Oahu is suffering an unnatural disaster, caused by U.S. Navy negligence and incompetence. The city should require the Navy to mitigate the damages it has caused.
The Navy should face substantial financial penalties for its long history of fuel spills and its secrecy and deceptions in failing to acknowledge and minimize these spills. Penalties should include compensation for all city expenses and additional penalties for past dishonesty.
Further, the Navy should be required to replace the water that was lost to the cleanup and the water that Oahu may no longer safely access.
The Navy is a leading developer and builder of salt-to-fresh water desalination systems. The Navy boasts its ships stand ready to supply emergency fresh water to victims of natural disasters. In our unnatural disaster, Oahu has no shortage of salt water for the Navy to convert to replacement fresh water.
Henry Bennett
East Honolulu
Har should resign from elected office
As an Air Force veteran and registered voter, I have come to the realization that the state representative for District 42 has no sense of comprehension regarding the controversy over her prior DUI arrest (“House to consider whether Hawaii state Rep. Sharon Har should detail terms of license revocation,” Star-Advertiser, April 22).
I understand that she had been acquitted of the charge. However; the fact remains that she compromised her standing and character, and most importantly, the highest standards to elected public office. She has never approached the voters in her district to explain herself. Her personal attorney, who is explaining on her behalf to a House committee, is not the duly sworn public official from the district.
House Speaker Scott Saiki has failed to lead in this circumstance, the House does not seem to care, and Har only cares about herself and not the voters and/or citizens in her district.
It is time that Har consider stepping down from her seat and let the district move on to a new chapter to renew itself.
Jackie L. Grambusch Jr.
Kapolei
Price hike takes fun out of vanity plates
Vanity license plates are fun. They add a bit of whimsy to otherwise unwhimsical Hawaii traffic.
At $25 per year these plates are affordable by most people who own a car. But not anymore. Someone in the government decided $25 vanity plates are a luxury. They weren’t then but they are now, and the cost has been increased to $60 per year. I guess the officials who decided this don’t think poor people should have fun.
I wonder if a study was made to estimate how much additional revenue this silly decision will bring in. My guess is that it will probably end up losing money because many people, including myself, will cancel our vanity plates rather than pay the higher fee. This is known as the law of unintended consequences.
Kate Smith
Kailua
Biden weak on Russia, no ‘wartime president’
Months after President Joe Biden predicted that assembled Russian forces would invade Ukraine, the expected war created 5 million refugees and parts of the eastern and southern regions of the country are controlled by the invaders.
The president’s much-touted diplomatic skills failed to rally European nations that make a difference to stop Russian oil and gas supplies, the one condition that would have made the invasion economically ruinous and preventable. Columnist Froma Harrop noted that the president is overseeing a “flood of arms” to Ukraine (“Ukraine is our war and Biden our wartime president,” Star-Advertiser, April 21).
But the flood lacked the heavy arms continuously requested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy since the start of the invasion to contend with an armor and missile blitzkrieg.
Harrop managed to criticize former President Donald Trump, as she routinely does, citing him as “God’s gift to Putin” even though Trump recognized the threat of Putin’s Russia, pressured NATO nations to increase defense spending and sent forces to nations neighboring Russia. Biden, on the other hand, is not the wartime “Franklin Roosevelt” Harrop would have us visualize.
Tom Freitas
Hawaii Kai
Reardon should get over Jones, support Chang
The Star-Advertiser should start a new column in the sports section called, “Reardon and Jones.”
I had thought that Dave Reardon had finally moved on from his disastrous, lost-cause endorsement of former Hawaii head coach June Jones and was fully on board with new coach Timmy Chang. But then, in a recent column, he reiterated his complaint about not replacing Todd Graham with Jones (“University of Hawaii athletics remains in the political crosshairs,” Star-Advertiser, April 24).
It’s also incredibly ironic that Reardon had written an article about how great the spring football “Island Day” had turned out with Chang (“Island Day turned out to be fun day for Hawaii football, fans,” Star-Advertiser, April 17).
Readers may have noticed Jones’ name appearing quite regularly in Reardon’s columns even after his epic failed endorsement. It’s time for Reardon to move on. Timmy Chang is our new head coach, so get on board with “Da Braddahhood”!
Judd Ota
Aiea
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