Use fewer or no plastic bags

People should cut down the use of plastic bags! Each plastic bag affects the environment. It takes more than 100 years for one plastic bag to disintegrate. The endangered green sea turtle might eat the plastic bag mistaking it for a jellyfish, and it might cause it to die.

I remember when I was shopping with my mother, a cashier carelessly double-bagged a lot of things. I thought it was a waste. In Japan it costs 5 cents per plastic bag in stores. We should use this idea because more people will start to rethink using plastic bags and paying money. People might start to reuse bags and bring cloth bags from home to the supermarket. Then everybody would help the environment.

Hawaii is great, but for the trash

Lucky we live Hawaii — no oil spill here!

Well, maybe you haven’t noticed lately, but we have our own environmental issues. Just look around you on the ground, in the bushes, in the gutters, in our oceans, in our tide pools. What do you see? Beer bottles, water bottles and caps, cigarette filters, snack trash — trash of every description. How much of Hawaii’s beauty do residents want to lose before they take action?

A tax increase just went into effect on cigarette purchases as a way to help the budget. As a product that ends up in our oceans and on our beaches and streets, shouldn’t some of this new money be used to help reduce trash and clean up the environment?

Why not also increase bottle/can deposits? It may not add up to BP’s $20 billion, but, realistically, shouldn’t a percentage of taxes and fees collected from products that negatively affect our environment be used to support programs and enforcement for our fragile environment?

Please register to run for office

Incumbents are in jeopardy because of constituent dissatisfaction; however, we have noticed that there is also a shortage of political candidates for numerous state of Hawaii elected positions such as senator and representative.

If you have considered running for political office, now is the time to apply. If you are or were a member of any Neighborhood Board, director on any non-profit or even for-profit agency, or held any similar position, then you are qualified to apply to run for senator or representative in your district, provided you meet the other eligibility criteria such as U.S. citizenship and the minimum age.

Rail project will put many to work

I’m an unemployed construction worker. I’ve been on the bench for months, and it’s killing me. I’m qualified and ready to begin building the Honolulu rail transit. For me to do that, Gov. Linda Lingle has to agree that the rail project is ready to go. She says she wants to generate jobs. This is her chance to prove it.

Put me back to work, governor. It all depends on you.

Afghanistan war needs to stop

The war in Afghanistan is immoral and is destroying our economy and ruining our reputation around the world.

There is no beneficial national security interest for our military occupying so many countries in the Middle East. These occupations just makes us more unsafe by breeding hatred and revenge for America’s military arrogance around the world.

Our own military estimates there are less than 100 al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. That means we are spending $1 billion chasing each one of these phantoms, and just making more enemies in the process.

Further, Gen. Stanley McChrystal stated that we are killing too many innocent civilians in Afghanistan.

For God’s sake, end the military occupation of Afghanistan now.

Finance bill vote should be put off

There has been plenty said by various members of Congress about predatory lending activities, including small print and hidden costs, practiced by big businesses, so I was very surprised last week to learn that congressional Democrats and the White House reached agreement on a new 2,000-page financial regulation bill.

More important, although really not so surprising, was when Sen. Chris Dodd admitted, "No one will know until this is actually in place how it works." He also crowed, "This is about as important as it gets, because it deals with every single aspect of our lives."

It would be prudent to vote nay on this legislation until it has been determined how it will work, what are the associated costs and if there are any unintended consequences that may come up.