TRAFFIC SAFETY

PEDESTRIAN CARED LITTLE ABOUT CROSSING RULES

Recently when I was walking along Kuhio and had stopped at a light to wait for it change, I noticed a taxi waiting to go the other way.

The light and walk sign both turned green, I stepped off the curb and the taxi started to roll forward. As it did, I saw a woman running across Kuhio from the other side, angling toward the crosswalk from slightly behind the taxi driver.

For an instant, I feared I was about to witness a sad and ugly scene, but the driver noticed her and braked.

She ran in front of his cab, stopped, put her hands on her hips and glared at him.

Then, she turned and strolled over to the sidewalk. I walked past her, incredulous, and couldn't help but say, "If you run in front of them, you might get run over."

She quickly shot back, "I was in the crosswalk, fool!" And so she was.

TICKETING JAYWALKERS JUST AN ABSURD EXERCISE

Our thinly stretched police have far more important crime-fighting duties to attend to than monitoring city streets for jaywalkers.

The egregious fines have become an unexpected windfall for the city, while penalizing our citizens and inconveniencing them as they try to conduct their daily business in an expeditious manner.

It is frustrating in the Downtown business district to waste time walking an additional 50 yards back and forth to the nearest crosswalk when one could cross the street in a straight line from one building to another during a lull in the traffic.

Ticketing jaywalkers is even more absurd when you consider the two people hit by cars in the past week were both in crosswalks, as have been several others.

Enough. We are being over-regulated.

BUSH

PRAISING SANCTITY OF LIFE WHILE PUSHING WAR

A recent New York Times article quoted President Bush as saying that the Supreme Court decision on abortion would preserve the "sanctity of life."

The decision to have an abortion is always a "lesser of two evils" decision. Whether it is to preserve the life or health of the mother, to save a genetically deformed child from a lifetime of sorrow, or because the mother (often a young, single mother) is emotionally, physically or financially unable to raise a child for the next 18 years, it may be deemed by the mother and her physician to be a lesser evil to end the pregnancy.

Doesn't it seem incredible to you that the president wants to preserve the sanctity of life of the unborn, but at the same time he continues to send our military personnel to Iraq to kill and be killed in a disastrous and unnecessary war?

We have already lost some 3,300, and many more have been grievously wounded. And the Iraqis have lost tens of thousands of their citizens.

Our government has decided it has the right to interfere with a woman's right to choose, as well as to interfere with the lives of millions of innocent Iraqis.

IMPEACHMENT

BUSH AND CHENEY HAVE VIOLATED THEIR OATHS

Congress passed legislation to stop the Iraq war after listening to Americans who said they want the troops to come home.

But it appears that President Bush has his sights set on the lucrative oil profit-sharing agreements that major oil companies will lose if U.S. troops aren't there to protect them.

If Bush won't go along with the majority, Congress should take a hard look at impeachment. Both President Bush and Vice President Cheney have violated their oaths to defend the Constitution and have done great harm to this democracy.

President Harry Truman said if you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen. Apparently, while cooking prewar intelligence, Bush and Cheney got too close to the fire and burned their integrity so badly that they've had great difficulty thinking effectively or speaking honestly.

To help them recuperate, they should get lots of rest, brought on by impeachment.

'WAR IS LOST'

SENATORS MUST DEMAND THAT REID STEP DOWN

Please join me in asking our U.S. senators to demand that Sen. Harry Reid step down from his Senate majority leader position.

He has damaged our country and our troops with his "the war is lost" comment.

He has no right to be in the Senate, never mind being majority leader.

He is a disgrace to his country, his state and his party.

ROADWAY OUTBURST

NOT EVERY NEGATIVE ENCOUNTER IS RACISM

As a transplant living in Hawai'i for 20 years, I can't muster up any sympathy or empathy for Michael Sullivan's letter to the editor on April 28, published under the heading of "Racism."

The incident, as recounted, sounds like road rage and not racism. A couple of things: I have to question the author's own road manners while attempting to merge into traffic; and, secondly, the outburst by the other driver has more to do with his coping skills as a member of the community than Mr Sullivan's ethnicity.

Racism is a pretty strong allegation, and there is no point in looking for it where it doesn't exist.

As to what Mr. Sullivan should tell his 3 year-old son, he might begin by saying that not every negative encounter involving different races is an act of racism.

A moment as described by Mr. Sullivan happens infrequently, and I'm sure that the vast majority of our daily encounters are positive.

SUSTAINABILITY

SYSTEMS AVAILABLE TO CUT WATER USE, SEWAGE

The city is ready to spend more than $300 million on sewer projects. What effort is being made to reduce the sewage that we produce and treat through the sewage plant?

The city and state should provide incentives to residences and businesses to use use technology to reduce sewage and mandate that government offices and facilities (like the parks, schools, universities, stadiums, airports, etc) employ all possible means to reduce sewage.

Waterless urinals, as used in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will reduce sewage (and water bills) by 20,000 to 40,000 gallons a year per urinal. Many cities have large dollar incentives to use waterless urinals.

All residences can reduce sewage (and water bills) by 30 percent by using BRAC systems, which treat water used for showering and washing clothes, and use the treated water for flushing the toilets.

Not only would this reduce the sewage problem, it would also help us reduce water usage.

Let us give the managers assigned to work on sustainability in the government organizations the power to make changes, and hold them accountable if they do not show results.

IRAQ WAR

CIVILIANS CAN HELP BY REDUCING ENERGY USE

I think everyone "supports the troops" in Iraq — whether one wants them to come home or stay and "finish" the job in some sense of the word.

I also think there are many more tangible and productive things all civilians — whether liberal, conservative, independent or apolitical — can do rather than simply trying to argue for or against the war and demonizing those who disagree.

For example, to the extent the war in Iraq is about oil, there are easy things civilians can do: