Residents made postal food drive a success

The National Association of Letter Carriers would like to express a sincere mahalo to the people of Hawaii for their continued support of our recent food drive, held on May 10. This food drive has come to be recognized as the largest single-day food drive in the nation, with more than 240,000 carriers in more than 10,000 cities and towns participating.

Plenty of aloha was shared with us in the amount of 308,309 pounds of nonperishable goods collected on our mail routes throughout the islands. Our national total came in at 61.7 million pounds. A major effort to fill the food banks was made by so many labor unions, postal unions and community volunteers. This food will provide island food banks with some core nutrition for about five months.

Again, thank you to all the local folks who participated by putting food out by their mailboxes to help those in need in their communities. Our food drive could not be so successful without your support!

Rudy R. Salazar Bruce McDowell
Hawaii state co-chairmen
NALC Food Drive 2003

Here's a bang-up idea to get crime rate down

Let's see ... violent crimes are up, burglaries are up, all crimes are up.

Tell me again why it is that the law-abiding citizens of Hawaii cannot have permits to carry concealed weapons?

Arthur Sprague

Bush's tax cuts widen the gap to a chasm

I listened recently to a "tax expert" state the conservative mantra: "Of course the rich get the bulk of the Bush administration's tax cuts. They pay the most." As if this were intuitive, he punctuated it with a "Duh!"

We should have a tax system that tries to ensure that we all sacrifice uniformly to shoulder the nation's expenses. Instead, we have a system where those earning the least sacrifice the most, and those earning the most sacrifice the least. Let's call it "the sacrifice gap." By giving the most to the rich the Bush crowd has turned the sacrifice gap into a sacrifice chasm -- duh!

As if this weren't bad enough, every dime of the billions of dollars President Bush has given to millionaires will have to be borrowed(!), with the debt load passed to the unborn. It's all very thinly disguised greed, with the poor taking it on the chin again, and millionaires and billionaires laughing all the way to their off-shore banks.

Don't look. Greed is disgusting.

Rick Lloyd

Why bother getting a safety inspection?

While driving from Makaha to Kapolei and back on a recent afternoon, I observed safety inspection stickers (decals) on vehicles in traffic. I counted 16 expired decals, including one vehicle with no decal whatsoever and two vehicles bearing stickers that had expired years earlier.

Perhaps some blame can be placed on the lack of notification of renewal to vehicle owners, as was provided in the past; however, it appears that, whatever the reason for the astounding lack of current inspection decals, there is little enforcement.

I made the same round-trip another day and counted 31 vehicles with expired decals.

There appears to be a positive correlation between lack of a current decal and vehicle condition; the vehicles most likely to be a danger on the road are the very ones not properly inspected. Why do we have this law if it is not enforced?

Bob Mac Evitt
Makaha