TRAFFIC

FORT WEAVER ROAD NEEDS ATTENTION NOW

The traffic congestion in 'Ewa Beach on Fort Weaver Road gets worse every day. It often takes 45 minutes to travel home down Fort Weaver from the H-1 Freeway in the evening, even at 7 p.m.

While we wait for continued road-widening projects to "alleviate" the traffic situation, why not use existing and proven methods of temporarily increasing road capacity using shoulder lanes and/or contra-flow lanes?

These methods would reap huge, immediate benefits, with little cost or disruption to commuters.

Why can't the city at least investigate these options to improve traffic flow immediately?

REGULAR PEOPLE

MEET THE HOUSELESS BEFORE JUDGING THEM

Before passing judgment, everyone should go to Honolulu Hale and meet the people who are houseless. I did and I learned a lot.

To my surprise, most of the people I met there have jobs and pay taxes. They are regular people, with kids and bills, who have fallen on truly hard times.

The standard rhetoric about pulling yourself up by the bootstraps is completely irrelevant to them because they live in a society where no bootstrap is strong enough to pull them out of these horrible predicaments.

The houseless crisis proves one thing: We must change the way we do things. We need to seriously re-evaluate our priorities.

A good start: actually caring more about the people in our community and less about the division between "mine" and "yours." Who cares if they have or have not paid taxes? These are human beings — children, grandparents, working parents — people who deserve respect. Complaining about their hunger interfering with your beach experience is not respect.

Next, we need to get over our obsession with serving up Hawai'i as a luxury tourist destination. Faking like we're paradise has pushed the cost of living to an absurdity and driven hard-working, caring families out on the street.

We need to freeze all luxury developments, at least until we have enough affordable housing for every person who needs it. That includes people who have to choose between paying bills or rent each month, people who have to live with their family or friends because rent is too high, and the 6,000 people who passed that point long ago and now have no house to live in.

TWO-WAY STREET

GIVE CREDIT TO HPD FOR HOSTING HOMELESS

Mahalo to the Honolulu Police Department for allowing the homeless to seek temporary shelter at Sister Roberta's Park. Sister Roberta must be smiling since this illustrates the humane side of the Police Department.

There will be some inconvenience, frustration and other problems, but this is an opportunity for the officers and civilians of the Police Department to serve the homeless.

On the other hand, the homeless will have an opportunity to reconfirm that they are decent, law-abiding citizens who are temporarily without economic resources. The homeless can demonstrate their mahalo by keeping the area clean and sanitary and by not interfering with the normal activities of the public and Police Department.

Think of the impact this gesture of aloha will have on the children. They will feel that they can be next to an officer and not feel afraid or feel the need to run and hide.

RAINFALL

WARNINGS IGNORED

Hawai'i endured more than 40 days and 40 nights of rain and catastrophic flooding. Thunder crashes about me as I write. No one here has built an ark, but scientists say that like the Great Flood of the Bible, mankind has brought this on itself. Scientists also tell us what to do to save ourselves. As in biblical times, few listen.

RIVERS OF WATER

1958 RAINSTORM WAS FAR WORSE THAN RECENT ONE

I hear "long-time residents" saying March 31 was the worst storm they ever saw in Hawai'i. Am I the only one who remembers March 5, 1958, when O'ahu received 17 1/2 inches of rain in 24 hours?

It's taken a biblical 40 days and 40 nights of downpour to surpass that volume. The storm drains were so overloaded there were geysers shooting up through the sidewalks, and the streets downtown were curb-to-curb rivers of water.

POINT OF PRIDE

U.S. LENDS STRENGTH TO MANY NATIONS' FIGHTS

In response to Joseph Kaleo'onalani Aikala's March 31 letter titled "Overthrow," I would like to say that I am in full agreement that Kamehameha I should not be on the state quarter.

However, I would like to take it a step further and say that Queen Lili'uokalani should not be the one to grace the currency of our great country. Rather it should be Grover Cleveland, who was the president who conquered this "sovereign" nation: a nation that would have been helpless to prevent an "overthrow" or "invasion" by any country.

I would also like to remind Mr. Aikala that it was Uncle Sam's "Might makes right" attitude that put a stop to Adolf Hitler's plans of mass racial genocide, a plan that native Hawaiians would have undoubtedly fallen victim to.

It was the "our way or the highway" thinking that prevented communist North Korea from invading its peaceful neighbor and our "you're either with U.S. or against U.S." mentality that ended Saddam Hussein's bloodthirsty attacks on Kuwait that killed thousands of women and children.

Many brave Hawaiians have fought and died to defend the American values that you spit on with sarcasm. Shame on you for letting your pride cast a shadow over the memory of our fallen heroes. God bless America.