Do something for Planet Earth

April 22 is a day designated for every person to do something that shows care for our planet. It takes only a moment to recall what you’ve heard, read about and personally seen to realize how much we take the resources and beauty of our planet for granted.

Every person can do something on Earth Day. You can participate in a beach cleanup, drive less, invest in solar energy, dispose of trash in the trash can, improve your environmental awareness, recycle and e-cycle, support local agriculture, educate your family, friends and colleagues about how to take care of the environment, buy and use fewer plastic products, use less water, don’t throw your cigarette butts where you’re standing, support businesses that advocate and demonstrate environmental awareness, use reusable grocery bags, repair rather than trash items … so many ways!

Greg and Raeanne Schmidt
Honolulu

Don’t dumb down school standards

Don Horner, chairman of the newly appointed state Board of Education, said the goal of BOE members is "simply to leave education better than we found it." Apparently, they would be satisfied with any small improvement.

Horner’s uninspiring attitude is contrasted by a letter from a public school student, Courtney Kamiya ("Diploma plans give students easy way out," Letters, Star-Advertiser, April 17). She opposes the decision by the old BOE to create two types of diplomas, one that is less rigorous than the current diploma.

Believing that most students would opt for that one, she says that students shouldn’t be "dummied down," but should instead be raised up.

If Horner is truly speaking for the entire BOE, its members should begin listening to students like Kamiya. The BOE must set high goals in order to lead Hawaii’s public education system out of its current deplorable condition.

John Kawamoto
Honolulu

Budget cuts hurt many in society

What if your sister was being beaten by her husband, and there was no shelter?

What if you heard the screams of a child next door being abused, and there was no one to report it to?

What if your long-lost uncle turned up homeless and severely mentally ill, but there were no services to help him?

What if your friend didn’t have health insurance, but she couldn’t get medical care at a community health center because of budget cuts?

What if there was no adult day care program for your 86-year-old grandmother? Or if daily meals were no longer delivered to her when she became homebound?

This is how budget cuts hurt us and those we love.

Marya Grambs
Executive director, Mental Health America of Hawaii

Stop piling on taxes and fees

Listening to Mayor Peter Carlisle state the importance of supporting the Hawaii Foodbank’s latest food drive — because people don’t have money for food — made me think of some ways he could do more for the needy than just collect canned goods at the side of the road.

Maybe he could stop the rail project and save each family $450 per year.

Maybe he could ease up on our raising car registration fees (I paid $43 more this year than last) and his proposal to increase the gas tax. Or maybe he could think again about growing the city’s budget by 6.3 percent as well as the accompanying tax increases that will be required.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, Hono­lulu’s families are hurting. And they’re hurting because of the increased taxes and fees that government entities at all levels continue to pile upon them.

Stop taking from them and let people manage their own budgets.

Lynne Meyer
Honolulu

Water polo team deserves an A

I was touched by your article about the Farrington High School water polo team ("Farrington water polo team scores with perseverance," Star-Advertiser, April 17).

The girls who make up this team are winners in my book, and they showed what everyone who has ever played sports knows in the core of their being.

That is, sports isn’t about only the wins you put up on the board, but also the tenacity, sacrifice, dedication, hard work and team-first concept that is paramount when doing something together for a common goal. The girls learned valuable lessons about themselves and about life, and I know as they make a great future for themselves, they will always take how well they prepared for these lessons with them.

Give those girls and their coach an A.

Don Rochon
Honolulu

Taxpayers should be ‘most favored’

Economic transactions come to an equilibrium when the purchaser of the service finds the price acceptable and the provider of the service finds the price sufficient.

Most-favored-nations clauses violate that equilibrium since the salaries move upward without further negotiating. The negotiator for the payor, in this case the governor, violates his fiduciary duty to the real payor — the taxpayer — with a most-favored-nation clause for the Hawaii Government Employees Association.

Maybe an alternative would be for the salaries and benefits to change to a level more favorable to the payors when that is available. Why should most-favored-nation clauses go only one way? Why are the taxpayers not the most favored nation to the governor?

Robert F. Warren
Kapolei