Congress must lead climate change fight

It’s time for us to build support for the president’s climate change plan with our environmental champions in Congress.

Immigration, marriage equality and Obamacare are all important issues, but they will be mainly resolved in a few years. Climate change, however, will disrupt us for centuries — and not just Americans, but everyone and everything that lives on this planet. Hawaii may be hit harder than any other state.

Our members of Congress have good environmental records, but climate change legislation is lacking strong leaders in Washington. There are countless approaches to slowing and reversing the problem, gridlock or no.

Let it be Hawaii’s delegation that sets the pace and makes a true difference on this crucial issue.

Brodie Lockard
Kailua

Thieves are ruining Hawaii experience

Why are so many things stolen in Hawaii?

We need to use huge locks to park bikes. Even when we lock our bikes, thieves steal tires, gears, lights, etc.

I parked my bike with a tiny lock for years in Japan but never had my bike stolen. Here, it takes just five minutes to have one stolen.

My husband had the back wheel of his bike stolen in front of a grocery store. It happened in broad daylight on Saturday! Didn’t anybody think that was strange?

I hear so many stories about stealing here. People have already given up. In such an atmosphere, crimes will never disap- pear. People shouldn’t say, "That’s the way it goes," in a cool tone. Especially the police. We need to be more aggressive in taking action against small crimes such as stealing. Cutting down on small crimes will lead to a decrease in big crimes.

Toshiko Kellarney
Moiliili

Simple solutions to crosswalk deaths

Much can be done that is simple in concept to alleviate pedestrian crosswalk accidents.

» Paint wavy lines in the traffic lanes leading up to crosswalks, like they do in Britain, to warn drivers that there is a crosswalk within 100 feet.

» Install street lights that give very bright nighttime illumination to the entire crosswalk. Pedestrians are hard to see in the dark.

» Do not put crosswalks where there is not a stoplight.

» Install flashing LED lights facing oncoming traffic along the crosswalk line that can be activated by the pedestrian. Similar (though not flashing) LED lights are in the Wilson Tunnel now.

» Do not install flashing lights on the side of the road by crosswalks as they attract the driver’s attention away from the crosswalk to the side of the road.

Bob Gould
Kaneohe

Pedestrians can use tall warning flags

While at a conference in Salt Lake City with its huge boulevards, I noticedtall, skinny containers with half a dozenDayGlo pennants on 3-foot-long sticks attached to light posts.

These are to help pedestrians be more visible when crossing the street.Signs are posted suggesting the pedestrians look both ways. The pennants can be carried while crossing the street and placed in the containers on the other side of the street.

Obviously, this is not the complete answer, but the height of the flags make pedestrians more visible. They might help here on certain roads.

Donna Howard
Kalani Valley

‘Wealthy’ pay taxes on Social Security

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz proposes eliminating the $113,700 wage cap on Social Security tax payments because it "unfairly shelters the highest earning Americans from paying into Social Security as the majority of hardworking Americans do" ("Making wealthy pay more would allow Social Security to expand benefits," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Aug. 11).

Ignoring the erroneous implication that "wealthy" wage earners don’t currently pay Social Security tax — they do — enacting this proposal would immediately add 12.4 percent to the taxes already paid by millions of small businesses and self-employed middle-class taxpayers, resulting in the single largest tax increase in American history, and make the president’s restoration of Clinton-era tax increases seem trivial by comparison.

However Schatz defines "wealthy," this legislation will go far to ensuring there are none left in Hawaii.Schatz need look no further than the Eurozone to see how well this approach to tax policy is working.

David L. Mulliken
Diamond Head

Koolauloa shouldn’t become urbanized

I am raising my voice to anyone who will listen to help stop the massive development of Koolauloa.

The urbanization plan does not have the full support of all the towns in Koolauloa, including Waiahole, Waikane, Kaaawa, Kahana, Punaluu, Hauula, Kahuku and Sunset Beach.

Yes, kanaka maolineed homes, jobs and the ability to provide for our ohana, but not by sacrificing our kuleana, our aina, aumakua and keiki, who deserve to live in what little of Hawaii we have left.

Koolauloa and its resources — watershed, farmland, freshwater streams and ocean — provide true opportunities for sustainability. Restoration and conservation of Koolauloa, including preservation of our dozens of known and hundreds of unknown cultural sites, is our kuleana.

Our country way of life is afforded to us by the absence of major development. We do not want Malaekahana to become Mililani; we do not want Hauula to become like Honolulu. We want to make sure that "the life of our land is perpetuated in righteousness."

Joshua Noga
Hauula