Public streets are up for sale?

I must have missed the memo about the city selling the road around Queen Emma Square ("Episcopal Church buys Queen Emma Square road," Star-Advertiser, Sept. 22).

How can I buy a portion of a street so I can have my own private street parking?

I can find enough crime in my neighborhood and do a survey to show there is sufficient parking in the neighborhood that the parking wouldn’t be missed. I would maintain and monitor the area and provide police parking. There are no stores on my street.

I park in those stalls and I can attest to how scarce public street parking is becoming. Try finding street parking in that area when District Court is open or when there are school functions. Looks like the church and school just enlarged their parking area.

So please, although I am not a church or private school, send me that memo so I can take advantage of such a great opportunity.

Lincoln Okita
Palolo

‘Education’ not always terrific

A front-page story in the Star-Advertiser reported that the $75 million federal "Race to the Top" grant awarded to the state Department of Education has helped to "improve test scores, lift graduation and college-going rates, and raise the bar for quality teaching" ("Grant set path for isle schools," Sept. 21).

Nowhere is it reported — alas! — that any of that money, or any of that effort, has increased individual or collective happi- ness, promoted community well-being, made people more virtuous or created an enduring community of scholars.

Until it is shown that what is commonly referred to as "education" produces those results and not, rather, a sheepish herd of conformists who are being pushed into "college" and "career" experiences that raise the same issues — well then, there is really nothing to puff our chests and wag our tongues about, is there?

James Henry Smithson
Moiliili

GMO defenders ignore pitfalls

Why is it that whenever an initiative in favor of people’s health and the environment is up for a vote, the industries and their representatives that produce pollutants and genetically modified organisms cry foul and use the loss of jobs to skirt the issues ("Maui farmers at risk by anti-GMO initiative," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Sept. 21)?

Who will pay for the health of Hawaii’s people is never answered when the loss of jobs is brought up. Which means more: hundreds of jobs and loss of some GMO farms, and fines for applying dangerous pesticides and letting smoke from old smoke stacks continue to hurt our health and environment, versus the world’s need for clean food, land, water and air?

Sylvia Thompson
Makiki

Pesticides have become a threat

Fred Pollock’s commentary was one of the most measured and comprehensive essays for GMO labeling I’ve seen ("More weeds grow resistant to herbicides," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Sept. 21).

He covered the problem of "drift," whereby GMO crops can contaminate organic and other farming techniques.

Best of all, he mentioned the campaign donations given to Hawaii’s politicians that allow the takeover of our lands by GMO companies.

There is no corn being grown by the GMO companies herethat we can eat in case of emergencies; these are experimental crops for the fat subsidies given by the federal government.

As Pollock pointed out, more and more weeds are becoming resistant to Glyphosate, and now Dow AgroSciences has developed an even more dangerous pesticide system called the "Enlist Duo."

There is an online petition to get 100,000 signatures to take to the president to stop this ever-growing cycle of more and stronger pesticides and block the "Enlist Duo" system.

Judith Pettibone
Makiki

HECO driving customers away

Here is a glimpse of the future if Hawaiian Electric Co. raises the hook-up rate for solar customers:

Solar customers will look at the annual $850 or so that HECO is charging to be connected to the grid, do the math, and figure out that if they buy batteries and a generator, they will not need HECO. Battery technology is getting cheaper.

HECO is getting what amounts to free power from the excess from these customers. New HECO generators to replace this lost power will be very expensive.

HECO’s CEO, Constance Lau, as reported in 2013, was earning $5.82 million per year. If you have a family of four, you are paying more than $20 a year just for Lau’s salary. Double that for the next few key executives.

With solar customers opting out of the grid, that burden falls on fewer shoulders.

All rates will go up.

Tom Wallace
Hawaii Kai

‘Dogs of war’ let out again

Now that our Nobel Peace Prize recipient President Barack Obama has committed himself to bombing the hell out of ISIS, we are set to experience yet another high for the stock market, as well as our national debt. The stock market does well for the "dogs of war."

The responsibility (and costs incurred thereof) for eliminating ISISshould be borne by the rich and powerful countries that have the most to lose: Saudi Arabia (which ranks fourth in the world interms of defense spending at$60 billion a year), Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Kurdistan and Israel, whose very existence is threatened.

Meanwhile, I visualize the corporate officers of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, EADS, Thales and others involved in supplying our war machine popping champagne and raking it in.

President Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, warned us about the "military industrial complex."

Pradeepta Chowdhury
Hilo

Kealoha right to be deliberate

Kudos to Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha ("Police chief lashes out at critics in domestic abuse case," Star-Advertiser, Sept. 19).

It is about time that the public and the politicians realize that a criminal investigation takes time. Instant gratification will not hold up in court, and neither will a case without sufficient evidence.

People need to get off their high horses and give the HPD time to do its job.

What if it were you or your child getting strung up without all the facts?

I am not supporting the sergeant here, but if he is guilty of criminal activity, wouldn’t you want to be sure that evidence against him was sufficient to find him guilty in a court of law?

I have total respect and confidence in HPD. We all should.

Patti Adolphson
Wahiawa