Mathew Johnson identified “personal gain” as the main impetus to pushing through rail in Honolulu (“Rail all about money, not transportation,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Sept. 24).
If that’s true, there were many culprits, dating back to 1966 when Mayor Neal Blaisdell first proposed fixed-rail mass transit as a solution to Honolulu’s traffic congestion. Frank Fasi and Tom Gill also promoted rail in the 1960s because they saw that cities with centralized employment centers, like Honolulu, benefited the most from a rail system.
Had their proposed 23-mile rail line from Pearl City to Hawaii Kai been built then, today we’d have far fewer cars on the road and be completing a more affordable 12-mile extension to Kapolei.
Despite the challenges our rail system presents, let’s not wait another 50 years to implement it.
Bob Robello
Kailua
Somebody pays for ‘free’ tuition
Hillary Clinton believes that no family or student should have to borrow money to pay tuition at a public college or university.
Her proposal would help millions of students pay for college and reduce interest rates for graduates paying off student loans.
Wow! You could attend the University of Hawaii or one of the seven community colleges and graduate without any debt.
The online magazine Politico calculates this plan would cost the federal taxpayer approximately $350 billion over 10 years. Also, each state would be required to match the amount that the federal government pays to provide debt-free college for the states’ students. That means we taxpayers would pay for it.
Clinton believes that the wealthy could pay for her plan. However, as Margaret Thatcher would say, the problem with giveaway programs like Clinton’s is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.
Stote Farnham
Kalani Valley
Trump faces ethical conflict
Donald Trump is often labeled as “a successful businessman.”
Trump is a real estate developer. And, as anyone living in Hawaii knows, the primary objective of a developer is to make money.
Trump has paid millions from his campaign funds to various Trump enterprises, including his private jet, Trump Tower offices, Palm Beach resort and other Trump hotels and venues. He has managed to turn running for president into a profit- making venture.
If he were to be elected president, his children would continue to run the Trump enterprises. What a setup for a massive conflict of interest.
Kay Kibby
Makiki
This election like a throwback
The problem with this presidential election is that we have two candidates from the first wave of baby boomers trying to lead us into the future. They’re dinosaurs, unable to escape the tired ideas of yesteryear. That’s why the conversation seems uncannily like a throwback to the civil rights era.
We’re not going back to the future; we’re going backwards. Period.
Lloyd Lim
Makiki
Feral pigs here getting bad rap
Research by scientists from Texas A&M and other universities provides convincing evidence about the origins of Hawaii’s so-called “feral” pigs, concluding that “genetic proof now exists that the ancestry of feral hogs in Hawaii today can be traced back to Polynesians,” according to West Hawaii Today.
These results are so striking that they should literally change the history of attempts to understand and alter the biodi- versity of our islands.
At the very least, these results should end the devious efforts of organizations such as the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Hawaii Invasive Species Council that routinely call for the elimination of “invasive species” such as homeless pigs.
As it turns out, and ironically so, these intelligent, social, sensitive animals are a true native species of Hawaii nei, while the settlers who wish to slaughter them are the real invasive species.
Joel Fischer
Waialae
Health care CEO omitted a detail
There’s a little more to the story about hospital readmissions in which CEO George Greene of the Healthcare Association of Hawaii lauds Hawaii hospitals (“Hawaii hospitals among the best,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Sept. 21).
The Affordable Care Act’s Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program essentially will reduce federal money for hospitals with too many readmissions, effective for discharges beginning Oct. 1, 2012.
Debbie Aldrich
Haleiwa
