I am pleased that the administration at Punahou School, my alma mater, has decided to allow the boy whose father was accused of sexual crimes to finish out the semester. His father has been accused of very serious crimes. Yet if he has agreed not to come on campus, how is this now a safety issue for the school?
If his father is convicted of any of the alleged crimes, this boy will not be seeing his dad for a very long time. The school is one of the constant refuges in his life. The parents of his classmates want to remove the familiarity and support of a school he knows just when he needs them the most.
When my daughter’s father had a life-threatening illness, school was the one place where she could just be a normal teenager. Schools can be a safe haven on many levels.
Linda Wong Stringer
Retired school counselor, Salt Lake
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Paradigm of funding roads needs change
Proposed Senate Bill 1011 that would add a flat tax to electric-vehicle registration fees for road use is regressive because while some EV owners may drive 10,000 miles per year, others might drive considerable less or more. Vehicle registration on Oahu is currently based at least partially on weight, assuming that heavy vehicles are harder on our roads. So why should the owner of a Nissan Leaf that weighs 3,400 pounds pay the same road-use fee as the owner of a Tesla Model X that weighs 2,000 pounds more?
Bottom line: The whole paradigm of our method of funding roadways needs to be reconceived — with all vehicles, regardless of their energy source , being charged in some measured and fair way. This means moving away from a tax-at-the-pump to a registration or other fee for all vehicles based on factors like vehicle weight and quantifiable cost.
Robert Hughes
Kailua
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Much not foreseen by Founding Fathers
Letter-writer Kurt Butler’s assertion that the Second Amendment “meant single-shot muskets” is a cute historical perspective (Clearly constitutional to bear … muskets,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 22). Perhaps what the Founders meant was citizens are entitled to the same type of guns as an over-stepping or oppressive government?
While I have little doubt the Founders anticipated machine guns would be available to psychopaths, I also doubt the Founders would have envisioned the IRS targeting citizens for their conservative views or eminent domain laws enabling the snatching of private property to build a privately funded shopping mall. It’s time for a great debate in this country.
Kris Schwengel
Hawaii Kai
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System and humans fail, but guns blamed
I find the issues concerning the shooting in Florida very interesting. The shooter had every possible red flag go up: with the police, who were there more than 20 times; child services were involved sometimes; and FBI offiicals, they dropped the ball.
The system failed.
But are we talking about that? No, we are blaming the National Rifle Association, whose mission is firearms education and protecting the Second Amendment. We are saying that it’s the gun, not the man who pulled the trigger and all his issues that are never dealt with.
I realize what many anti-gun people really want is for the Second Amendment to go away. That is their end goal.
Bob Bretschneider
Waipahu
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Teachers must teach, not be armed cops
I think most people by this point understand that Donald Trump is a moron. Fewer people are aware that the National Rifle Association gave his campaign $30 million. Fewer still recognize that the NRA is not an organization for gun owners; it is an organization for gun manufacturers. Nearly every proposal it makes is aimed at selling more guns.
So it’s not surprising that Trump has adopted the NRA’s ridiculous and dangerous idea to arm teachers.
One can envision several scenarios: (1) kids shot while in the crossfire between a teacher and an intruder, (2) an angry/troubled student stealing a teacher’s gun, or overpowering a teacher for the gun, (3) a troubled teacher shooting another teacher or students, (4) a teacher with a gun, who has engaged an intruder, being shot mistakenly by a SWAT team.
Teachers need to teach, not be junior cops.
David Weiss
Kaimuki
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Second deep-draft harbor too costly
When Gov. David Ige announced improvements for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, he articulated the need for a second deep-draft harbor as a lifeline if Honolulu Harbor is severely damaged in an attack or natural disaster.
Shortly after the Haiti earthquake and Hurricane Katrina, Ed Teixeira, then Civil Defense vice director, convened a statewide emergency management conference to identify vulnerabilities of our island state.
It consisted of federal agencies, military, state and local leaders along with first responders.
The key takeaway then was also that we had only one deep-draft harbor, Honolulu Harbor. Shortly thereafter, the Navy stated that it would open Pearl Harbor as a backup harbor for needed food, materials and recovery equipment.
The caveat was that to enter Pearl Harbor, the vessels had be to U.S.-flagged, U.S.-owned and crewed by American citizens.
To build another harbor would cost more than our unfinished rail project.
Creighton W. Goldsmith
Former chairman of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Civil Defense, Nuuanu
