The state has been inconsistent in the actual limits for speeding. At first, the limit was zero tolerance and now it is not. Motorists who were speeding only 1 or 2 mph over the limit were receiving tickets in the mail.

This is ridiculous considering that it is a conflict with the Honolulu Police Department's standard practice of 5 to 9 mph over the speed limit.

In addition, the state situated the vans on the Likelike and Pali highways for the first couple of weeks. If the majority of the vehicle-related fatalities occur at speeds less than 35 mph, it should put the vans in school zones where most motorists speed. Instead, the state put these vans in areas that would be a speed trap so the vans could issue more tickets.

If the state is really using the program simply for safety, it did not do a good job of making it evident to the public. Instead, its actions imply it is working on a bounty system.

Colleen Abe
Waipahu

'Clear photograph' won't always work

How wonderful that our all-knowing, all-seeing Legislature is modifying the law to require that a "clear photograph" be required for conviction of speeding drivers.

It is especially wonderful for all those with tinted windows (some even more tinted than allowed by law).

Does this mean that those thousands of individuals can speed to their hearts' content with impunity? (Unless they are stopped by police officers, of which we have an acute shortage for the coverage required.)

Raymond D. Lowman

Taxpayers deserve quality public schools

Well, excuuuuuse me, G. Ching, but just exactly who do you think pays for the public schools (Letters, March 7)? Taxpayers, that's who, and unless the lady who wanted good public schools for her children doesn't eat, rent or own a house, hold down a job or have any income at all, she pays taxes. And you. And me.

And she and the rest of us are entitled to demand a "real education" for the kids in public schools. Private schools are all very fine and good, and the public schools should be just as good.

Perhaps we should all be pushing for the Department of Education to go find out what makes private schools better and try to emulate that. For example, get rid of a significant portion of the huge administrative staff. Pay good teachers to go on teaching. You know, elementary stuff, like that.

The fact that the schools and their needs have been neglected for decades does not mean that the neglect should continue.

Let's hear it from tired taxpayers, like me.

E. Alau

Limiting county power of condemnation is right

The governor and three Senate committees that reported Senate Bill 2748 out are in strong agreement that the city's condemnation of several Waikiki parcels for the benefit of Outrigger Hotels is an abuse of its powers of eminent domain.

Even though this bill may be too late to stop this abuse, all is not lost, because this issue should be considered without the reference to a particular name or face, as justice is blind. The issue of government taking property from private landowners for the commercial benefit of another landowner, rather than for public purposes, must be addressed.

State Rep. Joseph Souki has so far stonewalled discussion and legislation that would do this, in effect killing the bill in the House. He has stated that he believes this is a county land-use decision, and added that I am pushing to limit county powers instead of expanding home rule, as was the case when I sat on the City Council. His statements seem to ignore some simple truths:

This is a matter of broad public policy, not some minor county land-use decision. The city is using its powers to give one party more leverage in negotiations and ultimately sidestepping individual property owners' rights in order to help a private landowner build a hotel complex. This would be an abuse of eminent domain whether exercised by the county, state or federal government.

Since the state granted the counties this power to condemn private property, it is the state's obligation to clarify the law if that power is used improperly.

If legislators don't speak out on the misuse of the government's power of eminent domain against the little guy now, you might be their next target.

Sen. Donna Mercado Kim
15th District (Kalihi Valley, 'Aiea)

Proposal to grant ag veto power wrong

Mayor Harris' proposed ordinance to hand over agriculture zoning veto power to an appointed state bureaucrat would strip O'ahu voters of the right to elect people who are accountable for yes or no votes. This is an alarming, most undemocratic proposal.

This agency head is already routinely invited to comment and offer recommendations on virtually all ag rezoning proposals. This power grab is effectively saying that despite all the background research, all the agency comments, all the public testimony, the elected council members are fundamentally incompetent, but a governor's appointed agency head has greater wisdom. Anyone remember the Waihe'e administration?

Can you imagine the extent and type of favors and supplication that would now flow to wooing this ag agency head "off the record" in order to win a favorable recommendation to the City Council?

I suggest this would actually undermine swing votes on the council in trying to hold a hard line on zoning, when a ruling bureaucrat weighs in for a governor's campaign committee's secret position on the matter.

This would move Hawai'i's fragile toehold of democracy back 100 years.

Keola Childs
Kailua, Kona, Big Island

Mandatory voting would fight apathy

You recently editorialized about the reasons for voter apathy in Hawai'i; what I propose is a solution to this perplexing problem: a mandatory vote.

Every person who reaches majority ought to be required by law to show up at the polls. (This law is already in place in many of the world's progressive democracies.)

"Undemocratic!" you say. Well, consider the fact that seat belts are already mandatory, as is vehicle insurance. But these laws are designed to save nothing but your life. The mandatory vote would be designed to save your freedom, and so the question then becomes: "Which is more important?"

Well, perhaps the words of a famous American patriot can assist us here. He said: "Give me liberty or give me death!"

The penalty for ignoring this mandate should be high, like a thousand dollars.

We should all understand that politicians will resist this notion, with all of their soft monetary fury. Because where it will lead us, ultimately, is to a direct democracy, which will (naturally) be of the people, by the people and for the people.

Carl Frederick
Kailua

Long-term-care plan isn't an insurance policy

Your March 6 editorial defending the long-term-care plan is based on a premise that simply is not true: "Most voters can recognize the difference between, say, an income tax, which funds every kind of service the government performs, and the Social Security tax, which is a lot more like an insurance or annuity payment, because the proceeds are used exclusively for its stated purpose."

No, taxes are taxes.

The money flowing in from the Social Security tax is commingled with all other taxes, and is spent by Congress for things entirely unrelated to the stated purpose. The revenue from the Social Security tax greatly exceeds the payments for Social Security payments, and has done so for years, yet I dare you to identify any hard assets whatsoever owned by the badly misnamed Social Security Trust Fund.

I am a former health insurance underwriter, and I can assure you that any insurance company that acted like the Social Security Trust Fund, spending its premiums on programs unrelated to its purpose and keeping no assets in reserve to pay claims, would be shut down by insurance regulators in a heartbeat, and the officers responsible fined or imprisoned.

Get your facts straight. The long-term-care plan is no insurance policy; it is a tax and a Ponzi scheme.

Jim Henshaw
Kailua

Security at concert was inconsiderate

I want to write a letter of complaint but I don't know to whom or where I should write. I want to complain about the way security was handled at the recent Janet Jackson concert. Things could have been handled in a much more efficient and considerate manner. I was quite shocked at what I experienced that night.

When my wife and I arrived at the gate, security informed us that no cameras or bags would be allowed in. We explained that we had come by bus so we had no car to put our disposable cameras and bag in. Security only gave us an option to leave our things (two disposable cameras in a bag) at the table alongside dozens of other disposable cameras at our own risk.

After the concert, the security tables were gone, the lost and found told us they didn't have our bag and that security had thrown all disposable cameras away. I was furious yet determined to at least get our cameras back (which contained pictures from our last trip), so I asked where the cameras were thrown. None of the staff knew. We were humiliated by the fact that we had to resort to randomly digging around in garbage cans in order to have any hope of finding our things.

We left empty-handed and quite unhappy. I believe in tight security after the Sept. 11 attacks, but I also believe in customer satisfaction. In an event like the concert, the organizing body must take into consideration both security and customer satisfaction.

Andrei Lyovin

Keep quarantine; rabies isn't pretty

On relocating to the Mainland, I experienced both distemper and rabies and what they do to our pets. Believe me, it is not pretty.

Our puppy one day started foaming at the mouth and running blindly into anything in its path. I just stood and cried, and this was only distemper. He was treated with a pill, to be taken every day. We missed one day, and it happened again. I could not handle it.

Our adopted pet cat tangled with a rabid skunk. She nearly went crazy, and, in her own way, begged us to put her out of her misery. It was hard to do, but even harder to watch her suffer.

Until you see the results of rabies, and I hope you never will, you should fight to keep Hawai'i free of this problem.

Darleen Binney
Waipahu

Fund drug treatment centers through busts

We have a son who is a recovering drug user. He could have been serving "empty time" in OCCC right now.

He committed burglary to support his drug addiction. However, the courts sent him to a drug treatment center instead of prison. He's been in this treatment center for two months. We are proud of what he has accomplished in so short a time. OCCC wouldn't have given him that chance.

We have seen the homes, cars, jewelry, drugs and the money that have been confiscated from drug busts. My question is, where does all that "drug money" go?

If you are given a traffic citation, a portion of that fee is placed into a fund for driver's education. When the tobacco companies were sued, a portion of that financial suit was also allocated to undo the damages that were done.

We all agree that we need funding. Well, why can't we get the funding from the people who hooked our kids on the drugs?

The agencies that confiscate the goods have their own funding. Why can't half of what is confiscated be used for more drug treatment centers?

An Advertiser article revealed the numbers of our drug addicts:

• An estimated 15,000 Hawai'i residents need drug treatment but cannot afford it.

• About 85 percent of Hawai'i's approximately 5,200 prison inmates have drug problems.

I'm grateful for the state Judiciary's Drug Court Program. Our son was a nonviolent drug offender. He avoided prison by attending this drug treatment program. However, so many more need our help.

It's hard to change a lifestyle; and prison is full of people who are not given an opportunity to change that lifestyle.