O'ahu should have a monorail system

We read that the rail system needed on O'ahu should be a light-rail system — this would be a monstrous mistake.

A light-rail system is a subsidized street car, running on steel tracks or rubber tires in competition with all forms of dangerous surface transportation. It operates like a bus with a fixed route.

The needed system is the monorail. It is a rated 99.9 percent reliable, scheduled, elevated system, above traffic and one of the world's safest methods of transportation. Monorails can turn a profit once built.

All parties working on this project should refer to it as a rapid-transit monorail system — not a dangerous, subsidized light-rail system that is noted for having accidents, killing people and bringing on lawsuits that the taxpayer pays for. A light-rail car is heaver than a subway car, engineered to try to survive the anticipated accidents.

The Monorail Society Web page is www.monorails.org/. In addition, dial up www.seattlemonorailproject.com/ and compare any other transit system against the monorail, citing the following criteria: safety, reliability, cost, subsidies, construction time, utilities rerouting.

In addition, bikeways can be installed under the overhead monorails.

I personally visualize the monorail, eventually, passing, quietly, through Waikiki along the scenic Ala Wai Canal.

Board of Water Supply complying with rules

In response to David Shapiro's March 30 column criticizing the state Department of Transportation about daytime irrigation at Castle Junction, we wish Mr. Shapiro had just asked us about the water use issue. We could have provided him a simple explanation at the time.

While we do comply with the Board of Water Supply's conservation rules prohibiting daytime irrigation of our landscaping, Castle Junction is a special project in which we need to water the grass regularly until it matures and takes hold to prevent further erosion and landslides.

Following the recent landslide problems we had at Castle Junction, we planted two types of grass on the hillside. Sometimes we water the slope during the day because the area dries up quickly from the sun and wind. The sprinkler system is turned on to maintain moisture on the soil and allow the Australian carpet grass seeds to germinate, grow and develop a healthy root system, especially at the lower section of the slope. The Kikuyu grass planted along other parts of the slope looks healthy, but the root system is still developing as well.

(Incidentally, the contractor hasn't turned on the Castle Junction sprinklers since two weeks ago because of the wet weather Mr. Shapiro mentioned.)

Once the Castle Junction grass is mature and takes hold, we will adjust the sprinkler system to minimize day watering. Until then, we need to ensure that 12 months and $7.8 million worth of work to prevent future landslides at Castle Junction doesn't erode away.

Social Security will not be broke on 2041

The claim that Social Security will be broke in 2041 misstates the facts.

Social Security taxes flow into a trust fund that is invested in government bonds. Benefits are paid out of that fund. The truth is that up to about 2041, 100 percent of current benefits will be covered; after that, the tax flow will be able to cover only 70 percent of current benefits unless small changes are made.

Raising the income limit on FICA contributions alone could bring the figure up to 85 percent, and other small steps are also available. Funding private accounts with the revenues that go into the trust fund now absolutely will destroy Social Security way before 2041.

America founded on Christian principles

You should be ashamed of yourselves for your pronouncement that Good Friday should not be a public holiday.

We in Hawai'i are extremely lucky to have such an intricate weave of traditions and cultures. We should all be proud of our ancestors and where we come from (since we all started somewhere else), but we all need to remember that we are Americans first and that America is basically a Christian country founded on Christian principles and traditions. Christian symbols and holidays are part of who we are. Like it or not! All this hand-wringing is absurd.

It has been said that America is the great "melting pot." I agree with whoever said that we are more like a "salad"; we mix, but we don't morph into one big glob. What binds us together is the salad dressing (America and its traditions — check out our motto "E Pluribus Unum," "out of many — one"). That does not mean that everyone has to become a Christian and that everyone has to be exactly alike.

So, Happy Easter, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Ramadan, Happy Everything, and God/Allah/Buddha/Whoever bless America!

Let's get real about U.S. energy policy

The fervor generated by our senators' vote supporting drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, while symbolic, is largely overreaction to a non-issue.

President Bush is posturing, hoping to appear that he has an energy plan, which he doesn't.

Those sensitive to wildlife and the environment certainly have felt a stab in the heart, but their worry of loss is vastly exaggerated. Any future oil recovered from ANWR will be a small percentage of the U.S. consumption.

Rational priority ranking of results would show the clear winners are not Arctic drilling but: substantially increased vehicle fuel taxes placed in a trust fund; higher standards for fuel economy; strong emphasis on conservation and energy efficiencies in all sectors; and (the tired phase) alternative energy.

For the foreseeable future, let's stop cajoling the public about hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles, ocean wave and ocean thermal electric generation, and the like.

Interisland travel competition a boon

Regarding the Sunday story "Interisland travel dwindling": This is a classic example of vendors raising prices to wreck their interisland market.

Amazingly, this occurred as these same airlines significantly lowered fares to Mainland and overseas destinations. Obvious result: Hey, let's do a quick getaway to Vegas instead of visiting auntie on Maui. It also discouraged tourists to visit more than one island.

Contrary to predictions of the "experts" your correspondent quotes, it is obvious that if Superferry and FlyHawaii competitors enter the market with $75 round-trip fares to Maui, not only would interisland traffic recover but it would thrive to new heights.

Even more significantly, this would unleash a Hawai'i boom of truly historic proportions, both in island commerce and tourism.

Habitat for Humanity could give the homeless a stake

Everybody agrees homelessness is a big problem. Most citizens understand homeless people aren't camping out in whatever shelter they can find because they want to. Fact is, most are decent people who have fallen on hard times.

What to do? Well, one thing the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawai'i plans to do is spend about $800,000 of taxpayer money to demolish the Uluwehi 60-unit apartment complex in Wai'anae. Why? Because it's a mess — run down, not cared for, a disaster. What next?

Another similar project? Occupied by people with no real prospect of ever being homeowners? And we expect the result will be different?

The basic problem with lots of public housing is that occupants don't have an ownership stake in it. So, as with renters in general, they don't take care of it. Eventually, disaster. No surprise.

It doesn't have to be that way. As Will Hoover reported in the March 21 Advertiser, there are people who want to take over the state's disaster, refurbish it with volunteer labor and mostly donated materials, and make those apartments available to the homeless people who have earned "sweat equity" in the property. They'd live in their community for nominal rent, all the while increasing their equity.

Result: 60 families well-housed in apartments they own.

Apartments they take care of because they are owners.

Habitat for Humanity is a national organization that creates housing for people who are willing to work for it. Habitat for Humanity is well-managed by professionals with the right skills who donate their services.

Habitat can fix Uluwehi. This is a good thing; it makes sense. Please, Gov. Lingle, get our state agencies headed in the right direction.

Case has Social Security wrong

Dear Congressman Ed Case:

I commend you for trying to educate our state on the problems with Social Security, but you focus too much on the so-called "transition cost" in creating personal accounts. You are correct that President Bush has not given a concrete plan, but the House Democrats, under Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate Democrats, under Harry Reid, have not offered anything to counter other than opposition.

The "transition cost" is nothing more than bringing Social Security's unfunded liabilities to the forefront. As you know, the ill-named Trust Fund is nothing more than an accounting measure to make it appear that Social Security is separate from general funds. What your constituents don't know is that since the money from that "trust fund" has been spent, the bonds held in the "trust fund" are claims to future taxes collected. From what I've read, Social Security's unfunded liabilities range from $10 trillion to $26 trillion (depending on whom you ask).

The question is: Do we taxpayers pay it now when the cost is smaller or do we pay it later when it is larger? In opposing personal accounts to appear fiscally responsible, the Democrats are being penny wise and pound foolish, preferring the nation to pay higher taxes, receive lower benefits, or both. You have to ask yourself, is keeping the people subservient to the government to preserve the legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt worth it? I don't think so.

The other issue you brought up is the solvency issue, claiming personal accounts do not address it. How so? Personal accounts do address the solvency issue in part because as these accounts grow, the government's obligations to taxpayers are lessened.

You instead bring up tax increases by raising the tax cap on Social Security and means-testing to solve the problem. The problem with the first one is that it destroys job creation, hurting the little guy Democrats profess to be protecting. Further, the Social Security trustees have looked into raising the tax cap only to find that it delays Social Security's funding problems by about six years. Already, Hawai'i is a tax hell and you are only proposing to make it worse.

As for means-testing, it is a good idea, and you should bring it to the table that President Bush has set.

If you are concerned about people "blowing their investments," then propose to safeguard against it, such as guaranteeing to pay out benefits a certain percentage above the poverty line. Some proposals do just that, such as that by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

As a citizen watching the debate over Social Security reform, I urge you to look more closely at the merits of personal accounts. While the president has not put forth a solid proposal, others have. The best one I've seen is the Ryan-Sununu proposal, where it does not cut any current government obligations while pushing Social Security to a permanent surplus. The chief actuary of Social Security has scored the plan and has deemed that the Ryan-Sununu proposal solves all of Social Security's problems.

The only problem that remains are obstructionist Democrats. As you've said, "Denial and inaction — effectively booting the ball down to the next generation — is not acceptable." I agree. Work with the Republicans on the creation of personal accounts, not against them.

The partisan grandstanding of the Democrats opposing personal accounts — when they supported the idea when President Clinton was in office — is unacceptable.