Residents suffer as homeless increase

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s coverage of state Rep. Gene Ward’s efforts on homelessness in East Oahu is an injustice to him and a disservice to residents of our community (“Lawmaker issues map of Hawaii Kai homeless,” Star-Advertiser, Dec. 27).

Some homeless are invisible, many are not. I have been harassed while entering our only remaining supermarket. Many private and public areas have become toilets for their use. The risk of wildfire is a real threat to residents.

Crime including auto thefts, vandalism and home invasions have increased.

The city and state have done little to address this continuing problem. The homeless were chased out of Waikiki for the sake of tourism. Why, then, should law-abiding, taxpaying residents be held hostage to this increasing growth of the homeless in residential areas?

I keep reading that many of the homeless refuse help and choose not to relocate. If this is their constitutional right, what about our rights?

Judith Liu

Hawaii Kai

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Homeowners need property tax relief

California passed a law in 1978 that restricted annual increases of assessed value property taxes to an inflation factor, to protect homeowners from being taxed out of their homes.

We need a similar law here to prevent kupuna from losing their homes due to increased property values and property taxes.

Peter Lee

Nuuanu

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It’s time we stop shielding Israel

Under both Democratic and Republican administrations, the United States has long opposed expansion of Israeli settlements in Arab areas of the West Bank and Jerusalem. Yet the same administrations have used the veto to block United Nations Security Council solutions condemning those settlements.

The Obama administration, however, decided to stop playing that game. Instead of vetoing an anti-settlements resolution, it abstained, thereby setting off an uproar of protest from the Israeli government.

The American Jewish community can be expected to divide sharply on this issue. Liberals will applaud President Barack Obama’s action because they agree that the settlements are an obstacle to peace between Arabs and Jews. Conservatives, who generally support the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu, will condemn Obama as no friend of Israel.

Obama did the right thing. It is time the United States stopped shielding Israel from condemnation by the world community and force Israeli hardliners to face the bleak consequences of their settlements policy.

Carl H. Zimmerman

Salt Lake

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The Electoral College has failed the people

The fact that the vast majority of electors smugly refused to do the right thing on Dec. 19 — drop their support for Donald Trump and redeem the Electoral College — just serves as further proof that the College ultimately puts politics before people, and can no longer be trusted to do its job competently.

This system was set up to prevent people exactly like Trump from getting elected, not cause it.

All the intellectual jibber-jabber in the world by defenders of the College, about our “wise Founding Fathers” and such, cannot excuse the breathtaking injustice of what happened with this election, and how utterly these people failed the public.

Hopefully by 2020, there will be enough of a scathing public outcry against it that this kooky, antediluvian system finally will be given the ax.

Kevin Johnson

Kakaako

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Homeless solution not good enough

The city government in Portland, Ore., passed a law that raises corporate taxes on companies whose chief executive officers make 100 times more in salary than the median pay of their employees.

According to Business Insider, the increased tax revenue would help relieve Portland’s homelessness problem.

Hawaii is No. 1 among the other states with a homeless problem.

Recently, state and county bureaucrats closed out the homeless in areas of Kanaha, Wailuku River (Iao Stream), Kahului Harbor, Lower Main Street and other places throughout Maui.

Their solution to solve the homelessness problem reminds me of the analogy of cleaning out the dirt in the house by sweeping it under the rug.

Sooner or later, the pile of dirt will become so large that a person will not be able to enter the house.

Michael S. Downing

Haiku, Maui

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Media is too quick to judge police chief

What happened to “innocent until proven guilty?”

Accolades have noted the years of faithful public service that Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha has given our city. Why are we so quick to condemn a good man and yet too willing to believe someone who readily admits that he has already lied under oath (“Chief Kealoha faces federal indictment, accepts restricted duty,” Star-Advertiser, Dec. 20)?

Shame on the media for sensationalism. Think of the lives you are tampering with. Wake up, people, and extend aloha to those who deserve it.

Amy Ishida

Kalihi

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Court vacancy must be swiftly appointed

On New Year’s Eve day, Richard Clifton assumed senior status (a form of semi-retirement) after more than 14 years of dedicated service on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The vacancy created will immediately be designated a “judicial emergency” because of the huge Ninth Circuit docket.

Thus, the new Senate and president must cooperate to swiftly fill the opening. Hawaii’s U.S. Senators should promptly recommend well-qualified, mainstream candidates for White House consideration, and President Donald Trump should rapidly nominate.

The Senate must then expeditiously process the nominee, so that Hawaii will have a full complement of active judges and the nation’s largest appellate court will be able to deliver justice.

Carl Tobias

Richmond, Va.