Visiting soccer team did us all a favor

All footballers and families in Hawaii owe a debt of gratitude to members of the U.S. Women’s National Team for taking a stand for safety, and against the artificial turf used for American football (“No world soccer match due to poor Aloha Stadium field,” Star-Advertiser, Dec. 6).

However, the powers-that-be do not understand this long- standing difference in injury rates between the two sports, not to mention the documented cancer rates connected to recycled crumb rubber that underlies turf fields.

The state Department of Education should put on hold moves to redesign public school athletic fields to install turf fields where grass fields and pitches have stood.

Also, University of Hawaii athletics officials should stow plans to move Hawaii’s Rainbow Wahine Warriors from the Waipi‘o Peninsula Soccer Complex to the on-campus turf field of Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex. Player safety and public liability are too important to plan facilities without proper safety research.

Ritxard Weigel

Salt Lake

Mauna Kea protests have dubious basis

Arguments by Thirty Meter Telescope protesters lack justification. If the protesters believe that Mauna Kea is sacred, then they should say what god or religion makes it so.

What the rest of us Hawaiians know is that Kamehameha II in 1819 abolished the Hawaiian religion and that there has never been a church that prayed to those gods.

Another questionable point is in regards to Mauna Kea being of cultural significance to Hawaiians. Determining cultural significance is, according to those knowledgeable on the subject (Bishop Museum and state Department of Land and Natural Resources), a subjective process. Therefore, unless it’s based on fact, protesters should not be deciding what is of cultural significance on other people’s property.

I can understand protesters wanting to keep Mauna Kea and other areas free from further development. Our islands have undergone huge changes and the concern is, when it will end?

However, we must accept changes that meet the needs of our people.

Bill Punini Prescott

Nanakuli

Let sisters stay put at convent in Manoa

In 1883, St. Marianne Cope answered a plea for help from King Kalalaua to care for the patients with Hansen’s disease in Kalaupapa, Molokai.

The last of those patients can live in Kalaupapa until they die.

Sadly, the sisters of St. Francis who also answered a call to help cannot rest in comfort in their Manoa convent until they die.

The Hawaii sisters want to continue to live in their Manoa convent. They will soon move to assisted living in Pearl City. This will increase overall costs and compromise the sisters’ emotional and spiritual health status. St. Francis Convent is a place of prayer, celebration and joy for many.

Ironically, the move mirrors what happened to St. Francis when he was evicted by his brothers from his Assisi convent.

I would ask the leadership team to invite others to discuss solutions so they can remain living in Manoa.

Shirley Tamoria

Medical director, Kalihi-Palama Health Center

What are NextEra’s real numbers?

If NextEra is planning to spend $4.3 billion to acquire HEI and another $30 billion in capital investment to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, that is a total of $34.3 billion, or $76,222 for each of the 450,000 ratepayers.

A brief review of industry documents indicates that a 10 percent return on investment is typical for electric public utilities. That results in an expectation of $3.43 billion in annual profit, or $7,622 a year ($635/month) per ratepayer on top of operating costs.

No wonder its financial plan is being kept secret.

If this analysis is not correct, what are the real numbers? Perhaps the state Public Utilities Commission should hold a vote of ratepayers before approving this new monopoly.

Don Fujimoto

Waikoloa, Hawaii island

City’s bike lanes seriously flawed

The city means well, but its approach to bike lanes is seriously flawed.

Bikers on Ala Wai Boulevard must ride just inches away from fast-moving vehicles and parked cars. A bike malfunction, an inattentive driver or an opening door from a parked car could be disastrous.

King Street, formerly an efficient and fast-moving thoroughfare, has been crippled by an ill-placed bike lane. Now it is a confusing, slow-moving mess. Meter-blocked left turns off King are a safety challenge, and entry from a cross street is daunting.

I propose a different bike plan: Separate King Street’s two wide sidewalks into both a pedestrian path and a bike lane using a railing or slab. The same could be done with the very wide Ala Wai sidewalk. Additionally, Young Street could be made one-way and divided into a bike-car combo street.

The white-line path on busy Ala Wai and a despoiled King Street are not Honolulu’s bicycling solution.

Ray Graham

Waikiki

Concentration camps next on Trump’s list?

It’s ironic that Donald Trump chose Dec. 7 to call for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S.

Most of us know that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 and led the U.S. into World War II. The U.S. then interned thousands of Americans of Japanese descent and seized their property as a precautionary measure during the war.

Shall we intern all Muslims in the U.S. until we’re sure we’ve destroyed ISIS? Would internship include all Muslims or only those of Middle Eastern descent?

Next thing you know, Trump might propose concentration camps for Muslims.

Mike Bates

Palolo Valley