A victims’ constitutional amendment is the only way that victims will have rights equal to those of defendants (“Bill would put victims’ rights in state Constitution,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 5).

Our family was thrown into the complex criminal justice system when our son was killed in a crash involving a six-time DUI arrestee. I was left on my own to navigate this unfamiliar system to seek justice for our family.

I felt resistance at every step, even when inquiring about the status of the investigation. The traffic investigation report took nearly a year, and the prosecutor’s final decision was not to press charges. No accountability, no justice.

Hawaii is one of 18 states without a constitutional amendment to protect rights for victims of crimes. The Aloha State falls short by forcing victims to be revictimized by a criminal justice system without equal, enforceable rights.

I disagree with the Star-Advertiser position that rights can be ensured without having an amendment (“Do better at helping crime victims,” Star-Advertiser, Our View, Feb. 19).

Theresa Paulette

Kailua

Drivers in Hawaii have aloha spirit

Because mid-morning is relatively congestion-free in Honolulu, I figured it would be a good time to run some errands. But the second I got on Ala Wai Boulevard, cars were barely moving in any of the three lanes.

Despite the delay, the aloha spirit was still alive and well. Not one driver honked his horn, no one switched lanes without first using a turn signal, no one anxiously got out of the car to see why traffic was so stalled. From what I could see from the cars around me, no one scowled or beat upon the steering wheel; there was no road rage; no middle fingers raised.

On the contrary: It felt as if a huge hand hovered over the traffic, with thumb and pinky finger wiggling the hang-loose sign of greeting.

I’d love to drive in another American city of equal population density that displays such civility.

Stan Satz

Manoa

Make auto firms tell air bag data

It boggles the mind that auto companies have refused to say which vehicles use the Takata air bag inflator (“Push for total recall of Takata airbags intensifies,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 18).

Exactly where would several of these big companies be today if American taxpayers had not saved them through a bailout, $10 billion of which was never paid back?

Our National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has given Takata until the end of 2018 to solve this problem. The U.S. government needs to take action by filing a lawsuit demanding that auto companies provide this information immediately. It would be gross negligence to do otherwise.

James Robinson

Aiea

Make lotteries friendlier to poor

I agree with Linda Carlson that a lottery would mostly affect poor folks (“Lotteries affect poor folks most,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Feb. 19).

However, what if we made the lottery with multiple prizes of $10,000 to $20,000? Perhaps 200 or more prizes each week?

Can you imagine a poor person getting $20,000 in his or her pocket? They could at least do something with that — buy a car, pay off a debt or go on a vacation.

Poor people always get hurt, but there would be no “pie in the sky” reach that these multimillion-dollar lotteries always bring on.

Brian Moore

Waikiki

Major disasters loom in future

It took almost 200,000 years for our species to reach a population of 2 billion less than 100 years ago. Soon there will be 8 billion of us consuming the Earth’s resources. Even the most conservative estimates project a human population of 10 billion before this century is over.

Meanwhile, climate- change deniers will do what they can to delay attempts to reverse the negative effects that our increasing population has had in contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, and destroying oxygen-producing trees, plants and plankton.

In the meantime, our coral reefs are dying and our sea levels rising as the world’s icecaps melt.

Hawaii cannot avoid these consequences unless our leaders take immediate action to ameliorate these potential disasters.

The big question is whether they will even try before it’s too late.

Robert Griffon

Moiliili

Living cultures must look ahead

I’m not a Native Hawaiian and I know for many that means I lack standing in the debate about the Thirty Meter Telescope.

But the vehemence of the opposition to the telescope baffles me. The motivation for the project is not greed or exploitation; it is a quest to explore the frontiers of the universe. What could be grander, more sacred, than that?

A living culture has to look forward, not just backward, and the quest for scientific knowledge should have just as much relevance to Hawaiian culture as any other.

It is a tribute to the specialness of Mauna Kea that it is judged the best place in the entire world to build a window on the universe.

How I would frame the issue is to ask if a telescope on this sacred mountain is “pono,” and I don’t understand why it wouldn’t be.

David Kemble

Kailua

False intelligence led to many dying

Columnist Byron York reported that during the American war in Iraq, 4,495 American soldiers died and 32,223 were wounded. (Star-Advertiser, Feb. 18).

York also quoted former President George W. Bush, writing in his memoir, “The reality was that I had sent American troops into combat based in large part on intelligence that proved false.”

This false intelligence was vouched for by Bush’s Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in his dramatic address to the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003, in which he asserted ,“There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons.”

The fact was that Hussein had no such weapons. On Sept. 13, 2004, Powell testified in a Senate committee it was unlikely that any stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction would be found.

But the war had begun and lasted until 2011 regardless of its fictitious rationale.

Oliver Lee

Makiki

Feral cats just trying to survive

Senate Bill 2450 would ban the feeding of feral cats on public lands in Oahu.

Those who support this bill call the cats an “invasive species” and claim that they are unattractive to look at.

Let me remind those people that cats cannot tell the difference between a native bird and a pigeon. They are merely trying to survive in an environment into which their past owners dropped them.

Would it not be beneficial then for people to feed them?

Many are determined to proclaim that feral cats are the issue. However, the issue is their owners, people who refuse to take responsibility and drop their animals in parking lots when they become too old and less cute.

The majority of these cats have been domesticated and, if they were not fed, would starve due to their inability to hunt.

Catherine Middleton

Kahala Kua