Donate your extra cash to someone in need

In 2009, Hawaii’s poverty rate rose to 12.5 percent and 156,000 people were living in poverty. Nationally, poverty rates are also rising, to 43.6 million Americans, which means more people are becoming homeless, statewide and nationally.

As citizens of Hawaii, we must understand that if we want Hawaii to be successful, we all must help each other. As individuals, we can’t necessarily reduce homeless and poverty rates, but we can help others going through hard times. There are organizations you can donate to this Christmas season, like River of Life or the Hawaii Foodbank, that support our struggling brothers and sisters.

Donating extra cash to help those in need goes a long way. Helping these people is simple and crucial for Hawaii to stop the effects of poverty, and it all starts with giving a few dollars to someone who will need it more than you do.

Homeless are abusing our sense of decency

How far are we going to allow the homeless to push us? They are taking over our streets, our parks and our sense of decency.

When in daylight hours you witness, as I did, sticking out of one of these tarp-enclosed shelters, a female leg entwined around a male leg, naked, mid-thigh down, must we pass them by and pretend we didn’t have any reaction?

I am fed up. The decent, law-abiding, responsible people of our city need some help, and some reassurance that they will not be exposed to such trash while taking a simple walk along city streets.

It is time to take a stand. I respectfully demand the City Council tackle this dilemma, and stay on it until we can once again claim our city sidewalks and parks as safe haven.

Honolulu can’t afford BART-style rail system

I have ridden the BART system from Concord to San Francisco many times and recognize it as a great people mover in a highly congested area of California. BART has extended service in all directions covering many miles.

How can we compare a system like that to what will be a 20-mile ride on this small island costing billions of dollars ("Rail debate sounds familiar," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Dec. 9)?

How do the experts expect a population of less than a million to sustain this billion-dollar train? Go figger!

Speed traps do not improve traffic safety

I think the Honolulu Police Department should spend less time trying to catch people speeding where the speed limit drops and most people don’t notice. It’s almost like a speed trap and doesn’t really teach or help anyone.

Why not spend more time ticketing people cruising in the left (passing) lane, especially on the freeway, or not using a blinker? Things like that cause unnecessary traffic, which is already bad enough here, or cause fender benders.

A lot of traffic violations are due to complacency or not knowing the rules of the road. I think it would be best to implement at least a written test to renew a driver’s license. I bet most people haven’t even looked in the driver’s manual since they initially got their licenses.

Birthers could help raise money for state

In an interview, Baltimore Orioles slugger Luke Scott has placed himself squarely in the birther camp — those sad, unwitting racists who are convinced that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

Despite the efforts made by the great state of Hawaii to accommodate the demands of citizens like Scott, brainwashed skeptics are not and will not be satisfied until they see the original.

So here is my modest proposal for the state of Hawaii: Place the original birth certificate in a protected, glass-enclosed display. Charge a fee to view it. Use the revenues to support a memorial library in the name of Hawaii’s famous son, and dedicate the memorial to tolerance and understanding.

Such a dedication will be a suitable reminder to posterity of these times when intolerance and ignorance almost destroyed our country.