Poor planning for rail amazing

This is amazing.

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation executive director, Dan Grabauskas, recently stated that left out of the rail budgeting process were safety gates to help prevent passengers from falling on to the tracks and a power-failure backup system to return stalled trains back to a station (“Rail project needs $27.1M for safety gates at stations,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 5).

Grabauskas said European officials call the screen gates a top priority, and “it’s not an unusual occurrence in transit systems that people fall.”

Really? Grabauskas said approval of funding for the gates “is the right thing to do.” No, it is the only thing to do. Safety gates for children and pets are automatically considered in most homes.

What else has been overlooked or forgotten on this project? If this is how the design is being handled, or rather, mishandled, it should be a red flag for the finished product. We must stop this while we’re ahead.

Diane D. Ackerson
Hawaii Kai

Barricades will lead to car thefts

Why is barricading the parking at Laniakea wrong?

Theft is the No. 1 reason.

If you look at the Chun’s Reef parking area, you will notice all of the shattered glass from break-ins are down the road, especially by the river mouth area, where people park in front of the gate for the Windmill Road.

Surfers who park in front of their favorite surf spot such as “Lani’s” protect each other from thieves. It’s part of the surf culture. By putting the barricades at Lani’s, it will be open season for thieves — not only for the tourists’ cars parked miles down the road in either direction, but for local surfers and fishermen who deserve the parking lot more than anyone else.

It will also bring the thievery practically to the front doorsteps of homeowners in either direction from Laniakea.

Chris Owens
Haleiwa

HECO ruining Palolo Valley

Another day in Palolo Valley, another eight hours of incessant helicopter clatter, another ugly tower
defacing the beautiful Koolau range.

Ever since Jay Fidell’s fawning tribute to retiring Hawaiian Electric Co. executive Robbie Alm, I’ve wanted to give the perspective from our humble valley (“HECO exec’s exit marks a true changing of guard,” Star-Advertiser, Think Tech, Aug. 6). 

During Alm’s regime, dozens of towers have been built. There isn’t a peak, crater or ridgeline in Palolo that hasn’t been desecrated. The current work by contractors is the latest in years of noisy work.

Manoa folks succeeded in the 1990s in thwarting HECO from defacing Waa-hila Ridge, but they need to take another look. There’s a new huge four-pole grid up there, just one of many that lead us Palolo residents to wish for a cloudy day to cover the ugliness.

Public outcry led Alm to promise the Kamoku project to increase the east Oahu power grid would involve underground lines.

After Waahila, HECO stopped telling the public its plans.

Mary Adamski
Palolo

Keep U.S. out of Syria civil war

Ronald Reagan was a great president, but he made one monumental error: He put troops in Beirut in the middle of a civil war.

He withdrew them after no progress was made and we lost more than 200 Marines for no reason. 

Yes, I know the administration says there will be no troops in Syria, but it took troops on the ground and a regime change in Iraq to get rid of a dictator who also gassed his own people.

Does the administration really think taking small measured actions against Syria is going to solve anything?

Our troops are weary and stretched thin. Nothing good can come out of us getting involved in any way in Syria.

Until the U.N., the Arab League and the rest of the world start stepping up in these issues, the U.S. should say we are done.

Does President Barack Obama have the courage to live up to his Nobel Peace Prize and take that stand?

I pray he does.

James Roller
Mililani

Story on couple was inspiring

The journey with Alzheimer’s and dementia often seems such a solitary one.

Carlyn Tani’s story, “When Alzheimer’s strikes” (Star-Advertiser, Insight, Sept. 8) shares the inspiring love story of Mark Olds caring for his beloved wife, Clara.

It is also the story of so many of us who are living with the Alzheimer’s/dementia challenge or are just on the other side of the caregiver’s journey.

Thanks to Mark for sharing his story, and to Carlyn for being a caring neighbor who knew others needed to hear Mark’s story. They hold up a mirror that we see ourselves in.

Thank also to Editorial Page Editor Lucy Young-Oda and other Star-Advertiser staff for choosing to publish stories like this one and for providing a list of resources to turn to for help. They do readers a great service.

We appreciate their sensitivity to this major challenge in our lives.

Karen Yamamoto Hackler
Manoa

Deedy can’t get fair trial here

I applaud Kedric Dean for challenging the objectivity of the Star-Advertiser’s editorial about the Deedy trial (“Article biased against Deedy,” Letters, Sept. 6), and especially the biased reference to a “hung jury.”

Given the evidence which the trial coverage showed, I am very surprised the prosecutor’s office pursued the case at all, much less is pursuing it further.

In discussion with several local friends, it was generally agreed that if Christopher Deedy had been an off-duty Honolulu police officer, there never would have been a trial; rather, he would have been given a pat on the back for being a good Samaritan.

But the fact that Deedy is from the mainland and Caucasian clearly permeated the trial and the trial coverage.

A majority of the jury courageously rejected that argument. But the prosecutor plans to spend another bunch of money on a biased vendetta.

The whole thing stinks.

It is quite clear Deedy cannot get a fair trial in Hawaii.

Mark Zeug
Aina Koa

Chinese navy treated too well

Where is the outrage (“Chinese navy warships pull into Pearl Harbor,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 6)?

These visiting Chinese military are going to get best-buddy treatment and probably a key to the city.

Doesn’t anybody remember the treatment our Navy got at Hong Kong only a couple years ago?

Navy dependents and loved ones spent precious savings traveling to Hong Kong and renting hotel rooms for a Thanksgiving vacation with their naval spouses on an aircraft carrier in the port of Hong Kong. The Chinese refused to let them on shore.

What kind of wimps do we have running the Navy? Or are they getting their orders from the White House?

When are we going to quit turning the other cheek?

Harvey Wiegert 
Kailua