Show aloha for Laniakea visitors

Mahalo to Paul Perretta for his very reasonable suggestions for the traffic congestion at Laniakea on the North Shore ("Build a cheap tunnel, charge fee at Laniakea," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Sept. 1).

At the recent North Shore transportation committee hearing, I heard a number of good proposals. A tunnel, crosswalks, a parking area (possibly with fees), a side road for those stopping to go to the beach, an overpass, an environmental center and more.

Most of these ideas were either shouted down, heckled or simply dismissed by a dedicated group of adjacent area homeowners. Like the rest of us, they are frustrated by the gridlock. But unlike the rest of us, they would consider one and only one solution — a barricade blocking all parking access to the area for tourists, locals and surfers. When I stated that barriers would only move the problem up to the next beach, someone said: "We’ll put a barrier up there, too."

Many of us who were willing to compromise and come up with sustainable solutions for all were simply stunned by their lack of vision and aloha.

Jimbeau Walsh
Haleiwa

Obama shows a steady hand

I think that many people see President Barack Obama as too cautious and indecisive.

This could be because he is stable in temperament, cautious when it comes to long-term commitments, and reasonable in discourse. And he is a devoted family man.

Thus, he does not give us the adrenaline fixes we have grown used to from the White House over the past two or three decades. Normal is the new normal, and like all recovering addicts, we find normalcy to be dull.

But I am growing used to it. In fact, I like it. I hope that there are more calm, stable, reasonable politicians out there. Somewhere.

Beverly Kai
Kakaako

War is world’s greatest failure

My hope is always that our president and Hawaii’s delegation to Congress will work every single day and on every single issue to resolve differences by other means than reverting to mankind’s greatest failure, war. The only assurance of war is that the innocent will suffer and the profiteers of war will profit. No one questions the unspeakable cruelty that is occurring in Syria. I only question how we are addressing it. Will we ever learn?

Yes, a message must be sent that chemical warfare will not be tolerated, but to do this by war and cause more suffering and death to the innocent is so senseless. As long as we think that war is the path to peace, there will always be war.

On this 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s, "I Have a Dream," I wonder where we as a country would be today on civil rights if that leadership was not there. I wonder where we could be 50 years from now if leaders work toward peace every single day, and identify this as their most important mission.

Harry Kim
Hilo

U.S. should stay out of Syria

No, no, America, not again. Stay out of Syria. A missile attack is not the answer. It will only lead to more problems.

If America has extra cash, spend it on food and medical supplies for the Syrians. Did we not learn anything from Iraq and Afghanistan, with the high expense and loss of so many American lives, all to try to bring democracy to their countries? They are still fighting and always will, since they are tribal.

I am from England and agree with the British government’s decision to stay out of Syria. America is not the world’s police force. The United Nations is, or is supposed to be. America must stay out of the business of other countries, unless we are attacked. Hawaii’s representatives in Washington seem to agree. I do hope so.

Chemical weapons attacks are committed by cowards. I believe they must be stopped, but not by American missiles.

Toby Allen
Kaimuki

Lower wage can help teens work

There are two sides to the minimum wage issue: the need for an adult subsistence wage, and the need to offer teen-agers job opportunities as the first step in training for their future working careers.

If you think about it, one contribution to the youth delinquency problem is our minimum wage law. Young teens leave school in the early afternoon with nothing constructive to do, and face almost nonexistent job opportunities because of the wage issue.

The minimum wage law should be amended so teens can learn how to get and hold a job, make money and learn how business works. Allow teens between the ages of 14 and 17 to work for a maximum of four hours a day, at a pay rate equal to 50 percent of the full minimum wage. They would be considered trainees. To avoid generating sweatshop conditions, a company should be limited to having 10 percent of their employees in any one location in their trainee program.

This will be opposed by labor unions, but it is a step that can generate productive young people instead of lost souls.

Bob Stengle
Aina Haina

Profit-sharing can boost wages

I agree with your editorial that we can do more than just raise the minimum wage to address stagnated wage growth, such as creating a state-level earned income tax credit ("Raising wage floor just tip of solution," Star-Advertiser, Our View, Sept. 2). But we should do more than just continue to try to attract more entrepreneurs who we hope will create more and better new jobs, or hope that Hawaii’s service industries can increase the skills and training required for existing jobs to make them pay better.

I also think we can enhance and better promote existing federal and state tax incentives that encourage businesses to share ownership and profits with employees. Like an EITC, this could help address wage stagnation in a more business-friendly way. But unlike an EITC, which would benefit only low-income employees, sharing ownership and profits could help a wider range of workers.

Tom Brandt
Honolulu

Minimum wage needs to go up

The commentary by Michael D. Tanner of the Cato Institute, "Having a job is better in long run, but welfare clearly pays very well" (Star-Advertiser, Aug. 28) was better researched than usual, but was still missing some facts:

» Recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families are limited to five years total — hardly a lifetime.

» Minimum-wage jobs are scarcely "a springboard out of poverty," especially today, when up to 80 percent of such employees are adults trying to support families and 250,000 are college graduates.

» Reducing current benefit levels means a national heritage of poorly fed, unhealthy children.

» Totally ignored is a real solution: Increase the minimum wage. Make work attractive and sustain our families.

I worked for years with welfare recipients and never found one who preferred welfare.

Tom Tizard
Kailua