Cherish the water, close Red Hill fuel facility

How many times over the past many years has the Red Hill fuel storage facility leaked fuel into the ground? Many!

Now our military ohana members (the canary in the coal mine) are being badly impacted by fuel into their water supply. What about the water supply of the surrounding communities? When will this nightmare ever end? When will the Navy do the right thing and close down the Red Hill fuel tanks?

Enough is enough. Protect our community’s most precious water. E malama i ka wai — cherish the water.

Georgette Nohea Stevens

Nanakuli

Praise for Rittenhouse unwarranted, wrong

It was sickening to read Richard Kawelo’s enthusiasm for Kyle Rittenhouse (“Rittenhouse responded to rioting, destruction,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Nov. 2).

Kawelo has idolized a very disturbed young man who went on a lark with an AR-15-style rifle. The complete lack of empathy for this aspiring vigilante’s victims and Kawelo’s criticism of law enforcement and elected officials speak volumes about his perspective.

The tragedies that Rittenhouse caused while pretending to protect an empty car lot are a superb argument for removing military-grade munitions from children and restricting it to the military use for which it was designed.

This is not a Second Amendment issue and those who attempt to portray it as such are more than disingenuous. They are also wrong.

Ernie Saxton

Wahiawa

Parents accountable for children’s crimes

Regarding the latest school shooting (“Parents of Michigan boy charged in Oxford school shooting,” Star-Advertiser, Top News, Dec. 3): It’s about time our legal system starts to prosecute parents for the crimes that their adolescent children commit, because they are somewhat at fault, regardless of whether it’s a shooting or a lesser crime. The result would be better parenting, less crime and happier families.

Jeff Bigler

Wailuku

New rail line in Laos half the cost of HART’s

A suggestion for the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation and the City Council: Read about the new rail line in Laos launching this week. It’s only $5.9 billion (half of HART costs) and is 642 miles long. Our small 20-mile project costs more than $500 million per mile.

The Laos project is $9 million per mile. Can we just hire the company that’s doing theirs?

Or, as a previous contributor suggested, hire Elon Musk to remove the tracks and string a few electric buses together for the same ridership.

Joel Brilliant

Hawaii Kai

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