Isn’t it obvious what’s going on with the overtime situation at the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility (“Staff racks up $1M-plus in overtime,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 14)?

For guards to be earning $93,000 as their base pay, they have to be senior employees nearing retirement age. Overtime pay is a great way to pad retirement benefits.

Typically, retirees with more than 25 years of service get 50 percent to 60 percent of their salary upon retiring. Earning an additional $40,000 more in overtime will add an additional $20,000 to $24,000 annually to their retirement for the remainder of their lives.

Collectively, these four guards could possibly earn $100,000 more a year and $1 million over 10 years, with us taxpayers footing the bill.

My personal opinion is this is a common practice among government employees who retire from positions where overtime is easily granted.

Steve Chang

Honolulu

We need to stop treating each other like enemies

In response to “Republicans end up smearing themselves” (Star-Advertiser, Letters, Jan. 18): If I changed the words from Republican to Democrat, it would be a Republican writing the letter.

If voters were more involved with the issues and not party followers repeating the party rhetoric, we would have a more robust conversation.

Republicans love their country. They do not want to throw grandma over the cliff or have dirty air and water.

They are not the enemy; they are your neighbors.

We must stop the hatred and divisiveness. We are all Americans.

Donald Harlor

Ewa Beach

Motorcycle noise giving Hawaii a big black eye

What is wrong with a person who, in the middle of the night, drives his straight-pipe motorcycle, belching pollution and ear-splitting exhaust noise, down Nimitz Highway at head-spinning speeds, awakening thousands who are due to work in a few hours?

Can you say “psychopath”?

Recently, I received a letter from a couple in Oslo who had just visited me here. They said they would never return to Hawaii due to the motorcycle noise, which they described as “the most outrageous example of the tolerance of lawlessness of any civilized city, anywhere.”

These motorcycles are giving us an international black eye.

Ken Cannon

Chinatown

How can U.N. succeed where Truman failed?

As a former U.S. rifleman combatant in the Korean War in 1951, I read with great interest my Tantalus neighbor’s letter to the editor (“Daring N. Korea wrong approach,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 13). He proposed a “U.N. settlement conference engaging all former combatants.”

How is this possible to solve the problem when President Harry Truman failed?

Richard H. Fujihara

Manoa

We in Hawaii should take care of each other

We are so lucky to live in Hawaii, but we have to remember we are on islands. There is not unlimited room for agriculture, plus houses, plus cars.

We need to put a cap on the number of cars allowed on each island. We need to keep good land for raising food. We need to conserve our water.

Out here in the middle of ocean, we need to take care of each other.

Mary Moore

Kailua