I can see how mainlanders have a bad image of Hawaii drivers. Driving my children to school and myself to work has become a stressful time when patience is greatly tested.
Our local drivers are constantly running or rolling through stop signs, not yielding or waiting their turn at 4-way stops and blocking intersections.
I just recently had an experience by Kamehameha Shopping Center in Kalihi. At a yellow traffic light, a silver Honda Odyssey pulled out and blocked the entire intersection so no cars could go. This driver could have pulled from the left lane into the right to allow cars to move through the intersection, but instead continued to sit blocking the whole intersection while eating a breakfast sandwich.
A quick honk of the horn just resulted in her flipping me off. What has happen to our aloha spirit, common sense and etiquette?
Jessica Omoto
Aiea
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Build prison, bring inmates back home
I was a witness to the first mainland movement from Halawa Correctional Facility in 1995. Now, I have first-hand experience by being in Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona. After reading an editorial from a weeks-old Star-Advertiser, about creating a committee for a new correctional facility (“Build new jail at quarantine site,” Star-Advertiser, Our View, Nov. 14, 2017), here’s my conclusion and solution: Hawaii needs a new prison. Not rail. Not drama. Not excuses. Just construction and completion of a new prison, and the creation of jobs.
One added note: Ninety percent of Hawaii inmates are getting out one day. The export, banishment and separation of these men is damaging and counter-intuitive of our cultural practice of aloha.
Bret Guinan
Saguaro Correctional Center
Eloy, Ariz.
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Abortions encourage disrespect for life
The Feb. 27 editorial cartoon kind of made my tummy turn. Violence against schoolchildren in our everyday U.S. culture made me wonder: What is happening?
Then I think back to when the Roe v. Wade court decision allowed pregnant women to terminate their pregnancies. If it is OK to do away with an unborn child, what are we teaching the children who survived and were born? So if we can kill the unborn, must be OK to kill children in school?
I am so saddened by all these needless deaths. I may be off base, but I wonder.
Josi K. Hahn
Kaneohe
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Restraining orders trigger danger
On the evening news, a gentleman from the Hawaii Rifle Association spoke in opposition to a bill reducing the gun surrender time from 30 days to seven days if a restraining order is issued against someone.
The most dangerous time in a woman’s life is immediately after getting a restraining order. If a restraining order is issued, the police should take the person home and get the weapons. How crazy to let someone judged a danger to keep firearms.
Joe Rosner
Captain Cook, Hawaii island
