I was disappointed in the response to Sunday’s Big Q question, “Do you agree with a judge that more care/steps must be taken with homeless people’s property during street sweeps?”

Apparently only 25 percent of the people responding are familiar with the 4th Amendment of the Constitution, which states in part: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.”

An even bigger disappointment are the actions of the mayor and the majority of the City Council, who have no compunction about abrogating those rights in the name of political expediency.

U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor got it right and once again Honolulu taxpayers end up footing the bill for their mistakes.

Steve Miller
Makiki

U.S. bears blame for refugee crisis

I welcome the principled stand by Gov. David Ige — and Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee — on keeping the door open for Syrian refugees.

However, despite that courageous stand, I still find it disappointing that so many of our public officials — along with the mainstream media — fail to see the direct connection between the Mideast chaos and violence and the principal role played by the U.S. and its Western allies in years of military interventions and armed support for the many jihadist groups that are fomenting the violence.

Had it not been the American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan (plus the U.S.-induced violence in Libya, Syria and, most recently, Yemen), the level of internal strife and conflict would never have approached the extremist destabilizations that we see today.

So why does the West refuse to treat the root cause — Western imperial interventions — for the terrorist violence?

Danny H.C. Li
Keaau, Hawaii island

Muslim database not like Holocaust

I am writing to criticize the cartoon shown in the Nov. 21 Star-Advertiser Views & Voices section.

It depicts figures with six pointed yellow stars affixed to their chests. The cartoon suggests there is some sort of moral equivalency between the Holocaust and an idea to register U.S. Muslims in a database.

To equate the murder of 6 million defenseless and guiltless Jews to the present radical Islam threat to the domestic safety and security of our citizens is not only incomprehensible, it is an affront to humanity.

I take no position on the registration issue here. I do, however, raise it as an example of the inadequacy and malice of the cartoon.

Mathew R. Sgan
Nuuanu

Terrorists want us to be terrified

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan wants to stop accepting Syrian refugees to this country, fearing that some terrorists might infiltrate the group.

Doesn’t everyone know by now that terrorists deal exactly in terror? That’s all they have. They want to put fear in our hearts.

So if we let fear override compassion, the terrorists have won the day. (Also, our compassion must have been thin to begin with.)

Some in these pages have said we shouldn’t let refugees into this state because they will be a big problem.

Good grief, Charlie Brown! Are we no longer able to solve problems?

Michael Stroup
Waimanalo

Rail opponents fiscally sensible

The letter entitled “Rail budget excesses were to be expected” (Star-Advertiser, Letters, Nov. 21), implies that to have anticipated anything else is naive because of cost overruns on projects in Boston, San Francisco and New York City.

Massachusetts has a population of 6.7 million people, California has 38 million and New York City alone has 8 million people. Hawaii has only 1.4 million residents in the entire state to carry the load.

The rail started out at $3 billion, is now almost $7 billion, and hasn’t even started doing downtown yet.

Naive? Maybe the term should be fiscally responsible. Hawaii is already the most expensive place to live, and to expect the taxpayers to continue increasing their payments to this poorly planned project will drive more kamaaina to the poorhouse.

Pay off the government, take charge of planning, and redo the project into something we can afford, like stopping it at Aloha Stadium or Middle Street.

Ted Kanemori
Kaneohe

Finish rail, make tax permanent

Thanks to state House Speaker Joe Souki for his words of wisdom on the rail (“It’s getting curiouser and curiouser at Honolulu Hale,” Star-Advertiser, On Politics, Nov. 22).

Honolulu Hale does need to wake up; we voted for an almost complete system, East Kapolei to Ala Moana. It is a start on the more complete system that would run from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, through the dense apartment areas of Moiliili, to West Kapolei.

The 0.5 percent general excise tax surcharge is in line with transit taxes in other parts of the United States. Let’s make the 0.5 percent tax permanent and finish the system.

Daniel C. Smith
Palolo Valley

Blaisdell concert barely half full

To see the front of the Blaisdell Concert Hall lit up in blue, white and red in support of the citizens of Paris was moving and inspiring.

The same could be said of Saturday evening’s performance by the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra.

The concert followed a Friday performance of works by Beethoven and Dvorák to a full house at The Kauai Community College Performing Arts Center. It was HSO’s first-ever visit to Kauai.

It was disappointing to see the Blaisdell barely half full on Saturday. Hawaii is lucky to have an orchestra able to attract guest artists in demand on the world’s greatest stages, those of Paris included.

The performance by the HSO lit up the inside of the Blaisdell. It deserved a far larger Honolulu audience.

Paul Migliorato
Makiki

PUC ruling gives push to batteries

Did the state Public Utilities Commission unwittingly instigate mass grid defection?

Our PUC has chastised Hawaiian Electric Co. for dragging its feet when it comes to solar. But its hasty elimination of net metering is worse for new solar customers than HECO’s notorious record of delays and proposed fees.

The PUC’s shortsighted idea to eliminate net metering is like regulators telling a telecom provider to stop interfering with a consumer’s ability to get a cellphone, and then declaring anyone who gets a cellphone must pay extra to have a landline. It seems like we would all just ditch our landlines.

The PUC’s replacement policy undermines a resident’s solar investment and neglects the benefits they could bring to the grid. To mitigate the PUC’s decision, batteries become a very attractive path forward.

The PUC can choose to help utilities work with solar, or people will choose to leave them in the dust along with their corded phones.

Eric Toulon
Kalaheo, Kauai