Wearing safety gear is always cool compared to the tragic alternative

It’s hard to know how incidents like the tragic death of Hawaii Pacific University student athlete Kameron Steinhoff can be prevented in the future.

Yes, parents should teach their kids that helmets protect them while they skateboard, but parental oversight only goes so far and not as far as into the college years, certainly.

That said, it would be great to see a public-affairs campaign featuring a skateboarding star delivering the message that being safe is cool. It might give a few teens and young adults pause before they toss the helmet aside.

Sponsorship of party to watch final ‘Oprah’ is random act of kindness

There are times when the temptations of sun and sea are trumped by a more powerful lure: the broadcast of the final "Oprah Winfrey Show."

The Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii — whose founding was inspired by an Oprah episode on "random acts of kindness" — will sponsor a public screening at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Hawai‘i Convention Center’s Emalani Theatre, room 320.

After all, a lifelong fan can’t bear not knowing who O’s really-and-truly final guest will be (is it husband-and-wife actors Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, as pundits predict?), and at least this event would be more festive than holing up in front of their hotel room TV.