Tourists should treat homeless with respect

The letter of May 3 entitled "Squatters make parks unattractive to visitors," from a man in Washington state, was in reference to the repeal of Act 50. In a letter that showed anything but the aloha spirit, his closing line was, "If you give the beaches over for people to live, where should tourists like me go?" Does he not realize that we are visitors here? We are visiting the home of many people, and should act with respect toward those who live here.

The people of Hawaii are so kind, friendly, sharing and gracious. There should be a place for all, before "tourists" or "Hawaiians at heart" or whatever one calls oneself steps to the front of the line. Greed raises its ugly head in society right now much too much.

Drivers who cause wrecks should be fined

As the saying goes, "accidents don't happen, they are caused." It has long been my opinion that the person who causes an accident, and thereby inconveniences not only the other party (and possibly injures or kills them), but literally thousands of other people whose path is blocked by the ensuing investigations, be fined.

I suggest a flat $1,000 for the guilty party for a fender bender, but if the crash takes place in a tunnel, the fine would increase to $5,000. There is absolutely no need for an accident ever to occur in a tunnel; it could only be caused by inattention to driving, changing lanes recklessly (there should be no lane changing allowed in tunnels), or excessive speed and driving too closely to the car in front.

I am fed up with finding myself blocked on the freeway, or on the Likelike or Pali highways, because some careless driver has caused an accident and tied up traffic, sometimes for hours, while the investigation is conducted and/or the debris removed.

Not only would my plan perhaps cause drivers to drive more carefully, it would be a considerable source of revenue that could be used to repair our deplorable roads.

Aren't high gas prices good for environment?

Frankly, I was taken aback that Lance Holter of the Sierra Club was opposed to high gas prices (Letters, May 12). Wasn't it Al Gore, the environmentalists' poster child, who said in his 1992 book "Earth in the Balance" that he favored higher energy prices to cut down on consumption?

But if Holter is serious about bringing down gas prices and cutting into the profits of oil companies, then I suggest that he tells everybody he knows to take the bus or ride a bicycle to cut down on demand. That's simple economics.

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TV news shows need higher standards

The topic I am passionate about is the steadily declining standards of the television news media. The stations are going to greater lengths to get more intriguing stories to draw better ratings. In doing so, they have come up with a lot of clutter and useless information that we, the viewing public, could really do without. In the process, they have also disrespected themselves as well as ruined the reputations of many well-to-do people.

In my opinion, the Michael Jackson "scandal" is not news. The media has inflated the story to such big proportions that even if he is found innocent, he may never be able to go back to living normally. I have even witnessed first hand the lack of class the local media has now. A family down the street from where I live had their house burn down. Just to boost ratings, the news team rushed over to the scene and grilled the shocked and grieving family with questions. It was deplorable.

Also, I do not see the need for more than two news stations in one area such as Hawaii. It's not a really huge place, and news is news, right? I suggest consolidating the news to one station. That way, they won't have to get such senseless stories to draw an audience and they can report real news. I get a lot of my news from these stations and, frankly, sometimes I do not have the time nor the patience to read the paper thoroughly. So the nightly news is my main news source.

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