Stop wasting money on rail project

This old obsolete steel-on-steel rail technology will bleed our taxpayers and my children and grandchildren to death. It is time to stop it where it is now.

Do not fund any more construction. Perhaps remove the old rusty tracks and put buses on it, creating high-occupancy transit lanes, just as good as an express lane to downtown.

The city has no money to support this obsolete rail. Why does the rail have to go to Ala Moana Center? Do you go shopping every day? The riders would still need to transfer to another bus to go wherever they have to go.

Furthermore, we also have a more important problem in Honolulu and statewide: the homeless issue.

Roland Louie

McCully-Moiliili

Lots of evidence of systemic racism

Bob Lamborn clearly does not see that systemic racism abounds in this country (“Evidence abounds that U.S. isn’t a racist nation,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, April 23).

Perhaps we don’t see blatant racism with fire hoses, dogs and baton beatdowns being unleashed on demonstrators during the civil rights movement, but I would argue that the heavy-handedness against the mainland’s demonstrators for Black Lives Matter often has been tragic.

Compare the #BLM demonstrations to a mostly white Trump/MAGA riot when our nation’s Capitol was almost overrun on Jan. 6. Where was the National Guard then?

Systemic racism is often about who gets the greatest say in this country, so consider the fact that the richest Americans, members of Congress, governors, media executives, full-time college professors, and owners of professional football teams, are mostly white.

We are lucky to live in Hawaii, where I believe there’s a lot more people-of-color representation than on the mainland. And a huge shout-out to U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, who led the bipartisan effort to pass an anti-Asian-hate bill.

Penny E. Nakamura

Haleiwa

We pay for Biden’s ‘free’ schools

Since when is spending $200 billion for free preschool and $200 billion for free community college actually free?

The answer is that it isn’t free. We, the taxpayers, are paying for all of these things. President Joe Biden has proposed about $4 trillion for infrastructure and other plans, and says it will be paid for by increasing taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals.

These two sources are a pipe dream. Billionaires are billionaires because they take advantage of every tax loophole through scads of lawyers. You could tax them at a 90% tax rate and not come up with trillions. You, your children and grandchildren for generations are going to be paying for these grandiose ideas.

Wake up. Nothing is free.

Craig Meyers

Aiea

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