleeping or recreation time, and I don't just wait around till someone calls for assistance.

School teachers I am sympathetic to, because they never got what they were promised and deserve. But they are off work every time the children are out of school (summer break, spring vacation and so forth). They just need a better union with the will to fight for what they deserve.

You can't just listen to the half-truths reported about bus drivers. We have a highly stressful job with great responsibilities to care for the human lives on our buses, as well as those around us. We earn every bit of what we are paid. I encourage everyone who is not content with his current job to seek another one for better pay and benefits, or at least with a great union like we have.

Daniel Siangco
Bus operator

Zipper lane for bikes would speed things up

With the transit strike stranding thousands of commuters each day on Oahu and the recent bold thinking of the city and state governments in developing alternative commuting options, what about creating a zipper lane for bicyclists in town? One could be created on the inner left lane (or right outside lane) of South King, Beretania and other east-west routes during this time of transport crisis. These lanes could even be shared with taxis or vanpools, if made wide enough.

A bike stencil could be painted quickly and affordably in these lanes by city crews using the savings they are accruing by not having to reimburse their bus contractors.

These routes have long been discussed for accommodating bicyclists. Now is the time to act, and create another opportunity for an aina-friendly commute option.

Todd Boulanger
Senior transportation planner
Na Kama Hele (The Travelers) pedestrian advocacy group

Non-participants also benefit from sports

Lately journalists have publicized the salaries of well-paid coaches and other University of Hawaii administrators. Some of those compensation packages are five or 10 times larger than paychecks received by classroom teachers.

Publicizing this information is a useful public service. It lets the taxpayers decide if the disparities in pay are deserved or not.

Most people are justly proud of UH athletic teams. But perhaps next year the state Legislature will help the Department of Education hire a few more P.E. teachers. Authorizing and appropriating that kind of expenditure is a great long-term investment. Even if your keiki don't attend public schools any more, everyone on these islands benefits from the improved social and public health climate when more children learn individual and group sports.

Vincent Kelly Pollard
Honolulu

'Homeland security' is a political scam

Billions of dollars are being spent on our so-called "homeland security." Politicians, landmarks, and federal, city and state facilities are being protected.

Our schools, hospitals, local sporting events, churches and borders are not being protected.

Are politicians more important than our children? They think so, but we know better. All politicians can be replaced overnight; our children can't be replaced.

We are protecting the borders of other countries. We are protecting schools, hospitals, foreign politicians and businessmen on foreign land. All of this is being paid for by the American taxpayers.

The so-called experts say that if we fight terrorists overseas, then we won't have to fight them on American soil. Wrong again. With open borders, WMD, terrorists and illegal immigrants -- a greater threat to America's future -- are able to cross our borders at will.

Those con artists in Washington, D.C., and locally are only interested in protecting themselves, serving their special interests, spending tax money that isn't theirs, giving us a false sense of security and destroying our American values that our Founding Fathers bestowed upon us.

Why is it so difficult for a politician to say, "America first, all others wait in line"?

Ronald L. Edmiston
Honolulu