Congratulations to reporter Rob Perez for the “Justice Delayed” series (Star-Advertiser, June 17-19).

MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) would like to insert a positive note not mentioned: the effect of the in-car Breathalyzer (ignition interlock).

Well before appearing in court to face DUI charges, accused drivers can have their license revoked administratively. To continue driving legally, they must install an interlock device in their vehicles. Their car won’t start if the device detects more than a trace of alcohol on the driver’s breath.

Since becoming law in 2011, almost 90,000 attempts to drive have been foiled by ignition interlock devices statewide — and countless drunken driving episodes, crashes and heartbreaking tragedies avoided.

However, in addition, we desperately need more district court judges on Oahu to end the disturbing courtroom delays Perez describes. Justice must be swift and certain to be effective.

Arkie Koehl

Mothers Against Drunk Driving Hawaii

Makiki

—

Hard to watch U.S. torture kids

My heart breaks as I listen to crying children on CNN.

We were a country that accepted the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Now we are a country that rips an infant nursing at her mother’s breast from her arms.

These people are coming here out of desperation. They are coming here because we are the most successful and previously the most welcoming nation on Earth. We are a country of immigrants and the statistics of their success here is staggering.

I am patriotic, but now I am embarrassed to be an American. Do we need to protect our borders? Yes. Do we do it by ripping children from the arms of their parents? No.

I don’t know the answer to how we can accomplish this. All I know is that I cannot tolerate watching as we torture children.

Nancy Grekin

Makiki

—

Children aren’t bargaining chips

The latest outrage from the Trump administration is the separation of children from their parents when their families are detained at the U.S.-Mexican border. To see children kept in cages is beyond wrong, but it is only one more layer in a poisonous cake we are asked to swallow.

The cruelest, most intolerable action is the use of these detained children as a bargaining chip for the president to get his version of an immigration bill passed. When did building a wall become more important than the lives of children?

Why are so many Republican members of Congress silent on this? They seem to have forgotten that they represent constituencies that still have a sense of decency and moral rightness.

It might take the women of this country to change the terrifying direction our executive branch is steering us. More women, mothers in particular, understand that the treatment of children has a universal emotional and ethical core that transcends politics or geographic boundaries.

Glenn Kondo

Kualapuu, Molokai

—

Speak out against hatred and lies

First they came for the Mexicans and I said nothing. Then they came for the Muslims and I said nothing. Next they came for the blacks and I said nothing. Now they come for the children.

What will I do when the knock comes on my door? Meekly follow their orders because this makes America Great Again? Because the Bible tells me so?

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. We have all seen this story before. We know how it ends. It is past time for people to awaken to the reality facing us. Stand up and speak out against hatred, divisiveness and lies.

Chris Gray

Downtown Honolulu

—

Right way to say Halemaumau

My ears have been tortured by television news folks mispronouncing the word Halemaumau.

The au in Hawaiian words is a diphthong, meant to be pronounced with one sound, not divided as they’ve been doing. We don’t say, hei‘a‘u, we say hei‘au; we don’t say a‘u‘we, we say auwe; we don’t say Kea‘u‘hou, we say Ke-au-hou.

What if we pronounced Waikiki as Wa-iki-iki, or Kailua as Ka‘i-lua. Even the person who gives the thrice-a- day briefings on Kilauea pronounces Halemaumau correctly. Speaking of Kilauea, it’s not Kil-a‘u-ea either.

I have consulted with a Hawaiian practitioner in Kona, and it hurts his ears as well.

Bob Gillchrest

Pawa‘a

—

Japan’s royalty showed aloha

How refreshing to see Japanese Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko wearing local attire during their Oahu visit (“Japanese royal couple makes rounds starting with cultural center,” Star-Advertiser, June 6).

Hawaii-born Barack Obama and wife Michelle never bothered in their visits here. Who demonstrated more aloha spirit?

Diane Gibbons

Makiki