I recently returned from a vacation in so-called Third World countries. The airports in Vietnam and Cambodia were sensational. They made you feel like a welcomed traveler and the architecture was reminiscent of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright. Spectacular, modern wall-to-wall glass everywhere. Clean and working bathrooms, and helpful people.

What a disappointment to come home to our dump, which looks like something out of the 1940s. First there was the standing-room-only bus that took us from the tarmac to the terminal, since the plane couldn’t park directly at the gate. No air-conditioning, of course.

Then, we had to walk up broken escalators. The bathrooms were filthy. How often do they wash the black, dirty tile grout between the floor tiles? Once a year?

All in all, it was a very unpleasant welcome home. Wouldn’t it be great if they could just tear down the whole dump and start from scratch?

Walter Mahr

Mililani

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We should value individual choice

Some say life is God’s gift. If it is, so is free choice. Through our choices we form our lives and shape our character.

Senate Bill 1129, the proposed aid-in-dying legislation, is about the choice to bring one’s own life to its inevitable end in a manner that fulfills one‘s unique, individual life and character.

This choice will not be for everyone. But freedom of choice is an inalienable right, requisite to any pursuit of happiness. Based on the premise that citizens are rational, independent, possessed of autonomy and aware of their self-interests, we allow people to make a wide range of choices. And legislators have a responsibility to protect the choices of the few so that our society remains free, accommodating and even celebrating differences.

If our society truly values individual choice, why would we so coldly disregard its importance when life approaches its end?

Sharon Rowe

Makiki

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ACA helps us care for one another

As a former single mom who raised five children while putting herself through school, I am so thankful for the ACA (Affordable Care Act) and support it fully.

My children are now parents themselves, and support themselves and their families, but I will never forget the struggle to provide health care for them as well as trying to feed and clothe them.

Now I am an elder adult in senior living, and see the struggle of many of my friends to provide adequate care for loved ones whose health is failing. We cannot ignore the needs of our seniors, or the needs of our children. We must all help one another.

The Rev. Barbara Grace Ripple

Kaneohe

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Repave entrances to park, golf course

Ala Moana Beach Park and Ala Wai Golf Course both have the same problem — roads that need repaving.

The Ala Moana Beach Park entrance next to the Waikiki Yacht Club has hundreds of vehicles entering daily. The first few hundred feet is like driving through a minefield, trying to dodge potholes. It’s not a good impression for the park.

The entrance to the Ala Wai Golf Course entrance is almost as bad. Megabucks were spent on the driving range, but not a dime on the entrance.

I guess bike lanes are more important.

Ken Taylor

Manoa