Bikers should wear helmets

My helmet shattered from the 55 mph broadside collision with a car, but as a result, I am alive today and imploring all two-wheeled (mechanical or motorized) operators to come to your senses.

Nearly every week lately, the media inform us that yet another person has died from massive head inquiries due to not wearing a helmet, excessive speed, impairment or all of above.

Put selfishness and vanity aside and wake up from that coma of denial or excuses while you can. Think of your loved ones crying at your hospital bedside or funeral, needlessly incurring medical expenses or debts.

The decision that you make here in life will affect not only your physical and mental well being but also your eternal spiritual destiny. Yes, it’s your choice: the smoking or the non-smoking section!

Please don’t become a statistic; get right and wear a helmet — it’s a no-brainer without it.

Mark "Strider" Thomas
Bikers for Christ motorcycle ministry

Legislators seek to bypass rules

It appears that, in their haste to placate their benefactors, Hawaii legislators are seeking to bypass legislation they wrote and expect the rest of us to follow.

Putting aside environmental and construction norms, borrowing additional money in addition to the recent large bond offering to do projects no matter how beneficial, and then planning to open a state bank to have an additional slush fund are at the forefront of our elected representatives’ agenda.

We the taxpayers are concerned that lawmakers stay within their budget like every citizen has to do, and address the most pressing current and future problem facing our state — namely, the unfunded and manipulated pension plans for our hard-working state employees.

Gary R. Johnson
Kaneohe

Early education must be priority

In reference to the article titled "Early education must start with involved parents — and a good book" (Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, March 1) — early learning experts all agree that parent involvement is critical to a child’s success.

Unfortunately, many parents do not have the books, time or tradition of reading aloud in the home. Therefore, the availability of reading aloud programs such as the Read Aloud Program can complement every early-learning setting.

Unfortunately, support for RAP has been cut, early childhood health programs have been cut and preschool subsidies have been cut. At this moment, one provision of the early learning bill, Senate Bill 2545, is to potentially cut nearly 6,000 late-born children out of kindergarten.

We say early childhood is a priority and yet we pit programs against each other and leave our keiki to fight over an insufficient set of funds. That’s completely unacceptable. We demand a comprehensive, high-quality early learning system for all our keiki that values parent engagement in all its forms.

Elisabeth Chun
Executive director, Good Beginnings Alliance

Parents should have bigger role

The proposal for the state tax director to refund up to $500 to teachers for school supply purchases is the kind of proposal that begets the verbal backlash regarding entitlement programs in the Republican primary contest.

When I went to school, it was a parent’s responsibility to provide basic school supplies such as pencils and paper, crayons, etc. Today the state Department of Education’s budget is loaded down with non-educational items such as providing meals, after-school day care, busing, etc. — things that were previously considered parental responsibilities.

The Star-Advertiser says that the Legislature should reject the proposal of a $500 tax credit for purchases of supplies that should be provided by the schools ("DOE should repay teachers," Star-Advertiser, Our View, March 3). Why should the schools be responsible for providing basic school supplies?

It is time to insist that parents take more responsibility for their children’s needs. The constant dipping into the public coffer is not the answer.

Ernest Suemoto
Mililani

Don’t support rail or Ho‘opili

In following closely both the rail and the Ho‘opili debates, I’ve come to the conclusion that in order to support one, I must support the other.

To build rail without building Ho‘opili makes no sense, as many rail riders from Kapolei will come from Ho‘opili. The rail ridership projections are based on future population growth.

Conversely, to build Ho‘opili, with its 12,000-plus houses, makes no sense without alternative transportation options — even with D.R. Horton’s promise to widen the H1 — since the bottleneck at the H1/H2 merge will not be improved.

I am adamantly opposed to Ho‘opili due to the issues surrounding loss of prime agricultural land, availability of adequate water and increased traffic. The Waianae Coast, in particular, would suffer from greater traffic congestion and rail would not alleviate this. Therefore, I must also oppose building the rail.

Laurie Lawrence
Waianae

Seating could be rail deal-breaker

The small number of seats on the Honolulu rail system is crazy.

Can you imagine boarding the train after a long day’s work, and then trying to stand, hanging onto a pole, during the entire 42-minute ride to Kapolei? What about your purse, briefcase or packages?

I think I’d rather ride the bus.

This is a huge, costly decision and merits more feasibility studies before being locked in. One experiment could be to remove 75 percent of all seats on some selected existing bus routes, and convert them to standing-only space. Then we might know how commuters would really react to this plan. If it worked, we could actually triple our current bus capacity. If it didn’t, we could avoid a $1.4 billion mistake.

Carolyn "Shammy" Dingus
Makaha

Protect aina via plastic bag ban

The time is now to pass plastic and paper bag legislation on Oahu.

The goal is to have people switch over to reusable bags.

The money that is generated from the bill would go to protect Hawaii’s endangered watershed, creating a win-win situation.

Plastic and paper bags are not only a nuisance but an eyesore as well. The bags are so light that they are easily swept up by the wind and blown all over the city, into our streets, parks and streams and onto our beaches.

The ones that make it out to the ocean are an even bigger threat. Once in the ocean, they will never break down. They are left to drift, endangering precious marine life.

"Ua mau ke ea o ka aina I ka pono." How are the people of Hawaii possibly going to be able to make sure "the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness," if we have plastic and paper bags blowing all over town? We need to preserve our precious aina and get rid of these bags.

Diana Sellner
Kaimuki