It’s time to worry about home front

Do we really have a budget problem or are our leaders blind? Yes, we do have a problem with money management, but Congress and our leaders seem intent on solving the issue on the homefront with cutting programs, increasing taxes, eliminating waste and numerous ways to take money from the taxpayer to balance the budget.

Did any of our leaders stop to think about the large amounts of money being provided as foreign aid? The United States spends billions helping foreign countries. We cannot afford to rebuild the world. Our military is stretched all over the world providing aid and protection.

It’s time our leaders look on the homefront and worry about our own country instead of some foreign country before the American taxpayer is run into the ground.

John P. Gallagher
Ewa Beach

‘Terrorist’ term used incorrectly

I must disagree with the recent musings that characterize our newly minted tea party representatives as terrorists.

Whereas most reference materials define terrorism as involving some overt act of violence, the childish and ineffectual majority members of Congress fail to meet the strictest criteria, and therefore cannot accurately be labeled as practitioners.

Misinformed, misguided, hubristic, bombastic, bumbling, and horribly destructive, well, of course. Every respected economist has agreed with that assessment. But violent? No.

In fact, our elected legislators have caused this country more calamitous damage than could have been mustered from all of the existing terrorist organizations combined.

Standard & Poor’s has just lowered our national credit rating from AAA to AA+. And it will only get worse if we fail to rein in this current reign of, mmm, error.

Walter Williams
Kailua

Keep rail on track but with oversight

It would be most inappropriate for the courts to overturn the will of the electorate on rail. The need for mass transit for the community and for the jammed-up H-1 corridor was identified and planned more than 40 years ago. The rail opponents had their day but the voters rejected the negative ads and approved rail.

The only result of these naysayers will be to drive up the cost to taxpayers, like they did with the H-3 freeway. However, I do support a timely review of the project to assure that certain engineering problems, design problems, problems with contractors, as well as state and homeland security issues are handled in the most appropriate manner.

Myron Berney
Honolulu

Lunch wagons fee would be too low

The City and County of Honolulu is seeking to generate revenue and increase visitors’ enjoyment of North Shore beaches by allowing lunch wagon concessions at Alii Beach, Haleiwa Beach and Waimea Bay.

While I applaud this innovative approach, I also am deeply concerned about the apparent lack of fiscal responsibility demonstrated by the planners of the action.

Commercial rental space for the lunch trucks operating legally on the North Shore is, on average, $2,500 per month. Allowing one concession at a beach park and only charging $400 per month is tantamount to the city subsidizing a commercial entity, particularly when one considers that the concessionaire will effectively have a monopoly at a highly desirable location.

It would seem that the taxpayers themselves are being unduly shortchanged out of at least $2,000 per month for each location (or $6,000 per month for all three locations) by the ridiculously low fee envisioned.

U‘i McGuire
Waialua

Public education needs public’s help

I applaud Sandra Armstrong’s commentary ("Lend a hand to help public schools, students succeed," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Aug. 14).

Again, we are allowing our public school teachers to be the sacrificial lambs. Why do we continue to put a price tag on public school teachers, or for that matter, public education? In the long run, we are all accountable for our children’s success.

We need to be proactive in our schools. Take this opportunity to be part of the cure, not the problem. Be a positive change maker.

Mary Jo Morrow
Kailua