Put term limits on all politicians

Many politicians in Congress have become too powerful and arrogant.

They disregard their constituents’ interests by spending our taxpayer money recklessly.

These lawmakers ignore the American peoples’ concerns: “Don’t overspend. Balance the budget.”

Today, America is ridiculed and in debt with a deficit of more than $14 trillion and counting, thanks to things like Obamacare, the stimulus package and entitlements.

This out-of-control spending has placed our country in jeopardy, with debt that will be passed on to our kids and their kids to be resolved.

We need to control these irresponsible politicians by placing term limits on them.

Senators run for office every six years and House members every two years. I suggest that they be limited to a maximum of two terms.

We need term limits for Hawaii’s politicians, too.

Social Security benefits frozen

Hawaiian Electric asked to raise its rates; it got it.

Now the Honolulu Board of Water Supply is asking to raise its rates.

Costs of groceries are rising; no end in sight. Rent, maintenance fees and mortgages are rising. Taxes are rising. Transportation costs are rising. And school costs are rising.

When is it going to end?

Industries are shutting down, people are losing jobs and unemployment is high.

Meanwhile, there has been no raise in Social Security benefits — no raise in three years.

Top HEI official seems overpaid

As a ratepayer and electricity user, I think that Hawaiian Electric Industries President Constance Lau’s salary of $6.57 million is outrageously high (“Stock awards lift isle CEOs’ pay,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 14).

Why are the ratepayers being subjected to such an excessive salary amount?

What is the state Public Utilities Commission doing about keeping such salaries reasonable, especially since the cost is being paid by ratepayers?

What is the total amount being paid to all the executives and upper-management employees of Hawaiian Electric Co.?

HECO is responsible to provide electricity to meet consumer demand. Expenditure must be ordinary and necessary to provide the electricity to meet that demand at the lowest possible cost.

In my opinion, significant changes must be made in how the PUC oversees HECO’s operations and rate requests.

Recognition bill about justice

Garry P. Smith cites the 15th Amendment to bolster his view that the Hawaii recognition bill is racially divisive (“New ‘recognition’ law is racially divisive,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Aug. 13).

I have one question for Smith and others: What amendment to the U.S. Constitution legally justifies the terrorist invasion of a free, neutral and sovereign nation — the Kingdom of Hawaii?

That historical fact, which occurred on Jan. 16, 1893, does not begin, or end, with the 15th Amendment, or any other, for it has been 118 years since that fateful day, and long past.

The recognition bill seeks justice for the sovereign nationals of that beleaguered nation.

There is a legal maxim with a long history that says, “Justice delayed is justice denied.”

Justice, so that reconciliation can begin — 118 years and counting.

‘Get a Job’ could be game changer

Recently I watched the movie, “Get A Job,” at the historic Hawaii Theatre.

It was an appropriate venue for the showing.

As I left the theater, I felt that I had been a witness to a new cultural phenomenon in Hawaii.

The creative masterminds of this Hollywood-caliber endeavor can do for the movie business in Hawaii what the original Hawaii regional cuisine chefs did for the food business here.

One hopes that their influence spreads beyond the film and inspires budding local filmmakers to follow in their steps.

It was fun and refreshing to see a full-length movie of the people, by the people and for the people of Hawaii that the people of Hawaii can share with genuine excitement.

I have little doubt that it will be enjoyed by people on the mainland and around the world.

Gay couples still a small minority

Shame on the Star-Advertiser for the story, “Changing face of family” (Star-Advertiser, Aug. 14).

This was hardly a front-page news story but rather propaganda promoting the idea that homosexual couples are equivalent to normal heterosexual ones.

The 78 percent increase of such households was touted, yet they only comprise nine out of every 1,000 state households.

It should strike us as bizarre that we are classifying households according to their sexual behavior and attractions.

It is one thing to acknowledge their existence but another to promote these couples as identical to married, heterosexual families.

How pitiful to subvert basic institutions to appease a minuscule number who want to push an agenda and assuage their guilty consciences.

As for civil unions, despite the name, they are still an attempt to re-define marriage and equate such relationships with natural, heterosexual ones.