Thursday’s Star-Advertiser included a list of 20 Honolulu City Charter amendment questions, all asked in a manner that beg a “yes” vote.

These amendments and explanations seem to make it easier to increase taxes and grow the city administration even bigger rather than cutting costs, making Honolulu more livable.

The Charter amendments should include having the police enforce existing laws regarding uninsured cars and excessively loud vehicles — impound them. This would free up some of our roads and make Honolulu more livable.

If the Charter amendments are designed to create offices and committees, there should be an “Office to End the State Taking 10 percent of the Rail Surcharge.” This would reduce the necessity for a tax increase and make Honolulu more livable.

These types of Charter amendments make sense.

Ted Kanemori

Kaneohe

Make sure houses have smoke alarms

I recently had four new 10-year ionizing smoke alarms installed in my home under a program sponsored by the Red Cross, Honolulu Fire Department and the IBEW Local #1186.

It is especially important to have working smoke alarms, as 67 percent of Oahu homes where fires resulted in a death did not have working smoke alarms. In addition, the program offered many helpful suggestions regarding fire safety, housekeeping and avoiding falls.

My thanks for this public service. I hope more people, especially senior citizens, will participate in this program.

Roy M. Chee

Moanalua Gardens

Get going with national service

Victor Craft and Peter Adler were right on point (“Mandatory national service would strengthen America,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Sept. 21).

A group of us at lunch the day before had just had this discussion, and all of us, admittedly all over 65, agreed that national service should be a top priority to give people ownership of their country and values.

In 1965 I was adrift and making no progress. I can assure you that after three weeks of basic training in the military, I promised myself that if I made it through the next four years I would go back to college and go to every class. It happened.

In the military, I was moved around and saw different parts of the country and world. It made a strong impression that has stayed with me to this day. There has been talk before of doing this type of thing, but we need to move now from talk to action.

F.M. Scotty Anderson

Waialae Nui

Labels may not help Clinton win election

The Clinton campaign likes to label Donald Trump supporters. They are angry white males, older, so yesterday. They are working-class, lacking higher education, dirty and bigoted in every way.

Such labeling is a clever ploy and a commonly used political tactic. It is a central pillar of Hillary Clinton’s marketing strategy. Team Clinton wants voters, especially undecided or naive voters, to think, “Ooh, I can’t support Trump. I don’t want to be lumped in with that basket of deplorables.”

Yet Clinton may end up like the dog food manufacturer, who despite having a clever marketing strategy and lots of advertising, went out of business due to declining sales.

When asked what went wrong, the reply was, “It turns out the dogs don’t like it.”

Charles Kerr

Kalama Valley

Don’t allow giant Atlantis aquarium

It was reported that Atlantis Resorts plans to develop an ocean-themed hotel at Ko Olina with “amenities” like a dolphin encounter, shark habitat and hotel rooms with a front-row seat into a giant aquarium (“Atlantis Resort set for Chinese firm’s Ko Olina land,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 23).

Does Hawaii really need a hotel that holds dolphins, sharks, manta rays and other sea life captive in a giant aquarium when nature’s aquarium is located nearby in our beautiful ocean? Anyone who has seen the movie, “The Cove,” will know that dolphins are kidnapped from the oceans and taken away from their families so hotels can have “dolphin encounters” and label them as “educational.”

Does Hawaii want to endorse using wild dolphins and sharks that have been stolen from the ocean just for the amusement of tourists on vacation, especially when the governor took action last year to prohibit wild animals from being imported into Hawaii for entertainment purposes? The state should not allow Atlantis Resorts to build an aquarium using dolphins, sharks and other sea life.

Stephanie McLaughlin

Mililani

State should mark Haleakala Trail

In July, Judge Joseph Cardoza on Maui signed the final decision of the Haleakala Trail case, which had a six-week trial in April 2014. The decision states that the government of Hawaii has always owned Haleakala Trail. This is the historically famous trail traveled by Mark Twain, Isabella Bird Bishop and Jack London.

Public Access Trails Hawaii (PATH) completely paid for the plaintiff’s case, including a complete survey.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources now refuses to mark the trail. The DLNR may claim it has no money, but it is spending $20 million on the Kuikahi sports complex and more than $600,000 on the Kahakapao bicycle complex.

PATH will pay for marking if the DLNR cannot find these few pennies. Please encourage the DLNR to mark this trail immediately.

David Brown

Waihee