Higher gas price can have upside

We whine about the new higher gasoline prices. Yet one of the reasons the U.S. is able to contribute much more than our share of greenhouse gas and ocean acidification is that we have the lowest gasoline prices of any net oil importing nation. Here are examples of retail premium gas prices (U.S. dollars per gallon as of March 21 from the U.S. Energy Information Administration:

Netherlands, $8.70; Germany, $8.57; United Kingdom, Italy $8.22; Belgium, $8.20; France, $8.06; U.S., $3.81.

We seem unable to break our addiction to the comforts and convenience brought by cheap gasoline. Maybe higher gas prices will help us decide to break this addiction and move up to a more responsible use of this limited and damaging energy source.

John M Flanigan
Kaneohe

Overspending is the real problem

The headline in Monday’s paper said, "Fiscal woes hobble school reform plans" (Star-Advertiser, March 28). Just once I’d like to see the headline read, "Lack of spending restraint hobbles school reform plans."

Claire Dauer
Honolulu

Property tax idea seems backward

I believe Mayor Peter Carlisle has the property tax increase/decrease backward.

Shouldn’t the owners who live in their homes see a drop in taxes and those who own a house and use it for profit see an increase in taxes?

The way the mayor wants it, the homeowner who buys a home to raise his or her family is being punished.

Charles Mahoe
Mililani

Require drivers to have insurance

There is a huge loophole on our roads today.

People will purchase insurance, get the card and then drop coverage and get their money back.

I was hit by such an individual who acted very concerned at the scene and then provided a bogus insurance card while I was being loaded into the ambulance.

Guess whose insurance must cover? Guess who now has to pay a deductible? And I was sitting still when hit!

There is currently no way for police to verify coverage. Can we not legislate that insurance once purchased is not refundable?

Is there no solution to this illegal problem?

Vince Krog
Honolulu

City cannot live beyond its means

Didn’t your mother ever tell you, "If you cannot afford it, you have to do without it"? Common household sense. You cannot live beyond your means. That’s why our city is in a mess, our state is in a mess and the whole country is in a mess. And we’ll never get out of it.

What causes the absurd thinking that we’ll have the money to pay for the bonds when they are due? We will never have it, especially with the profligate spending by our city government. In the meantime, we will have to pay interest on top of that.

Wise up, it is still possible. Make some improvements to the bus system, do hot lanes, fix the roads, fix the sewers, get off the train, write off the spent millions to bad judgment and get on with life.

Thomas Gambino
Kailua

Medical pot being abused

While in Los Angeles in January, my husband and I went to Venice Beach, and couldn’t walk 20 feet without being solicited to go see a so-called doctor for a medical marijuana prescription.

It’s one thing to have marijuana available for specific medical purposes. It’s another issue to use medicine as an excuse for legalizing and distributing marijuana.

For those who think marijuana should be legalized, fight for your cause, but don’t stand behind medicine. There’s a place for it in the medical field and that’s where I believe it should stay, locked up with all the other highly regulated drugs, not on the street where the smell of so-called medical marijuana lingers for all passers-by.

Eve Ikeda
Honolulu

‘Drug expert’ just a prohibitionist?

Is Calvina Fay a drug policy expert or simply a cannabis (marijuana) prohibitionist ("Pot dispensaries are camel’s nose in tent," Star-Advertiser, Letters, March 27)? As a Colorado resident who supported legalizing cannabis for sick citizens, my observation is very different. Dispensaries being "tied to organized crime gangs" is a false claim. Dispensaries are legitimate businesses that have contributed millions of much-needed dollars in tax money.

More than 50 percent of Colorado residents continue to support medical use of cannabis. In fact, roughly 50 percent of Colorado voters support completely legalizing the relatively safe, extremely popular, God-given plant. In November 2012, we’ll know if it’s more than 50 percent.

Fay doesn’t speak for Coloradoans and I suspect she doesn’t speak for compassionate Hawaii citizens either.

Stan White
Dillon, Colo.

The Lemon Law and rail cars

After reading Gene Park’s article regarding the spotty record of AnsaldoBreda, the city’s choice to provide rail cars ("Rail car maker’s record spotty," Star-Advertiser, March 23), I must ask Mayor Peter Carlisle one important question: Does Hawaii’s Lemon Law cover rail cars? AnsaldoBreda appears to be a foolish choice. Let’s hope it’s not the first of many.

Barbara Krasniewski
Kailua