Homeless people still have right to life
Appalling as the expropriation of public spaces by shameless derelicts is, there is a difficulty for all of us when we misidentify homelessness and dereliction.
Native Hawaiians, the unemployed, artists, monks and other-worldly types generally are all too often poor and homeless. Their human dignity and right to life, which it overwhelmingly behooves us to protect, is overlooked when they are perceived to be criminal merely because of the need to sleep.
Those of us fortunate enough to have comfortable homes should remember this rather than call the police when we see a poor person sleeping on a beach at night.
We all come into this world with nothing, and will leave empty-handed also. Let us recall how blessed we are rather than project our fears onto the very poor.
Richard Flacco
Sunset Beach
Homeless unwilling to obey the rules
There’s talk of providing living quarters for the homeless.
Do they really want a place to live?
Most stories I hear about them suggest there are too many rules required of them and they don’t want to follow rules.
As long as there is life, there are rules to follow. No matter how much housing you build, the homeless will not reside there because they don’t want to follow rules.
So pass the sit–lie ban and enforce the law. No exceptions.
Adriano Eliazar
Honolulu
Offer prizes to fans at UH football games
Hawaii spectators are supportive of teams that win. Yet, realistically, teams do not always win, and the University of Hawaii football team isn’t expected to appear in any bowls anytime soon.
To say the football program could disappear if finances don’t improve just raises awareness to the problems. Isn’t this the reason an athletic director was hired — to plan, manage, find solutions and be innovative?
The easiest solution is asking the Legislature for additional funds. This certainly takes very little thinking, just arrogance.
Raising ticket and parking prices and concession fees, as well as reducing the amount of student seating, have not significantly improved the financial woes, but do negatively affect the larger source of revenues derived from improved attendance.
Why not stimulate interest in attending the games by having an opportunity to win prizes for attendance? Innovative promotions for each game that could include several prizes such as trips to Las Vegas, the neighbor islands and destinations like Disneyland. Yes, spectators also like to win!
Roy Miyamoto
Nuuanu
Military allowance forces rents upward
Basic allowance for housing for military personnel in Hono-lulu starts at $1,956 for an E-1 without dependents and caps at $4,218 for O-7 with dependents.
If I were a landlord, I would predicate rent based on this information.
No wonder minimum-wage earners here can’t find affordable rental housing.
Kelly Brissette
Liliha
Obama taking right approach on war
Deliberative, cautious, weak, incompetent: Those are some of the words used by President Barack Obama’s critics to describe him for not having a strategy to deal with the Islamic State and Syria crisis.
These criticisms are unwarranted, because intelligence reports indicate that while the threat the ISIS poses is real, an imminent attack on the U.S. does not exist.So there is no need to rush.
Many believe that the Bush administration took the country to war in Iraq based on impulsive decisions and without gathering crucial information and giving much thought to the consequences. This grievous blunder resulted in more than 4,400 dead American troops and tens of thousands wounded. America is still wearing the veil of sorrow for these deaths.
Obama’s careful and deliberate planning is the right thing to do to ensure that mistakes made by his predecessor are not repeated.
Rod B. Catiggay
Mililani
Hamas shows it can honor a cease-fire
It’s curious how the current cease-fire between Israel and Hamas of Gaza has been holding for days, whereas every one of the last seven cease-fires was broken by Hamas firing rockets into Israel, causing Israel to retaliate.
It looks like Hamas can honor a cease-fire when it wants to. Think how many lives would have been saved and destruction avoided had Hamas honored the previous cease-fires.
Stephen Ugelow
Hawaii Kai
HECO shoots high to get what it wants
I am a photovoltaic system owner, and here is my take on Hawaiian Electric Co.’s proposed $55 base proposed for all ratepayers, PV adopters’ monthly $16 fee andthe 47 percent discounted electricity buy-back rate from PV generators:
HECOknows it will get approval for an amount halfway between $1 and $55, $1 and $16, and 17 and 30 cents, respectively. And we, the customers, will be complete fools andbe sogiddy with the "reduced" rate awarded by the state Public Utilities Commission.
But thisis the rate HECO was actually counting on in the first place. The strategy is that you pitch a high rateand settle right where you wanted to be all along.
It is all a shibai and most Hawaii residents will buy into it.
Lisa Adlong
Hauula
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