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Don’t be fooled into single-payer system
It comes as no shock to read that a single-payer system for health insurance is starting to be pushed ("Governor favors single-payer health care," Star-Advertiser, March 9), nor that once the Affordable Care Act was implemented, the Congressional Budget Office discovered that a percentage of people paying for insurance would leave the workplace to qualify for subsidies, thereby shrinking the pool of contributors and raising the premiums.
From the beginning of the debate, single payer was seen as the end game, and encouragement of parasitic relationships has always been the downfall of socialized programs.
The real shocker is the logic used. Those who rammed this legislation down our throats with prevarications of lowered premiums and uninterrupted services have now discovered they can’t manage what they’ve created.
Their solution: Just turn it all over to them and they’ll handle everybody’s health insurance.
No thanks. They slipped the last one past us. This time say no.
Joseph Ronin
McCully
Time to resurrect the Superferry
With the absence of go!Airlines,it is time to resurrect the Superferry.There must be an alternative to Hawaiian Airlines.
Larry Brown
Pawaa
Condotels don’t offer clients aloha
Regarding Oahu’s condominium conversions and with respect to all involved parties, I believe there is an item of critical importance not being discussed ("Weigh impact of new ‘condotels’," Star-Advertiser, Our View, March 14).
The issue is not jobs versus private property rights, but aloha. Aloha is what distinguishes our tourism industry from others and makes us unique and a great spot for a vacation.
When a tourist "rents" a unit from a private owner in a hotel environment, they will expect service from that hotel’s staff — service they are not paying for. When refused service, they will not feel the aloha we are selling.
Another country will offer the same lush beaches, luxurious hotels and exotic amenities and take our business away because it is cheaper — cheaper even than private units.
Will tourists return?
This is just a short-term moneymaker for faceless Wall Street companies who never witness the human suffering they cause.
Joseph T. Bussen
Kailua
Child abuse needs more attention
The Star-Advertiser excelled in reporting on the trial of Talia Williams’ killers ("Court hears of girl’s savage beatings," Star-Advertiser, March 15).
Despite the front-page headline, which smacked of sensationalism, I was appalled by the details of what Talia experienced.
One of the accused testified that when the child fell to the floor from being beaten, she "continued stomping on her until it felt like a bone cracked under my foot."
Evil, evil.
Our community, including government, manages public safety, building infrastructure, human services, economic climate, education and recreation. I wonder how diligent we are in considering where to distribute resources, in light of sociopathic adults inflicting suffering on a 4-year-old girl until her death in her fifth year.
Clifford Lum
Kapahulu
Judges too lenient on property crimes
Bill Muench was right on in his assessment of our society’s failure to punish repeat property criminals ("It’s more costly to not build prison," Star-Advertiser, Letters, March 27).
Criminals who pass through the revolving door — committing a crime, being convicted, being put on probation, repeat — are taught every day that their career choice was a good one.Who can blame them?
Instead, we need to teach criminals that property crime is not acceptable and that there will be consequences for committing these crimes.
To accomplish this, we will need an overhaul of our judicial system.
A large part of this overhaul will be the replacement of lenient judges with ones who prioritize the public interest above the felon’s.
William P. Leary
Kaneohe
Make all officials take student tests
I’m a Honolulu resident temporarily working in Kansas City, and consequently subjected to mass media political ads (another lucky-we-live-Hawaii item).
Among them are the "this-or-that-idea will doom the republic" educational issue ads.
It occurs to me, that in this election cycle it would be interesting to see our education professionals — and I include legislators, since they make funding decisions that can affectpublic education — volunteer to take the standardized tests our students take,and then voluntarily publish their scores.
And to sweeten the offer, I will request that a few feature writers at our newspaper take the tests, publish their results and write a story about that.
Brian Bott
Kakaako
Mopeds one source of noise pollution
Mahalo to David Vornholt ("Mopeds somehow evading noise rules," Star-Advertiser, Letters, March 27).
We echo his sentiments from our equally noisy neighborhood, and would add motorcycles and motor vehicles to the list of polluters.
Honolulu’s unwillingness to engage vehicle noise polluters and call them to accountis well documented in the City Council hearings record.
To my knowledge only the city Department of Parks and Recreation is equipped with portable measuring devices to enforce noise pollution standards.
Dennis Egge
Salt Lake
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