How foolish can House Speaker Joseph Souki be?

When asked by state Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland and state Rep. John Mizuno to help address the concerns of state Ethics Commission Executive Director Les Kondo by "designating the planning, implementation and activities of Children and Youth Day as official activities of the Legislature," he refused to do so ("Youth day needs solid legal footing," Star-Advertiser, Our View, Sept. 10).

Doesn’t Souki realize the benefits the Legislature reaps by hosting, with other community organizations, this wonderful event focused on the children of Hawaii?

You can’t buy this positive publicity and the good feelings that keiki and their parents and grandparents get from participating in this annual event.

Foolish, foolish, foolish.

I hope Souki re-thinks his position and works with Senate President Ronald Kouchi to designate Children and Youth Day activities as official activities of the Legislature so they can be reinstated in 2016.

Joanne Swearingen
St. Louis Heights

Overpopulation rarely discussed by media

By simply experiencing the hotter temperatures in Hawaii, one can easily come to the conclusion that global warming and climate change are rapidly progressing phenomena.

A major factor in global warming and climate change is overpopulation, as the world’s population stands at a staggering 7.3 billion people. That translates into about 220,000 people added to the world’s population on a daily basis, adding to the stresses on Mother Nature.

With more people added to the world’s population numbers, more burning of fossil fuels takes place, rapidly depleting Earth’s oh-so-important ozone layer.

Recent reports state that approximately 400,000 people die annually due to climate change.

It is rather sad that overpopulation is hardly discussed in the media in this day and age. It is a huge crisis. If not dealt with, perhaps global warming and climate change will progress even more rapidly, resulting in more deaths annually.

Dean Nagasako
Honokaa

UH using euphemisms to hide favoritism?

Buried in last Sunday’s Local section was a small article about former University of Hawaii vice president for budget and finance, Howard Todo, who was paid $279,000 annually ("Former UH budget official still on payroll," Star-Advertiser, Sept. 6).

Todo was replaced in January but is still working "half-time" in a new position as an administrative program officer so he can reach 10 years employment at the end of October and collect retirement benefits.

First of all, what is "half-time" employment? Is it part-time except with full benefits?

Second, what is an administrative program officer and how many do we have at UH? Or should I ask: How many do we need?

Once again we have euphemistic, sleight-of-hand shenanigans at UH benefiting the well-connected while our students have to suffer in dilapidated buildings, my son included.

Orson Moon
Aiea

HSTA should sue state over hot classrooms

Much has been written about how hot it is in classrooms throughout the state — even how a teacher had to drive herself to the emergency room because of heat stroke caused by being in a hot, humid classroom all day.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association is supposed to represent the interests of its members.

If the health and welfare of teachers are at risk because of unsafe working conditions, wouldn’t the state be in violation of federal and state laws? Why hasn’t HSTA filed a grievance against the state for apparent violations of occupational safety and health laws?

If the state is hesitant to spend $1.7 billion to fix this problem, perhaps a court-ordered consent decree would do the trick.

Erik Kazuyuki Abe
Downtown Honolulu

Homeless shelters better than sidewalks

I am amazed to read in your newspaper some people would rather be homeless than to live in a homeless shelter.

I live in a homeless shelter. I have a roof over my head, a light, electricity, 100 square feet of living space, a window I can open, a door I can lock, a community bathroom, a community kitchen, laundry machines and a mailbox.

I am so happy and thankful for what I have; I never want to live on the sidewalk.

Perhaps we should treat chronic homelessness as a psychiatric disorder.

Richard Elstner
Downtown Honolulu

FROM THE FORUM

Readers of the Star-Advertiser’s online edition can respond to stories posted there. The following are some of those. Instead of names, pseudonyms are generally used online. They have been removed.

"Observatory supporters stay the course despite hurdles"
Star-Advertiser, Sept. 7:

» If the state Supreme Court justices are truly competent, their decision will turn upon the exact location of the construction and whether there are specific, identifiable, historical traditions attached to that exact site. If instead they get entrapped or lost in the mists of manifest destiny, cultural genocide, civil disobedience, etc., we’ll know that their appointments were based more upon politics than scholarly wisdom.

» Drive out the scientists and their investors, drive out tourists, drive out GMOs, drive out anything that improves the economy. Good luck, Hawaiians!

"Charges for medevac flights soar"
Star-Advertiser, Sept. 7:

» This is the major downside of neighbor island living, that many don’t realize until it’s too late.

» At one time the Hawaii State National Guard provided emergency airlift services. This made good sense since the expense for the service came out of already allocated budgeted tax dollars. We paid for the planes, the maintenance, the fuel and the trained staff. Plus a huge benefit is it keeps the military sharp.

"Tax cheat asks for a new trial, blames the IRS"
Star-Advertiser, Sept. 8:

» I’m all in favor of one’s right to defend himself, but Albert Hee already had that and lost. Now he is just trying to appeal this thing to buy more time to see if his attorneys can find a loophole that they may have missed while allowing him to be free.

» You call it a loophole and a lot of other people call it prosecutorial misconduct. We are protected by the Constitution. Even Mr. Hee has a right to show that his conviction was improper.

"Planned Mililani church splits residents"
Star-Advertiser, Sept. 8:

» Whatever happened to free use of your own property? Nowadays everybody has a say in what you do with and on your property. I can already hear the naysayers on this forum saying I should have it next to my house, and the truth is I’d prefer to have a church next door that will take care of its property and help the neighborhood instead of someone who doesn’t do either.

» If there are two things Hawaii already has too many of, it’s churches and storage facilities.

"Kakaako homeless move out as sweeps begin"
Star-Advertiser, Sept. 9:

» Where’s the aloha spirit in living on property for free but not keeping the place clean while there or after moving out? Sad.

» My questions: How can they load up their cars? Do they have current safety checks or even current registrations? Come on HPD, do your job. People like us work and pay high registra- tion fees and get car insurance and have our cars safety-checked and these people get away with it. They have all kinds of junk packed in and on their cars. What next?

"Jury tells Haseko to pay $27 million"
Star-Advertiser, Sept. 9:

» A win for the little (aka local) people against a developer, who still doesn’t understand. Good work.

» Great. Now lets sue the city for lying and changing the rail route. It was supposed to cost $3 billion and go from Kapolei/Ewa to the University of Hawaii, but was hijacked by developers and special interests. Time to rise up.

"DOE pushing for up to 1,000 air conditioners"
Star-Advertiser, Sept. 10:

» There is a parallel with the homeless situation: Nothing happens until public pressure is brought to bear, forcing those who should have addressed the problem years ago to finally do something — mostly to look good.

» The initial capital investment for solar is huge, but, in the long-term it becomes very inexpensive and, aside from maintenance, free. All these ACs and school remodels should become solar-dependent and "off-the-grid."

» How about a little common sense? Why start school in early August when you could start after Labor Day and avoid the worst of the heat? You just end school later. It’s much cooler in June than August!

» Here we are in mid-September, and the record highs are now. So it doesn’t make a difference when they start.