Concrete barriers spawn more walls

Our beautiful North Shore was given concrete barriers at Laniakea Beach parking. What a not-wonderful gift. So many other things could have been done.

Now facing the ocean at Laniakea on the right, where all the turtle controversy is, there is a large white post fence, complete with signs.

With most houses now enshrined in big, awful walls also, why not just put a big wall up at the airport and keep everyone off the island entirely?

Barbara Williams
Waialua

Plan for Kawainui is case of overkill

Overkill!

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ plan to approve 59 structures on the Kawainui/Hamakua marsh includes37 buildings, 11 parking lots, nine maintenance access roads, eight pavilions, 10 viewing decks, four plant nurseries, three bridges/causeways, 4,155 feet of boardwalk, 5.7 miles of trails, four staging areas, and a canoe launch into the marsh waters in Kailua.

This is in addition to a light industrial park plan by a large ranch there.

Native and migratory bird nests will be endangered by this invasion, including access by cats and dogs and people’s pollution and trash.

It’s a beautiful place to accommodate hula practice, if built outside the marsh, downstream of it, with great views. Sharing and balance? Or toxic algae, dead zones, chemical spills, no more birds and a giant tourist trap?

Andrea Anixt
Kaaawa

There’s no chance for maglev rail here

Frank Genadio sees an advantage in the projected one-year delay of the rail transit system ("Delays a chance to consider maglev," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Sept. 19).

He is optimistic that the folks in charge are now presented with the opportunity to rethink the system and bring it into the 21st centurywith an urban magnetic levitationsystem.

Dream on. This system was available and proven in other municipalities, yet our then-mayor, Mufi Hannemann, chose tosell the residents of Oahu a heavy-rail project, which he called light rail.

The current decision-makers and managersare equally invested in a noisy system that, to date, still hasn’t been thought through. Witness the constant and costly change orders.

Rike Weiss
Niu Valley

Let other parties take crack at issues

The Democratic Party has had control of the Hawaii Legislature for more than 50 years.

Every two years at election time they promise the same things: lower taxes, lower cost of living, improved education, improved business climate, etc. They can make the same promises because the same problems remain.

Recently it was announced that Hawaii has the highest cost of living in the U.S. Our cost of living is 157 percent of the national average. We have the 29th-highest tax burden and third- highest gasoline tax and are one of the worst states in which to do business.We also have been rated as the worst place to make a living in 2014.

Those who do the same thing repeatedly expecting a different result are doomed to failure.Let someone else try and if they fail, then vote them out. But don’t take 50 years.

Maurice Nicholson
Diamond Head

Excluding Sunnis was big mistake

David Brooks’ column, "Obama’s reluctance to fight may be his greatest asset," was excellent (Star-Advertiser, Sept. 15).

He even referenced the biblical Moses from this same Middle East region as an earlier example.

However, Brooks doesn’t share enough history of the neocons (Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz).

Their policy, the indiscriminate de-Baathification of Iraq, removed Sunnis from jobs and later banned them from future employment. Small wonder that the teachers, factory workers and low-level military recruits resisted U.S. forces, joined al-Qaida and now refuse to fight ISIS (the Islamic State).

The al-Maliki Shia government, which had no inclusion of Sunnis, made a bad situation even worse.

So we now have a cautious president. Hopefully, he will have some success with building a coalition of the desperate in a historically divisive region of the world.

Jim Wolfe
Nuuanu

Soldiers driving nice vehicles, too

I agree with Kelly Brissette’s letter, "Military allowance forces rents upward" (Star-Advertiser, Sept. 9).

I have written about this to the governor, senators, representatives and the director of military housing in Washington, D.C.

I personally have a friend who rents his house to five single soldiers, all from the same unit, who drive BMWs, a Mercedes, a Lexus and huge trucks instead of carpooling, which causes another problem, given our worst traffic conditions in the nation.

I went to a neighborhood board meeting recently to listen to a military representative, but he was a no-show.

Max N. Calica
Mililani

Common Core poor in handling math

In high school in China and India, students get four years of algebra, four years of geometry, four years of trigonometry and four years of calculus, with statistics thrown in, too.

It is all integrated.

The only integration in the Common Core program in the U.S. occurs with geometry and algebra.

It doesn’t include trigono-metry, calculus or statistics. Geo- metry and algebra are integrated into ninth, 10th and 11th grades.

I do work for the state Department of Education and do have a sense of loyalty to it.But it is true.

Nandarani Evans
Makiki