STICK TO BUS

LEARN FROM HONOLULU'S PAST ABOUT RAIL TRANSIT

I am 75 years old, and I remember the streetcars that ran on rail in Honolulu. Then came the trolley buses that ran on electricity. It cost the city millions of dollars to remove the rails.

Now our mayor wants to spend millions more to put rail back in the streets of Honolulu. Just what is our mayor using for brains? Raising taxes to support a rail system that will not be used.

Please, Mr. Mayor, look into the history of Honolulu and city transport, and you will learn what will work. Don't go off half-cocked on a rail system. So far we have a great bus system; let's keep it going and expand it all around our island. Bus transport is less expensive than rail. We need not raise taxes for that.

MOTORCYCLES

HELMET LAW EDITORIAL WAS MISSING THE FACTS

The Advertiser based its Aug. 10 editorial call for mandatory motorcycle helmets on a recent flawed study concerning the results of Florida's past five years of helmet law repeal.

Of course fatalities of Florida's motorcyclists have increased; during the past five years, Florida's motorcycle registrations have increased 111 percent. Also not mentioned or considered in the editorial is the fact that this 111 percent increase in registrations has, through sales taxes and tag and title fees, put over $145 million more into that state's treasury.

Furthermore, at a conservative estimate of $10,000 per motorcycle, over $2 billion has been put into Florida's economy through bike sales alone. And motorcyclists have pumped almost $3 billion into Florida's economy from Bike Week and Biketoberfest over the past five years.

In short, Florida's motorcyclists pay their fair share.

The notion put forth in the editorial of injured motorcyclists being a public burden is repugnant, bigoted bunk that first gained currency thanks to former California Assembly member Dick Floyd who, after getting a helmet law passed in California by demagoging the issue in much the same way as The Advertiser, admitted he fabricated his "facts."

A Washington state study has shown that motorcyclists are just as likely as any other societal group to have health insurance. The truth is that the public burden resulting from car crashes is thousands of times greater than from motorcycle accidents.

POWER PLANTS

U.S. MERCURY EMISSION JUST FRACTION OF WORLD'S

An Aug. 9 letter claimed that power plants were "the largest U.S. source of mercury emissions" and criticized the Bush administration for not "cracking down" on them.

Worldwide, 39 percent of mercury emissions comes from natural sources such as volcanos and rivers flowing into the oceans; 16 percent comes from burning biomass; 42 percent comes from man-made sources in China, Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia; and 3 percent comes from U.S. man-made sources, including the 1 percent from our nation's power plants.

As a result, cracking down even harder on American electric utilities would not accomplish very much in this regard.

STUPIDITY

CAR THIEVES NOT DOING THEMSELVES ANY FAVORS

I read the police beat in the paper daily, wanting to see what's happening and to keep up on various issues.

Something, though, has started to stand out as really stupid:

People stealing cars.

If you steal a car, what are you thinking and where are you going? We are on an island, and unless you're going to spend over $1,000 to ship the car off to the Mainland, you're going to get caught. Hello?

It's different on the Mainland, where, if you steal a car, you can drive it 3,000 miles across the country. But the island here is only, what, 116 miles the whole way around? Combine that with the fact that everybody knows everybody else. I can just hear these conversations on the phone ...

Friend: "Hey, Jim, where you at, bro?"

Jim: "Why, what you need?"

Friend: "Oh, nuttin. I just saw your car parked down the street and wondered where you are."

Jim: "My car was stolen yesterday."

Friend: "Yea? It's over here parked at Mark's, come get it."

Besides, you're stealing a car? For what? Just so you can pay $3 per gallon gas and get stuck in traffic with the rest of them?

Take the bus; it's only $40 a month and it will not end you up in jail.

WINDWARD RESCUE

MAHALO TO FISHERMEN WHO CHOSE TO KOKUA

For many in Hawai'i, fishing is not just a sport, it is a way of life. We feed our families and friends with the bounty of the deep blue sea, although overfishing has forced local fishermen to venture farther and farther offshore. Traveling dozens of miles out to sea can be risky no matter how prepared our boat, crew and equipment are.

Recently, 20 miles off the Windward O'ahu coastline, a fishing boat stalled and started drifting. The two-man crew was in distress, and the situation warranted immediate assistance to avoid disaster.

A boat visible miles off in the distance was contacted by radio but would not render assistance because the 'ahi were running and they were waiting to hanapa'a. Where's the aloha?

Is a plate of sashimi more valuable than the lives of fellow fishermen in need?

Mahalo to the crew that eventually came to the rescue. Though much farther out than the boat too busy to kokua, they helped get our 'ohana safely to shore. May you always be blessed with a catch to nourish you and yours. Mahalo!