Cory Smith makes some good points, and I don’t think the government should be kicking people out of the market through an onerous approvals process (“E-cigarette regulations defy logic,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Nov. 16).
It is worth bearing in mind that smoking electronic cigarettes, or “vaping,” is similar to more mundane cigarettes in the expected etiquette. It’s a long-past-settled fact that smokers should maintain a respectful distance from others.
A minority of enthusiasts in the e-cig community make modifications to their devices to produce an excess of vapor that is far more than necessary. These unwelcome, sometimes billowing and often sickeningly sweet clouds are what have triggered such reactive legislation.
Smith should consider asking vapers to be more considerate.
Harlan Kanoa Sheppard
Ewa Beach
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Enforce sit-lie sidewalk rules
Is voter apathy linked to the lack of enforcement of city ordinances?
A case in point: For the past six months, a person is allowed to park two shopping carts on the sidewalk on Richards Street, across from the YWCA. The carts, along with other personal items, block more than half the sidewalk.
The letters sent to the City Council and Honolulu Police Department have brought only frustration. Twice he was moved out. He went down the street to block the sidewalk on the corner of King and Richards streets. Within two days he was back at his usual place and with more belongings.
Why can’t city officials responsible for District VI put teeth in their ordinances — the teeth being an aggressive police force?
William Madigan
Kakaako
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Trump did win majority of votes
Tony Tarrant suggested that dispirited Hillary Clinton backers find amusement in the proposition that Donald Trump supporters are calling for unity behind the president-elect while eight years ago, Rush Limbaugh rooted for President-elect Barack Obama’s failure (“Majority of voters chose Clinton,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Nov. 16).
Liberals have railed against Limbaugh for this supposed indiscretion ever since he actually called for the failure of Obama’s progressive policies. This method of spin and omission is exactly how the modern liberal movement has been successful in hijacking and controlling the narrative for years. What really is amusing is that Obama’s radical policies actually did fail, resulting in the current election outcome.
Where results are concerned, it stands to reason that since we are a constitutional republic of states and not a true democracy, Jeff Bergner is neither illiterate nor innumerate when he accurately claims that Trump won a majority of the votes — electoral votes.
Joan Rank
Waialua
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Let’s work to save our democracy
What now?
I seek a future different from the past. Many people are sad, angry and confused about an election showing people want change to take us back to the good old days. It feels like the nation has been sleeping and we just woke up on Nov. 9.
We started losing civil rights with the Patriot Act and today young people who are the future are waking up from complacency. Let the civics class begin. Those of us who lived through the civil rights movement must be willing to teach.
When I see the riots in the streets, I pray for a more productive approach while finding reassurance the next generation will not be manipulated by prejudice. Now move with purpose to preserve freedom and respect for human dignity. Seek truth, find common ground, feel the fear, express love and save democracy.
Sara Marshall
Aiea
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Electors can still keep Trump out
Republicans and the GOP have been saying Donald Trump is dangerous and should not be president.
Here is an opportunity for them to prove they are honest and that they care about country.
Chosen electors of the Electoral College will vote for a president when they meet on Dec. 19 in their own state capitals.
There is nothing stopping any of the electors from voting their conscience and refusing to support the candidate to whom they were bound, or from abstaining from voting altogether.
There’s a name for it: “faithless elector.”
Alexander Hamilton believed the electors would ensure that “the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.”
Well, guess what? It happened.
Electors should put their votes toward the person who got more votes from American citizens. Elect the person for whom Americans voted, not the one for whom the states voted.
Dennis Chaquette
Keaau
