Pillbox trail repair: money well spent?

Repair work to the crumbling pillboxes in Lanikai has finally begun — another example of wasted taxpayer money.

This trail has become a large problem in the neighborhood, with illegal parking, trash and rowdy hikers leaving the trail and trespassing in our neighborhood.

The trail is indeed a beautiful hike, but I think the state can spend its money better if it tore down these pillboxes and marked the trail to prevent wayward hikers who are continuously getting lost and coming through our condominium development. There is no history of note concerning the pillboxes.

Another perfect example of Ronald Reagan’s famous quote, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Carl Oettinger

Kailua

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Surge pricing OK, if you’re careful

Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s proposal to allow more surge pricing for taxis and ride-hailing services should be supported.

Surge pricing is not new and is not limited to Uber and Lyft.

Surge pricing involves charging different prices to different customers for essentially the same good or service.

Hotels do it. So do movie theaters, restaurants, universities, airlines and the electric company.

Even the City Council does it for bus fares: single-ride purchasers can pay more per ride than bus pass users.

Clearly businesses benefit from surge pricing as a way of increasing revenues. But there are consumer benefits as well. For example, Uber and Lyft customers who are willing to pay higher (surge) prices receive the benefit of more ride availability during high-demand periods.

Other Uber and Lyft customers benefit because the revenues from surge pricing allow drivers to stay available when demand is less strong.

I suggest we embrace surge pricing, but plan our travels carefully.

Jack Suyderhoud

Hawaii Kai

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Obama didn’t keep families separated

Your headline, “Family separations at border were issue for Obama as well” (Star-Advertiser, June 22) is misleading.

The Obama administration, too, detained thousands of children, often in hastily constructed cages, until they could be placed with relatives or in foster care. But these were not children they had separated from their families. In 2014, thousands of children suddenly arrived at the border from Central America unaccompanied by adults.

As in previous administrations, when family units crossed they were kept together unless the adults were subject to prosecution for drug smuggling or other crimes. The Obama administration tried detaining families indefinitely as a deterrent but that practice did not stand up in court.

Until this spring, crossing the border undocumented has been treated as a misdemeanor. When Attorney General Jeff Sessions decided instead to criminally prosecute all border-crossers, including asylum-seekers, the children “had” to be separated by force. They were then reclassified as “unaccompanied.”

Sue Cowing

Kuliouou-Kalani Iki

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Writer conflates immigration issues

Kahala Motoyama’s attempt to address the family separation component of the immigration issue conflates several of its aspects (“Families separated in Hawaii as well,” Star-Advertiser, June 24).

>> She doesn’t distinguish whether the Southeast Asian families she learned about during the 1980s entered legally or illegally.

>> Welfare fraud is generally considered a felony that often involves prison. Entering the country illegally is a misdemeanor and doesn’t involve prison. Yes, when people are imprisoned for committing a crime, the family is separated.

>> Just because people are outraged by the current illegal and unfair family separation doesn’t mean they favor one ethnic group — in this case, Hispanics and not Asians.

>> Learning about current events via various media and expressing feelings about them is not necessarily “political.” It’s simply human. Disagreement and outrage are being expressed on both sides of the political spectrum.

William Conti

Waikiki

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Time, money wasted opposing travel ban

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld and vindicated the Trump administration’s travel ban by a sweeping reaffirmation of the president’s constitutional authority. That authority was challenged unwisely by the former lobbyist and appointed state attorney general, Douglas S. Chin, in concert with federal District Judge Derrick K. Watson.

These politically motivated activists obviously are not the sharpest legal tools in the shed and should be reprimanded for expending time, effort and funds in predictably groundless litigation to the detriment of the citizens of Hawaii. This is the type of behavior that Americans reject.

Bruce Thabit

Kakaako

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Krauthammer was a gifted columnist

One of the things that gave me much intellectual pleasure for many years was reading Charles Krauthammer’s column, which appeared in the Star-Advertiser on Fridays until he went on a leave of absence.

His column, the first thing that I would read after a cursory look at the day’s headlines, always made me pause and think.

Many times I would reread a paragraph or a sentence in the column just to savor the clarity and the logic of his thought. Charles’ way of cutting through the issue of the day was deft and incisive, free of the usual unnecessary clatter and noise that many of the writers/columnists seem to suffer from.

Life ended for Charles Kraut- hammer on June 21. His death was a personal loss to me. He was my long-distance teacher on how to think, how to listen, and how to say what needs to be said. He is gone but his thinking and prose will live on.

Godspeed, Dr. Krauthammer!

Florencia Aczon Ranchez

Ewa Beach