Bonus for doing your job unfair

I can’t help but comment on the story about offering school principals a $10,000 merit bonus ("Principals offered $10K merit bonus," Star-Advertiser, May 14).

What a terrific idea: Let’s give them a bonus for doing their job. Let’s not stop there. Police officers should get a bonus when they solve a case, the fire department should get a bonus when it puts out a fire, and refuse drivers should get a bonus when they pick up the trash on time. I’m sure there are many more people who do what they are paid to do, and wish they could get a bonus.

However, if you are a University of Hawaii chancellor, you don’t have to work. Just go on sabbatical for 10 months and get paid $28,000 a month. Shameful.

Mo De Rego
Waipahu

Teachers should get more pay

After reading the story about the $10,000 bonus for principals, I just exploded. Why not give the money to the teachers?

I am against merit payments at any level. In my book, the one who works the system best wins.

Our public school teachers are so underpaid and have taken still more pay cuts, and they are going to give the high-wage earner a bonus!

Barbara Williams
Haleiwa

Separate state and marriage

Marriage is currently an unholy alliance of church and state. The state should eliminate marriage licenses.

Let men and women "marry" in a church or other religious setting, if they choose to do so — an arrangement made through their faith, not a government-regulated activity.

Others can live together and raise children as they so often do today anyway. Individuals and families would be treated equally.

No marriage, no divorce. No marriage, no special tax status.

James Arcate
Honolulu

Kayak vendors hurt themselves

No doubt about it. We Kailuans are passionate about protecting our community and our beach.

The current brouhaha over commercialization of our beach is just one of many fights the community has faced over the years. The fact that Kailua Beach has remained undeveloped and relatively unspoiled is testament to the tenacity of the people who live here.

The kayak vendors have been their own worst enemies by multiplying to such great numbers that the community has had to turn against them to preserve one of Hawaii’s greatest treasures.

Mollie Foti
Kailua

Pitts out of step about marriage

Leonard Pitts is clearly out of step ("Instead of social progress, N.C. takes a step backward," Star-Advertiser, May 14).

To date, 32 states have voted on the same-sex marriage issue, and all 32 have passed legislation that marriage is defined as a union between a man and a woman.

Pitts seems to vilify the people of North Carolina, describing their vote as backwardness that hinders social progressiveness. Yet, who’s going the wrong way on this issue when all of the states that have addressed it are all moving in the same direction?

Victor Wyman
Aiea

Justice system wasting money

What is wrong with our justice system?

Why are states being attacked for attempting to enforce federal immigration laws while sanctuary cities that thumb their noses at the law are ignored?

Why is nothing being done to prevent dead and illegal voters while states that are trying to enact voter ID laws are being challenged?

Why were charges dropped against the Black Panthers, who stood with clubs in front of polling places?

After investigating Sheriff Joe Arpaio for more than a year, why is the Justice Department still going after him?

Maybe the Justice Department is spending a lot of taxpayer money to go after the wrong people.

Warren K. Fukushima
Pearl City

Rail is draining funds from bus

First I read that there will be bus routes eliminated because fuel costs may go up by $3 million.

Then I read that the rail gets an additional $16 million with no questions, no problems.

Clearly something is wrong here. We need more buses, more often on more routes, than ever before.

This boondoggle called the rail is draining money we need not only for buses but roads, sidewalk repair, sewer lines, etc.

Herbert Rothouse
Honolulu