Sometimes buses and bikes don't mix
Each and every day, we awake and prepare ourselves to leave our homes to work, shop and visit friends. At the end of day, we expect to return to our homes safely. The recent tragic accident involving a Honolulu city bus with a bicycle rider and a pedestrian is unfortunate.
As a rider of the city bus, I notice that most of the drivers are safe and courteous, but one operator in Waikiki last year enjoyed tailgating a bike rider on Kuhio Avenue. Stopping at a red light, the driver opened the bus door and shouted to the bike rider to get off the road or get run over. Drivers need to keep a safe distance to allow enough time to react and stop to prevent a accident.
Michael Nomura
Kailua
Calling it a 'spill' minimizes disaster
I really wish all those responsible for reporting the news would stop calling what happened a week or so ago a spill. It was by God not a spill, it was an intentional dumping of raw sewage! Why couldn't some kind of initial water treatment take place while the sewage was being intentionally dumped? Was someone afraid they might kill the fish that cannot be eaten? At the cost of human life and suffering, is there any price that is unreasonable? I saw enough city employees all standing around a hole in the ground doing absolutely nothing -- how much did that cost? How many engineers and planners got paid in overtime during this period? Do something! Find those who didn't think or who were not concerned enough to take some kind of preventative measures!
James Holland
Honolulu
Without smokers, life as we know it ceases
I must take exception to Alvin Wong's letter ("Rid public places of smoke -- period,"
Star-Bulletin, April 15). I have smoked cigarettes for 46 years. My father smoked cigarettes for 85 years. When he passed at 94, it wasn't due to his nasty habit. My health is considered by my doctor as excellent, although he has continually attempted to persuade me to stop.
Outlaw cigarettes entirely, you say? OK, let's look at that scenario. Cigarettes are legal, sanctioned and taxed heavily by federal and state governments. If they outlawed cigarettes, cigars, etc., how many millions, if not billions, of dollars would no longer flow into federal and state coffers? Obviously, these entities would have to start looking elsewhere for that lost money. Where do you think they would find it? Not only in this smoker's wallet, but yours, too. Are you ready for that? I think not.
Let's look at our visitor industry. Europeans and Asians far outnumber American smokers. Will they want to vacation in a location where they cannot participate in what, to them, is normal behavior? Emphatically, no!
You don't want to smell my secondhand smoke, the best advice I could give you would be to stay away from me. You talk about rights, well, I have rights, too, and I enjoy a cigarette. "This Camel nonfilter is for you."
John L. Shupe
Honolulu
Don't give lawbreakers special privileges
It appears that illegal immigrants and their proponents might intimidate our elected leaders into changing the laws to allow faster access to U.S. citizenship and/or amnesty.
Our leaders take an oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of this country. They seem to be leaning toward protecting illegal immigrants rather than legal American citizens.
People who break the laws of this country do not deserve special treatment. Illegal immigrants should be returned to their native countries, not automatically made citizens of ours.
I'm opposed to an open-border policy and any kind of amnesty program because of my concern for the future of America. If illegal immigrants can be granted legal status with the stroke of a pen, what is going to happen when the Muslims in the United States want to have sharia law trump the American legal system within their closed communities? Who is going to say no? How can they, once the precedent has been set? Where will it stop?
Assimilation is what built this great nation. Separation will bring it down.
Jim Fromm
Waipahu
How would we keep track of guest workers?
The promotion of a "guest worker" program has me stymied. The idea might be noble, but how can a government that cannot keep track of all the tourists and students who overstay their legal visas and remain in the country illegally expect to keep better track of guest workers who might choose to overstay theirs?
Wendy Pollitt
Kaneohe