Re-striped lanes asking for grief

Regarding the re-striping of the H-1 through town, I am glad we are trying to use the existing roads to maximize carrying capacity and applaud the efforts of traffic engineers.

It’s just that on the first day, I found myself driving alongside a very large tractor-trailer and this truck had barely six inches to spare on either side of his lane.

Imagining being boxed in by two large vehicles on both sides would be very unnerving for most drivers and could cause panicked reactions.

Perhaps the truck and bus drivers out there can stick to the far left or right lanes only, where they have just a little more leeway to hug the edges and avoid trading paint with autos or, worse, larger vehicles.

Two of these trucks side-by-side would be a recipe for disaster. Increased accidents will completely defeat the purpose of the lane narrowing.

Gary McCarty
Nuuanu

More neophytes could be good

I’m dismayed with the Star-Advertiser’s candidate endorsements thus far.

In Senate District 17, Clarence Nishihara deserves support merely because he is an incumbent and is a dependable Democratic vote? Has he introduced useful legislation or shown some other initiative that helped the people of Hawaii?

And Senate District 25 residents are supposed to choose Laura Thielen and ignore Levani Lipton because she is a political neophyte? Perhaps Hawaii needs more political neophytes, particularly ones who run nonprofits and are graduates of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

I hope that the Star-Advertiser provides more in-depth analysis in the future. Hawaii needs new voices in government, not more of the same. I hope that Hawaii voters take the time to thoroughly consider their options in this and future elections.

Jim Hayes
Candidate, Honolulu City Council District 5, Manoa

Candidate misrepresented

The Star-Advertiser’s endorsement of Mufi Hannemann’s bid for Congress credits him for launching curbside recycling and settling a major sewage lawsuit (“Hannemann deserves nod,” Star-Advertiser, Our View, July 22).

Hannemann’s record doesn’t match these claims.

Hannemann consistently opposed curbside recycling. He canceled the program when he was first elected as mayor. He lobbied against a charter amendment mandating curbside recycling. Only after 75 percent of the population voted to mandate curbside recycling did we finally have a program. How is Hannemann entitled to get credit for a program that occurred despite his best efforts to stop it?

Under Hannemann’s leadership, the city spent more than $10 million of taxpayer money in attorneys’ fees to oppose legal efforts to fix our sewer system. But within a few months of announcing he was running for governor, Hannemann  decided to settle the suit. How is this not viewed as simple opportunism?

Based on his record as mayor, Hannemann does not deserve the nod for the 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House.

Robert D. Harris
Director,  Sierra Club,Hawaii Chapter

Aurora deaths not only tragedy

Could the media please give us a break with endless grisly accounts of the Aurora killings?

I understand it was a tragedy, and our sympathies lie with the 70 innocent victims. But, we also need to appreciate that 86 Americans are killed by firearms every day, and nearly 4,000 are killed prematurely by chronic diseases linked with consumption of animal products and lack of exercise.

So let’s replace the vacuous hand-wringing over the Aurora tragedy with constructive personal steps to lessen the greater tragedies facing us every day.

Herbert Anatawa
Nuuanu

Senseless war a drain on U.S.

I see where our Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised that the U.S. will grant $50 million over the next three years to countries in the lower Mekong River region, namely Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

The money is meant for improvement of education, the environment, health and infrastructure in the region.

This is actually a pathetic sum, amounting to an average tax burden of a mere 6 cents per year for every American. Washington would no doubt spend more if it could, but it can’t. Its economic priorities have driven the national debt to the astronomic height of $16 trillion. Meanwhile, the U.S. is still spending $250 million per day in its decade-long, senseless war in Afghanistan.

Oliver Lee
Aina Haina