Unsecured loads also a danger to motorists

I applaud your editorial on road safety; however, it did not address the related and very serious issue of unsecured loads in open vehicles (“Restrain riding in pickup beds,” Star-Advertiser, Our View, March 20).

Who has not seen open trucks on the freeway with lawnmowers, tools or heavy equipment rolling around in the back, clearly unsecured?

My husband had a near-miss when a big metal spring flew from a truck bed onto the roadway right in front of his car.

On Kunia Road some years back a woman was killed when a similar object fell from a truck and landed on the driver’s seat of her car.

Unsecured loads are just as dangerous as unrestrained passengers in open vehicles.

Legislation and enforcement are sorely needed to correct both problems and ensure road safety.

Linda Umstead
Mililani

Hawaii seat-belt law not broad enough

The state of Hawaii’s timid approach to achieving a sensible seat-belt law historically has been a series of Band-Aids, ending as it stands today with adults in the back seats not required to wear seat belts, free in the event of a crash to become missiles plunging into those in the front seats.

Too remote for our Legislature?

There is nothing remote about March 16th’s pickupbed tragedy, and, sadly, it was not the first or only pickupbed tragedy in Hawaii. 

The enlightened state of California does not allow a person or even a dog in a pickup bed without a restraint. Do we need another hint?

Norman MacRitchie
Kakaako

Arrest based on video opens can of worms

Richard Godbehere Jr. of Kauai was recently busted for violating the open-container law in a motor vehicle.

The irony is that the arrest came from a self-produced video Godbehere posted on LiveLeak.com, allegedly showing him drinking a beer while driving.

How can you prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Godbehere was drinking alcohol and not cream soda, as he argues in his defense?

Will this now lead to police arresting people for jokes they play on YouTube?

Will people now be arrested for posting videos of themselves talking on their cellphones while driving?

Law enforcement should concentrate on solving serious crimes, rather than pursuing something that is just a waste of time for all involved, from the prosecutor, law enforcement, court employees and judges.

In the end it is likely Godbehere will walk and the joke will be on us, the taxpayer.

James “Kimo” Rosen
Kapaa, Kauai

UH librarian’s salary is outrageous sum

In this digital age of the Internet, Wikipedia, the Nook and Kindle, the University of Hawaii is justifying a salary of $195,000 for incoming head librarian Irene Herold.

This is an outrageous use of our taxpayer dollars, not to mention that in a state with a projected physician shortage of 1,550, a librarian will make more than the average physician.

During a legislative session where a bill to increase the fee code schedule for the few remaining physicians who still accept worker’s compensation is being vigorously debated, we are using our scarce resources to hire a librarian?

It appears that our priorities are misdirected.

Deborah A. Luckett
Kahala

Top bureaucrats don’t need 2 percent raise

Why is there always money for pay raises at the top, whether it be government or the University of Hawaii, but there is not enough money to fix our infrastructure or university facilities?

The mantra is that higher pay is necessary to attract the brightest personnel. Likely there is not one person receiving a raise or being hired who would leave his job or not accept a position because other entities are clamoring for his services.

If we in fact have the brightest people in place, let them prove that by solving our state’s problems.

Then we can consider the raises.

Ronald Wong
Salt Lake

Sidewalk dwellers unfair to rest of us

What bothers me is all the ballyhoo spent on cleaning up the sidewalks in front of our residences while we continue to allow the homeless to continue to not only be on our sidewalks but to take up more space so no one can use them, then dirty the sidewalks with their garbage and bodily functions.

I am not against how the homeless have chosen to live, or that they might be having a difficult time.

But why are we, the taxpayers who work hard and follow the rules, harassed when the non-payers (homeless and the (de)Occupy Honolulu group) don’t need to participate?

Where have our rights gone? Why are we losing our paradise because of their stubbornness and lack of solutions?

Find another island for the ones who don’t care. It’s time to listen and cater to the paying public, and that includes the annual visitors.

Nancy Napuunoa
Maunalani Heights

Anti-GMO hysteria puts workers at risk

Christiaan Mitchell agrees that House Bill 174, which seeks to mandate labeling of GMO foods, is flawed and possibly unconstitutional (“It’s our right, not Monsanto’s, to decide how to handle GMOs,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, March 19).

He says that fears about GMOs may be unfounded. And yet he advocates the bill, saying “we get to decide whether or not we’re being crazy.”

Why would anyone support a bill that’s flawed and probably illegal, especially when there are other options?

For the record, we support voluntary labeling, akin to the program proposed by Whole Foods.

Voluntary labeling can provide information to those customers who want it, and avoid the constitutional, economic and cost problems of mandatory labeling.

Being “crazy” about a flawed bill goes along with the hysteria and misrepresentations about GMOs, and is a reckless attack on agriculture in Hawaii.

Our 1,000 employees and their families are concerned about such a “crazy” attitude because it is their futures that are being jeopardized by such an irresponsible opinion.

Fred Perlak
Vice president of business and research operations, Monsanto Hawaii

War veterans having trouble here at home

Iraqi and Afghan veterans having served upwards of four deployments will have been in combat more than any other veteran in the history of the United States.

The cost of war goes deeper than paying for bombs and bullets.

Again our government has failed to calculate the total costs of war, as they have yet to adequately answer the needs of veterans from the Vietnam era.

Now it’s the Iraqi and Afghan veterans’ turn to experience government hypocrisy. Having to deal with the military’s own special brand of bureaucracy is one thing. To be hindered in obtaining what is rightfully theirs by the Veterans Administration borders on the criminal.

It is my hope that some sort of commission can be assembled to hear those cases that have been dismissed for lack of supporting evidence or involve discharges that were less than honorable. They need to be reviewed and possibly redressed.

Vic Craft
Kapolei