Legislature shooting itself in foot over ice

Your front-page story Sunday ("Major ice-fighting measure meets wide-ranging criticism") illustrates two aspects of how the Legislature works. First is the danger of "omnibus bills" packed with multiple provisions, and second, that they're still stuck on "trying to send a message" rather than pursuing proven approaches.

It's instructive to see how the two omnibus bills have been received. The funding bill has strong support from all quarters because it reflects the consensus of the community and follows many of the excellent recommendations of the Legislature's own task force report. Unfortunately the companion policy bill, HB 2003, ignores a main recommendation of the task force to focus on public health solutions and instead promotes policies designed to make them look "tough on ice" using the mantra of "protecting the children" (who could disagree?).

The policy bill would put into place enhanced mandatory minimum sentences for ice-related crimes affecting children despite overwhelming research showing that such sentencing is counterproductive. They would do nothing to protect children but would add to our already-overcrowded prison system, separate children from their parents, pose more economic challenges to our economy, while having no real effect on deterring crime.

In addition, despite California's positive experience with Prop 36, which has saved the state millions of dollars and put more than 30,000 people into treatment (half of them meth users and most entering treatment for the first time), the bill would undercut Hawai'i's similar Act 161, which diverts first-time nonviolent offenders to treatment, not jail. Act 161 has never had a chance to prove itself — it was never funded.

Unfortunately, worthwhile provisions in HB 2003 such as parity for substance-abuse treatment and improved school policies for kids involved with drugs will fall by the wayside if the governor vetoes the measure. Too bad the Legislature risked it all by including innovative approaches in a bill that also pushes failed policies like mandatory minimums.

The governor is now faced with an all-or-nothing veto decision. The ice crisis is too critical for the Legislature and the administration to be facing off over who is more macho, not more pragmatic, in combating ice.

10,000 deaths a year number was made up

I am constantly amazed at how a newspaper and a writer can report the same lie over and over again for the last 32 years.

In Ellen Goodman's April 24 diatribe, she "remembers" when 10,000 American women died from illegal abortions per year.

I asked Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who founded NARAL (formerly The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) during his personal crusade to legalize abortion, about that 10,000 number, and he said that he and others just made it up because it sounded big and scary. Then they repeated it over and over again until everyone believed it. And now 32 years later, the lie continues.

Nathanson told me the number was actually very, very small and he is now sorry for what he did because abortion is a violent act that kills a baby and hurts women and society.

Investigators needed 'sensitivity training'

As I read your April 24 article regarding the hostess-bar bribes ("Jury told of hostess-bar bribes"), I recalled your story that ran exactly one month prior (March 24), with the headline: "Agency may get sensitivity training."

Although that particular story dealt with a settlement of two discrimination lawsuits requiring annual training "to increase sensitivity," I couldn't help but wonder if those investigators might have headed off their current trial by perhaps soliciting the alleged bribes in a more "sensitive" manner.

As for federal Assistant Public Defender Pamela Byrne's assertion that the payments were actually "gifts" from bar owners, a long-standing practice she deemed "a local style — a local custom," I don't recall reading in any Hawaiian historical references that the practice of bribery may be considered "a local custom."

Additional off-ramp would be of better use

Your editorials have helped our carpool suggestions on the H-1 Freeway between Waipahu and Aloha Stadium to get the emergency side lanes to be used as additional lanes during peak hours and to get the left turns limited during peak hours on Nimitz after departing the viaduct during morning hours by getting contra-flow lanes.

Now we need your editorial help again by printing this suggestion.

The state Highway Division is about to add an additional lane on the H-1 Freeway between the stadium and Pearl City off-ramp. This will not help too much for the west-bound afternoon traffic. What we really need is an additional off-ramp exit onto Kaonohi Street, and the state can eliminate the extra lane.

Please help us.

New buses are noisy, dark and uncomfortable

I agree with letters by Bobby Smith (April 18), Jan Sanders (April 19 ) and C. Hagiwara (April 23). These new garishly painted buses are not rider-friendly. Riding in them is like riding in a cold, dark and noisy cave. I will let those buses pass by in hopes of catching an older bus.

Heck, they might even be an incentive to get a car again. The windows of these buses are dark to begin with, and when the paint is put on over them, well, it is too dark to read unless the driver turns on the lights (and that is in the middle of the day). And some folks say it is like looking through grease.

This paint has cost the taxpayers (us) over $600,000 so far, and more buses are to come. I read where it is $10,000 a bus for the paint decal. The total spent so far could have funded that Kaimuki trolley for three years.

The new buses have fewer seats than the older buses. (A driver counted them and told me so.) There is a version where all the seats are on one level and another version where the seats are raised in back. This version is exceptionally noisy. You have to stick cotton in your ears if you sit in the back. And the steps are a hazard to many seniors and unbalanced folks. And yes, the aisles are narrower and that means you have people's backpacks and belongings poking you in the side.

The only good thing I can see about them is that they don't need that wheelchair doo-hicky that sometimes sticks and makes the bus useless. The bus floor is close to sidewalk level.

Most bus riders would rather have better service than a "pretty" bus. These new buses will certainly not win a "best bus system" award from most riders.

Commentator might also look to the Saudis

David Polhemus' April 25 commentary on President Bush was excellent. I'm sure he will get a lot of flak over it. The only thing he missed was Bush's endorsement of Ariel Sharon's West Bank land-grab.

Regarding the neo-con puppeteers who are pulling Bush's strings: Polhemus might want to read an article in the April 2 issue of Middle East International entitled "Liberating Saudi Shiites (and their oil)." The author discusses a recent book called "An End to Evil" by David Frum, Bush's former speechwriter who coined the term "axis of evil," and the Prince of Darkness, Richard Perle. The book apparently suggests that the United States "should bring Saudi Arabia to heel by threatening to support independence for the country's eastern province (al-Hasa), where most of Saudi Arabia's minority Shiite population and, coincidentally, most of its oil, is situated."

One wonders whether the neo-cons' Saudi "liberation" is to occur before, after or in conjunction with the invasion of Syria and Iran?

Traffic cams won't help roadway safety

Watching the antics of the same few elected officials forcing traffic cameras on the people of Hawai'i would be comedic if the truth were not so tragic — cameras can't prevent accidents, and people continue to be killed and maimed on our roadways while they ignore the tools capable of fixing this problem: driver education and police traffic enforcement.

Where are the Department of Transportation TV spots and public education materials about the dangers of tailgating, passing on the right, driving slowly in the left lanes and running red lights? Where is the support for police to catch reckless drivers and criminals before they cause carnage?

Camera-pushing legislators either don't have a clue about transportation safety or have some hidden agenda served by installing traffic ticket cameras that would only adversely affect the 99 percent of safe vehicle operators. Unsafe, reckless and racing drivers can be controlled by traffic enforcement and investigative police, and repeat offenders should be required to have a GPS tracking device installed to record vehicle location and speed, just like rental cars.

If public safety is the goal, traffic cameras won't achieve it, even if Big Brother installs them everywhere.