Waikiki sidewalks are entertaining

As a resident of Waikiki, I’d like to clarify that not all of us are in favor of getting street vendors and entertainers off Kalakaua Avenue. We have to contend with the pimps and the unsightly homeless on the street.I don’t think their constitutional rights should be greater than these people trying to make a living.

If they are taking over too much walking space on the sidewalks, require them to spread out over a greater length of the street. Currently, they are concentrated over a fairly short distance.

Personally, I enjoy them, as does my family when they come to visit. Tourists also enjoy them.If shop owners are upset, they should keep in mind that the vendors, on their own, draw a crowd. Some of that has got to overflow into their stores as well.

Gordon Wolfe
Waikiki

Woman’s living will not being respected

It was very upsetting to read about the case of Karen Okada, the 95-year-old who clearly stated she did not want her dying to be artificially prolonged, and then appointed her brother with her power of attorney ("Decision of a lifetime," Star-Advertiser, Sept. 7). She trusted him to fulfill her wishes over the objections of family members, and he is clearly ignoring them.

The case seems so black and white, I cannot understand why it would take more than a month for a judge to decide on this issue.

What is so unfortunate is that she did what we have all been advised to do, so that we may die with dignity. Her decisions are not being respected on an issue that is one of the most personal choices a person can make. I feel for her and pray I am never in her position.

Melanie Bailey
Kailua

Pro-abortion folks should look within

Bill Brundage writes that Republicans should have their heads and hearts examined for trying to limit the murder of innocent babies conceived in rape and incest ("GOP is hypocritical on issue of abortion," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Sept. 9).

It is the other way around. When a society decides it is OK to kill a preborn child, then those and their ilk who propagate death as a final solution should have their heads and hearts examined.

Murdering innocent children is never the answer to a social problem. By killing them you create many new victims, including the mothers, uncles and aunties, brothers and sisters, and society itself.

I know many children and adults conceived in rape and incest. They are happy their mothers chose life.

Examine your head and your heart.

Steve Holck
Hawaii state director, Center for Bio-Ethical Reform

The future is ours to choose, or steal

I’ve been reading that economists are warning that solar credits are reducing the growth metrics in Hawaii ("Solar credits drag down outlook," Star-Advertiser, Sept. 7).

As a graduate student of sustainable development — the antithesis of industrial development — this reduction in today’s growth comes with an enormous benefit to the future.

Are we willing, after so many centuries of stealing the assets of the future through uncontrolled consumption, to take a nominal hit to economic growth in order to reduce our use of damaging fossil fuels?

You can just as easily heal the future as steal the future. Which will you choose?

Rob Kinslow
Kaimuki

Many pedestrians don’t pay attention

Drivers do not deserve total blame for pedestrian fatalities. I write this after just witnessing for the umpteenth time someone crossing the street with their head down without any concern for oncoming vehicles.

Pedestrians have taken too far the old saying, "Pedestrians have the right away," and it has caused many unfortunate and preventable fatalities.

Too often I see pedestrians cross streets without looking both ways merely because they are in a crosswalk or given the green signal to walk. For whatever reason, pedestrians walk as if there’s some protective shield encasing these crosswalks.

We must accept the unfortunate reality that cars have blind spots and drivers are not always as attentive as they should be. If both drivers and pedestrians commuted under the premise that neither has the right away, then we would save a lot of lives.

John MacDonald
Diamond Head

More can be done to help pedestrians

Too many of our seniors have recently become victims of auto accidents.Our officials need to look at the way other nations protect pedestrians. My recollection of New Zealand brings back a memory of dangerous crosswalks with brightly striped poles and traffic lights with pedestrians pushing a button to stop traffic while they cross.

Something like this is urgently needed here where cars approaching crosswalks can’t see pedestrians crossing the road who are hidden by left-turning vehicles that are waiting for traffic to clear before turning.

This happens at the Kailua intersection of Kuulei Road and Aulike Street and is a deadly accident waiting to happen. There must be many more just like it.

Richard Miller
Kailua