The Star-Advertiser carried some shocking news: Colleen Hanabusa has been awarded a $924,000 contract as “liaison” between the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation and government agencies (“Colleen Hana- busa, ex-chairwoman of Honolulu rail board, gets $924,000 HART contract,” Star-Advertiser, April 29).

Shocking because while HART is running billions in the red, it creates a new, hugely paid “liaison” position. Shocking because during Hanabusa’s recent role as member and chair of the HART board, the rail was badly mismanaged and plagued by deep cost overruns. Why pick someone whose job overseeing HART was a failure?

But maybe not so shocking because Hanabusa is a deeply connected political insider, a former U.S. congresswoman with powerful allies. That she was the sole applicant for this hugely well-paid job shows that it was created for her. And perhaps Hanabusa’s real “liaison” role will be to reassure Hawaii’s people that this disastrous venture will yet turn out a winner.

Our political system is clearly broken. We can start taking back our rights as citizens by demanding the immediate elimination of the HART “liaison” position and the Hanabusa contract.

Noel Kent

Manoa

Public needs more say in running rail project

David Shapiro’s Sunday column was on the mark (“Administrations change, but never Honolulu rail authority’s malfeasance,” Star-Advertiser, Volcanic Ash, May 2).

We need clarity.

We the people who bear the never- ending rail burden have no say in who makes the critical rail decisions.

Colleen Hanabusa’s past political endeavors (election losses) do not bode well for her.

Is it time yet for public input?

Deborah J. Freitas

Kailua

Add double-turn lane from Vineyard to Pali

In regards to the recent article saying the traffic lights will be adjusted to better control traffic from Vineyard Boulevard onto Pali Highway (“State will fix traffic-light cycle at Pali Highway and Vineyard Boulevard,” Star- Advertiser, Kokua Line, April 30): May I kindly suggest and highly recommend that the state Department of Transportation look favorably on making the left turn from Vineyard onto the Pali a double-lane turn to improve the flow of traffic from Vineyard onto the Pali?

Sanford Friedman

Nuuanu

Time to restore access to West Side beaches

We are approaching summer and the Division of State Parks continues to close parking access to the Yokohama Bay (Keawaula) and Makua beach parks. First it was the COVID-19 crisis. Now, it’s enforcement and maintenance issues. These are Department of Land and Natural Resources responsibilities that the state is shirking. The public pressure is rising to get this basic service restored.

Meanwhile, the Army continues to block pedestrian public access through the Pililaau recreational facility at Waianae’s Pokai Bay. Once again, it’s the COVID-19 issue, which is fading fast as vaccinations becoming ubiquitous. People were allowed to cross the 50-yard parking lot from the guard house to the sand by simply showing photo identification. The civilian public must now skirt the facility by going through the homeless area that is threatening to families trying to reach the beach.

Our question is not if but when will the public be able to reach our shores safely?

John and Rita Shockley

Free Access Coalition

Disturbing reports of racism by UH students

There’s been plenty of news is the last few years to make Americans of goodwill sick to their stomachs. Hate and violence seem commonplace and the lack of critical thinking in some corners of the populace should cause us all to fear the future of democracy.

Few stories have affected me as viscerally as the recent report of racist language and behavior by some University of Hawaii students, which caused Morehouse College, Spellman College and other schools to withdraw from the recent Penn USUDC 2021 debate competition in Pennsylvania.

While the students in question were not part of an official UH team, and the UH provost is appropriately conducting an investigation, these student have brought shame upon themselves, on our university and on our state, in theory the bastion of aloha and tolerance.

Kudos to the debate teams who withdrew in protest with their heads held high. Our heads should hang in shame.

Susan Walker Kowen

Makiki

Today’s Democrats more Marxist in their outlook

Wokeness and cancel culture are now prominent markers of the dominant hard-left Democratic Party.

Its members topple statues, reject our past and most forms of Americana, and cancel opinions they don’t like. To atone for its past and to be consistent, the “Democratic” Party also should be canceled. It was the party of slavery and rebellion, anti-reconstructionist, the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow, Dixiecrats and opposed civil rights in the 1960s.

Today, Democrats insult Blacks as less capable (e.g., obtaining a simple voter ID); they demean whites and push racist and absurd critical race theory and the 1619 Project.

People like Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters also have actively endorsed the antifa and Black Lives Matter movements to help achieve their aims. Perhaps the “American Marxist Party” would be a more fitting description of what the Democratic Party is today.

John Fernie

Kailua

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