In Honolulu, builders know no bounds
Builders seem to have no limits in Honolulu. They seem to simply walk in and build more and more, higher and higher. May I inquire, who is in charge? We still don't have a decent cruise ship terminal. The sewage pipes down below are still iffy.
I invite anyone to drive to Ward Theatre complex at 4 p.m. on a Saturday to see a movie and try to find a place to park your vehicle. You might wish someone had invented a briefcase in which to fold it. You will begin to wonder why you even bothered to leave home.
Are there no limits to anything here beyond the ridiculous?
From trains, more buses, more cars, more highways, there's little common sense or leadership among those voted in who fail to agree on anything.
John Werrill
Honolulu
Road rage incident ends on bright note
While driving to the Dole Cannery theater to watch a movie, a large black truck suddenly and aggressively pulled up behind me and the driver started flashing his lights, honking his horn and violently swerving left and right. I moved out of the way and simply let the driver pass ahead of me. As I went on my way to the parking lot, I thought that was the end of the matter.
Two hours later, after my film was over and I was in the parking lot entering my car, a tall and intimidating-looking man in a black T-shirt and blue jeans approached me and said, "Excuse me! I just wanted to tell you that it was me who was driving crazy behind you because I didn't want to be late for my movie. But as I was sitting in there, I realized what I did was not right and I felt really bad about it, and it was all I could think about the whole time, so I just wanted to ask you for forgiveness."
I was incredibly humbled by those words, and I told him that I bore no grudge against him and that he was forgiven. It was an incredible moment that I know God used to soften both our hearts, and even though I might never see that individual again, I am so thankful for his humility.
Daniel P. De Gracia II
Waipahu
Rail advocates need a big dose of reality
"Think of it -- riding a train energized by ocean power"
(Letters, June 27). While you're at it, think of one run by Martian ionic-electro power cookies.
Can we stop with the pie in the sky claims about rail? It's a project admittedly not intended to solve our current traffic problems, in a town with way too few residents to pay for it, and with no infrastructure to support it. There is no magic source of energy for this train. Saying it "can" run on renewable energy is not saying it "will" run on it.
Paul Guncheon
Kaneohe
Anti-rail group changes name, not objectives
It's bothersome that the media give the Stop Rail Now/Hawaii Highway Users Alliance group as much attention as they do.
This same group fought the 1992 light rail project and the Bus Rapid Transit project.
Led by Cliff Slater, they called themselves the Committee On Sensible Transit when they fought rail in 1992, then called themselves the Alliance for Traffic Improvements in 2000 to fight bus rapid transit. Now they're calling themselves Stop Rail Now and the Hawaii Highway Users Alliance.
Their name has changed but their objective is the same, to prevent Honolulu from getting the transportation infrastructure it needs. They don't seem to care that Leeward residents spend hours stuck in traffic and away from their families. They don't offer any realistic options; they just want to kill rail.
Had rail been built in 1992, we would be planning extensions to Mililani and Hawaii Kai, not worrying about the high cost of gas.
Credit should go to Mayor Mufi Hannemann and his leadership on the mass transit issue. We can't afford to have these same individuals stop rail again.
Emily Ashmore
Kapolei
Liberty for all of us or just a chosen few?
Suppose your government didn't allow you speak freely, oppressed you, invaded your home without a warrant and held you prisoner with benefit of counsel or habeas corpus. Many of our ancestors fled such a country to America for freedom, where in 1776 the Constitution was created, correcting the unfair laws of the old country.
Now, more than 200 years later, the Republicans, who took us to a bogus Iraq war for profit, have been filling government regulatory agencies with lobbyists from companies that were targets of regulation. As the lobbyist gained control of the agency, he would relax the agency rules enforcement, which was a prelude to events like the Bear Stearns crash and the historic gas price hikes.
As we celebrate this Independence Day, the current Republican administration has been unwinding many of the rights our forefathers fought and died for. When you vote this November, take a moment to consider, do you want life, liberty and justice for all, or just the wealthy and well-connected?
Smoky Guerrero
Mililani
Solar is great, but not for drying clothes?
How ironic that Gov. Linda Lingle plans to veto the clothesline bill after having just signed the solar water heater bill. After all, clotheslines are the solar way of drying clothes. Dryers burn energy just as much as cigarettes burn health. What needless waste!
Eva Uran
Naalehu, Hawaii