Police should tag red-light runners

My husband and I are perplexed with the fact that the Honolulu Police Department is not citing people for running yellow and red traffic lights in Honolulu.

We are here for five months at a time for the last two years from Canada and every day we see vehicles, bikes, motorcycles and city busesspeeding up and running the lights, even after the pedestrian lights have already changed to "walk" in the opposing direction.

It is getting worse because people can and do get away with it. You really have to watch yourself as a pedestrian — we’ve almost been hit.

Please start policing this or get red-light cameras, as we have in Canada.It saves lives.

Val Vincent
Calgary, Alberta

People should fill trash bins neatly

The more government does for us, the more lazy we become.

A case in point is our trash collection.Nowadays all we have to do is wheel the bin to the curb and, magically, it is all gone, except for the scrapsand pieces scattered over the street that never made it into the truck because it wasn’t bagged when put into the bin.

If we had to haul our own trash to the dump, would we put our trash loosely into our truck or car?I don’t think so.

Paul K. Funkhouser
Wahiawa

Mercy Ships was concert beneficiary

Regarding The Gift of Hope Charity Concert, this year’s beneficiary was always Mercy Ships.

The original tickets had their logo printed on it, but an activist threatened the state Department of Education with a lawsuit about the fact that they’re founded on Christian principles. Thus the logo was removed but the beneficiary was unchanged.

The DOE was discussing if a school could support such an organization. New Hope Oahu’s logo was also absent.

The complainant wasn’t told he must attend church to buy tickets. Tickets were purchasable via phone, at Moanalua High School, at its winter concert and at the door on the charity concert night. He never attended the service. He sent someone else. She wrote her check to New Hope. People purchasing through Moanalua wrote checks to the school. And some wrote theirs to Mercy Ships. The new concert was also for Mercy Ships.

Hopefully through this ordeal the students will persevere, and push past the harm found in trying to do good.

Chad Brownstein
Moanalua High School’s Gift of Hope Charity Concert coordinator

Jesus is why there is Christmas holiday

Why can’t we say "Merry Christmas" and not just "Happy Holidays"?

Are we ashamed to celebrate the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ? Boycott the churches and stores that want to take your money for the wrong purpose without acknowledging our savior’s birthday. I do not mind if you add Happy Hanukkah or any other religious saying, but shame on you if you do not acknowledge Jesus as a Christian.

So, first, have a very Merry Christmas, then a Happy Hanukkah and every other religious celebration as brothers and sisters created by the same God, the creator of all.

Heinz-Guenther Gerhard Pink
Punchbowl

Downtown corridor is traffic bottleneck

It takes one hour during peak morning to commute from Kapolei to Ala Moana.

I know it takes 30 minutes to go five miles from the airport to Ala Moana during morning traffic, where it would normally take seven to 10 minutes. It must take 30 minutes to go 15 miles from Kapolei to the airport, where it normally takes 15 to 20 minutes.

So the true traffic bottleneck in the mornings is through the downtown corridor.

As a recently retired cab driver, I know driving from the airport on the freeway through the H-1 and Moanalua Freeway merge can take 15 to 20 minutes just to get though the merge, and the other way through Nimitz takes 10 to 15 minutes to get beyond the Sand Island and Nimitz intersection.

Why not extend the Nimitz Viaduct beyond the Sand Island intersection, possibly beyond Alakawa Street, then squeeze another lane from the H-1 and Moanalua merge to join the extra lane through Punahou? These changes would improve our traffic woes more than rail will.

Patrick Furuyama
Hawaii Kai

Impose flower tax to fund gifts of lei

It used to be that dreamers would fly Clippers to Hawaii and be greeted with a flower lei and Hawaiian music. It used to feel like you arrived in paradise, not just the Honolulu airport. We finally have some Hawaiian language greetings, but what about lei?

Why not add a dollar to the ticket of every incoming international flight as a flower tax? People never forget and never get tired of beauty and nature. And make it easier to find the lei stands from the terminal. It’s too difficult. This would invigorate the lei stand business and so many hard-working people practicing island culture. Why are there no fresh lei stands inside the terminal for arrivals?

Kimo Kekahuna
Kaluakoi, Molokai