Click It or Ticket is only half the solution

The Honolulu Police Department's "Click It or Ticket" is an excellent program, but seat belts are only half the problem. What are we going to do about accidents caused by drinking and driving? We should focus on proactive measures. People should learn about preventing accidents, not only how to survive the impact of some irresponsible drunken driver's misjudgment.

Get rid of these useless "slap on the wrist" type laws. Enforce a program with zero tolerance for drinking and driving. This will also help to avoid the unnecessary deaths or injuries to any more innocent people in the future.

Shelley Asato

Isle leaders must stop manipulating funds

Our political leaders have been very crafty and short-sighted during the last few years. With dropping income and increased costs, they have manipulated special funds and dedicated funds that were to maintain our roads and other vital services that our economy hinges upon. Instead of attempting to slash personnel, special perks and pork spending, they instead raided these funds, and now we have roads in severe states of disrepair and a hurricane relief fund that is on the chopping block.

The economy, read as tax revenues, still hasn't improved and yet the cost to do business has increased, with more special projects that will need maintenance for years to come. The city management is looking at putting the sewer fund on the sacrificial altar to keep things running, yet they still have money to throw into future maintenance of parks. What are we going to do when the sewers are breaking and the sewer fund is out of money? Turn it off?

Come on guys, let's think beyond the election and get down to thinking of 10- and 25-year plans that are truly sustainable without having to raise taxes or obscure where our special fund taxes are really going to go.

Christopher Murphy
Wahiawa

Kalakaua Homes kids need a place to play

Kalakaua Homes has no room for our young children to play. There are 98 units in the project, with children of all ages. The children ages 7 and older can go across Kalakaua Avenue to the Boys and Girls Club of Honolulu to play, but what do our younger children do? Where do the older ones play after the club closes? Let me tell you what the Kalakaua Homes children do.

The children come home from school and do homework. Afterward, they go outside and play basketball in the road. My father, who is a paraplegic, bought a basketball rim for my children to play with when they visit him on the weekends. The kids play basketball in the afternoon until 8 p.m. at the latest. All the teenagers gather and play outside together. At least they are not involved with drug and gang problems. It's nice to know where they are at all times.

Leave it to our Kalakaua Homes management office to threaten to evict my father if the basketball-playing continues. They claim it is illegal for the kids to play basketball on the premises. If our children can't play basketball or ride skateboards, bikes and have no park to play in, what are they to do? Where can they play?

The biggest question is, why is Kalakaua Homes a residential area for families if the kids can't be kids? They should have just made it Kalakaua Homes Senior Living.

Anelalani Mamala
Waianae

Good-looking people can cause wrecks, too

Some people want to make it illegal for candidates for public office to employ the time-honored local tradition of sign-waving. The rationale for such legislation is that drivers are so easily distracted that if they see a candidate's name on a sign they'll have an accident.

If we were going to pass legislation on anything that could potentially distract drivers, then maybe we should begin with the most obvious thing, such as making the use of cell phones in cars illegal. And we should certainly make it illegal for anybody to drink or eat anything while driving.

We should go further and make sure that all windows are tinted so people are not distracted by the pretty girl or handsome guy in the next car. And of course it should be illegal for any pretty girls or handsome guys to walk along the side of the road.

If a driver is so easily distracted by people holding signs, then that person doesn't belong behind the wheel in the first place.

Robert Owen

Hawaii needs a king to unite the people

Just the other day my son Taz asked me why the donkey and the elephant represent our two major political parties. We began thinking logically. Both are beasts of burden. Both serve their masters well. The donkey has a reputation for being stupid, hence the term "making an ass of oneself." The elephant was not spared; any useless thing that takes up space is called a white elephant.

At this point, Taz asked me, "Papa, which party will you vote for?" This time I was lost. Given the choice between "bleeding-heart Democrats" and "rich people's Republicans," whose constant bickering and mud-slinging has done little to help the hapless taxpayers who voted them to power, I finally gave him the answer: "Neither. I would vote for the king."

"Who is the king? A pro wrestler?" he asked. "No," I replied. "The king is a person who will unite (or get rid of) all politicians and work only for the good of the state and its people."

"So, Papa, where is the king now?" Taz asked. Wistfully, I said, "He is there somewhere among us, waiting. One day he will surely come to save us all."

Where is King Kamehameha when you need him?

Raj Bose

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