Yearn for driverless cars amid busy roads

Time was, honking your horn in Honolulu traffic was a no-no. It’s noisier on the street these days, with more people leaning on their horns, but maybe that’s understandable. Back in the day there weren’t so many people running red lights, rolling through the right on a red, talking/texting on the phone, or running over pedestrians. It would seem that some honking is justified — if only to wake up the clueless scofflaw.

I look forward to self-driving cars to solve most of the pilot-error problems we currently suffer through on a daily basis. Imagine Siri not just navigating, but doing all the driving — for everyone. Talk about polite. Not to mention the end of road rage.

Kevin O’Leary

Kalihi

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Universal care is step toward socialism

Vladimir Lenin said, “Socialized medicine is the keystone to the arch of the socialized state.” If you want socialism, universal health care is the first step. Remember that Nazi Germany was socialist, as was the USSR (Union of Socialist Soviet Republics). Cuba and Venezuela are current examples.

Socialism will give you all your needs and take away all you own, make you dependent on government, subject to the will of bureaucrats. If you like government telling what you may have, you will love socialism.

We have government health care; it’s called VA hospitals. Today’s dream is tomorrow’s nightmare. When unlimited wants meet limited resources, something’s got to give. When you get too old, certain procedures and medicines will not be available.

Michael Lee

Wilhelmina Rise

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State skims from rail, doesn’t bail out city

Contrary to what some legislators have said, the state has never bailed out the city on the rail project. Not a dime of state funds has been spent on rail construction, just our 0.5 percent Oahu-“only” tax money collected through the general excise tax. Oahu residents have already been paying this for a decade and nobody even notices it.

However, it is true that legislators have skimmed millions and millions of dollars from this surcharge to pay for their pet projects they want to fund here on Oahu and on the neighbor islands.

Lawmakers should do the right thing and use this Oahu surcharge only to finish the rail project and stop raiding money through skimming. Reject Transportation Chairman Henry Aquino’s House bill, which would affect everyone’s property tax statewide and our vibrant visitor industry.

Martina Romero

Waipahu

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Pro-Trump cries of foul ring hollow

Now that Donald Trump is getting a lot of so-called “negative press,” his believers are crying foul and saying that the press is unfair. Really! It was OK when the press reported and televised all of the rhetoric he spewed during the campaign, though. Trump was quite pleased with himself then, garnering all the attention — the good, the bad and the ugly.

And now his supporters and he cry foul because members of Congress want to investigate the possible Russian connection and the firing of the head of the FBI. But, it was OK when they investigated Benghazi for two years because of Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Claudia Torres

Aiea

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Troops’ training vital to missions’ success

“I find it difficult to appreciate the military’s role in Hawaii,” wrote David Kimo Frankel (“Tough to embrace military here due to environmental harm,” Island Voices, Star-Advertiser, May 18).

Perhaps if he were here on Dec. 7, 1941, and saw what we did, he would feel differently. The training areas mentioned, i.e., Pohakuloa, Makua, Kahoolawe, etc., allowed our military to successfully accomplish its mission in the Pacific theater of operations. A mission in which more than 200,000 of our military died.

These military training areas are justifiably set aside to prepare our military for combat and in using the weapons that will allow them to accomplish their mission successfully with minimum casualties.

Regarding the cleanup of unexploded munitions in these training areas, it is not the military’s responsibility. It is the responsibility of Congress to provide the funds for it.

Bill Punini Prescott

Nanakuli

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Travel-refugee ban needed for security

Wake up, America!

After the recent attack in Manchester, England, in which 22 people were killed and at least 59 injured, I have one question to ask: Why are all of you who are against the travel ban so quiet now?

This is the very reason that President Donald Trump’s travel ban should exist. Trump’s No. 1 priority is to protect the American people. What if ban protesters’ families had been injured or killed in this horrific attack? Would their views still be the same?

Wake up, America. We need the travel ban.

Candace Asosaoletoetu

McCully

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Airport embarrassing for namesake Inouye

We’re former Hawaii residents, now residing in Las Vegas, returning from our visit to Fukuoka, Japan. Aboard were elder Japanese women anxious to visit Hawaii. Their impressions were quickly shattered as we were herded into overloaded wiki-wiki shuttle buses that had no ventilation.

To rename the Honolulu International Airport after our outstanding statesman, Daniel K. Inouye, is an embarrassment. International airports at other tourist destinations stand above and beyond the Honolulu facility.

Norman K.C. Chang

North Las Vegas, Nev.