Privatize pickup of bulky items

In response to Gordon Pang’s article on bulky items, the answer is simple and stated in the article ("Bulky trash still piling up despite enforcement efforts," Star-Advertiser, June 13).

Stop the costly monthly pickup and enforcement and pickup on demand at a cost to the residents. This will solve several problems and may even encourage people to donate useable items or recycle, instead of lazily throwing them on the curb.

Most mainland communities that offer bulky waste pickup paid by taxes have a much larger tax base and more enforcement.

For those municipalities that contract out refuse pickup to private entities, the homeowner pays directly and they provide fee-for-service pickup via large bins or annual community-wide bulky waste dropoff days where the residents bring their trash to the waste facility.

Stop wasting money on this futile exercise and put those dollars to better use solving our homeless or education problems.

Julie McGovern
Ewa Beach

PRP apology barely readable

I could hardly read the letter of apology from Pacific Resource Partnership to former Gov. Ben Cayetano in Sunday’s Star-Advertiser, with gray letters printed on a gray background.

I could compare it to a person saying sorry but hiding in the bushes. This is in contrast to the ads they placed attacking Cayetano during the campaign.

An apology could have also been directed to Hawaii voters who were deceived during the election.

Mario Orbito
Pauoa Valley

Plan for marsh is inconceivable

Kudos for your Mauna-wili Falls Trail front-page article that exemplifies the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ lack of adequate capability to manage our trail system ("Trail of troubles," Star-Advertiser, June 14).

It is inconceivable that they now have a plan to build over seven miles of trail, bridges and boardwalks in and around the ecologically sensitive Kawainui Marsh and on the ridge above Hamakua Drive in Kailua (www.hhf.com/Kawainui).

Are they blind to the construction costs, maintenance costs, security costs, homeless camps, drug venues, fire hazards, endangered species and effects on residential neighborhoods and the water in Kailua Bay?

Maybe this is why DLNR refused an invitation to present its plan to the community at the Kailua Neighborhood Board meeting. I would hide, too.

Chuck Prentiss
Chairman, Kailua Neighborhood Board

VA could enlist medical interns

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs does not have enough doctors and the federal government needs to give the VA more money to pay for more doctors?

Why not get medical school interns to do their one- or two-year internships at local VA hospitals around the country?

They do not get paid for that time, so Uncle Sam would not have to give too much money for the extra medical help, and the interns would have real cases to work on under the supervision of the resident doctors. Also, the interns might find an area of medicine in which they would like to practice.

They would also be doing something good for the veterans who fought to keep our country safe so they could go to school to become doctors.

Wayne Nakamura
Aiea

VA pay system led to cheating

Joel Tanaka was right.

Retired Gen. Eric Shinseki, former director of the Department of Veterans Affairs, was sabotaged by VA and Department of Defense "mud layers" ("Shinseki was sabotaged by VA, DoD ‘mud layers,’" Star-Advertiser, June 15).

Tanaka appropriately pointed out that "instead of tackling this resource problem head on, administrators chose to disregard scheduling protocols and fudge the numbers to meet their performance goals."

The DoD inspector general’s whistleblower program does not work for the whistleblower. It appears to be in place to protect the agency.

I have seen the inspector general’s office fail to protect the federal employees throughout my 38 years as a union representative representing DoD employees.

What is contributing to this systemic failure is the "pay for performance" programs designed by the senior managers to increase their own salaries with performance bonuses.

Now we are faced with a VA that paid out millions in "pay for performance" to the managers, while the system is failing.

Ben Toyama
Ewa Beach

Iraq is deja vu all over again

Has anybody noticed the remarkable similarity to what is happening now in Iraq and what happened after American troops pulled out of Vietnam 40 years ago?

In both cases, America literally destroyed the country it was trying to save, lost thousands of young lives in the process, wasted billions of dollars, and had to sit back and watch as the laws of nature and politics settled into play afterward.

In 1975 it was then-President Gerald Ford asking Congress for (and being denied) money to support the people we left behind, while TV showed the Communist tanks blasting into Saigon.

Today, President Barack Obama is meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff while the TV shows the destruction brought by the insurgents in Iraq.

George Bernard Shaw had it right when he expounded on a popular phrase, saying, "We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience."

Chip Davey
Downtown Honolulu