Letters: Money wasted on rail could help homeless; UH coach’s approach not suited for today; Making money trumps China’s rights violations

Imagine the islands where every homeless person would be provided with a place to live, and state-of-the-art hospitals would provide them with mental and physical health care. Imagine the islands where all decrepit streets would be repaired and paved with the highest quality asphalt.

These visions could be reality if taxes collected were used for those purposes instead of the boondoggle Honolulu rail transit project.

Stop this eyesore project at Middle Street. Instead, create a first-class bus system to take passengers on a 15-minute ride to Ala Moana Center and, from there, an eight-minute ride to Waikiki. This action requires politicians to believe that respect for human dignity must be their highest priority.

With this belief, all future taxes would be diverted from the rail project and used to implement the above visions, and other needs that elevate the quality of life for all the people of Hawaii.

Carlino Giampolo

Waikiki

Compassion can help end homelessness

I’ve heard a lot of complaints about “the homeless” lately, as if homelessness is a permanent condition of certain folks who don’t deserve any better than to be left on the streets like outcasts, as if vagrants are all they are and all they will ever be.

This is far from the truth. Homelessness is a temporary condition and there is no such thing as “the homeless,” only people experiencing homelessness. If we all could focus on the people part and treat everyone with true compassion and respect, we’d make more progress on ending homelessness.

Alika Campbell

Kailua

Jackie Robinson’s stint as Honolulu football QB

The Star-Advertiser published an informative series on Hawaii baseball and football players whose exploits were disrupted by the events of Dec. 7, 1941 (“Careers gone in a blink,” Dec. 6; “The last at-bat,” Dec. 7).

It would be well to remember also the ultimately most famous of the then-Hawaii athletes, Jackie Robinson. We all know about Robinson breaking the race barrier in major league baseball. But when he graduated as a three-sport star from UCLA, his first love was football.

No NFL team would accept a black player, but Honolulu’s semi-pro team, the Bears, accepted him with open arms. He starred at quarterback in the fall of 1941, before promptly enlisting in the Army after the Pearl Harbor attack and then finding his opportunity in baseball after the war — to the benefit of all Americans.

Jack Ashby

Hawaii Kai

UH coach’s approach not suited for today

Regarding reports about University of Hawaii football coach Todd Graham yelling, screaming, scolding and using four-letter words to motivate his players as part of being a strict-disciplinarian coach/teacher: This kind of conduct is not acceptable in 2021. People today address men and women with respect and aloha. There is no place for that kind of behavior, whether in Hawaii, Arizona or elsewhere. And it certainly is not the ballplayers’ fault.

Bringing Chevan Cordeiro back will not change the current UH football culture as much as changing the coach.

Franklin Young

Manoa

Move fuel from Red Hill tanks immediately

Lt. Gov. Josh Green seems to be the only lawmaker with a realistic, safe solution (“Navy secretary’s plan to visit Oahu raises hopes for Red Hill drinking water solution,” Star-Advertiser, Dec. 3). He found a way to remove the fuel now, unlike others who keep saying they are “concerned” or only keep proposing “investigations.”

There have been more than enough investigations that found leaks but led to nothing. These are 80-plus-year-old tanks that are corroding, as are the pipes, which understandably also are leaking. Leaks have been documented even by the military multiple times over the years.

The people of Honolulu should learn what the military families are enduring because of fuel leaking into their water, because it’s only a matter of time before it happens to the rest of us in Honolulu, too.

Fuel tanks have been moved on the mainland. Why not here?

Emily Nomura

Downtown Honolulu

Navy can use tankers to hold fuel temporarily

I was saddened to hear that the drinking water around Red Hill has become contaminated. In a way, it was a message to treat this matter with serious consideration.

Pearl Harbor is a very large base. Perhaps enough tankers can be docked to temporarily hold a large volume of fuel until a serious and permanent solution can be developed by the U.S. Navy to prevent any more contamination of drinking water around Red Hill.

James Kataoka

Mililani

Military thinking puts health of Hawaii last

The Navy’s refusal to remove fuel to safeguard Honolulu’s water supply is typical military “national security” thinking: When it really comes down to it, Hawaii and its people are expendable.

Eric Terashima

Hilo

Making money trumps China’s rights violations

I hear about all the human rights violations that China is accused of, including genocide of the Uyghur people.

My question is: Why is the world and the United States allowing this to happen? The NBA, Hollywood, Apple, Nike and many other companies accommodate China and just overlook the human rights violations to fatten their bottom lines.

John Berry

Punahou

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