OPPOSE RATE HIKE? BE HEARD BY MONDAY

The mayor and City Council will meet on Monday to implement the parking meter rate hike in the Waikiki area at the Honolulu Zoo and streets bordering Kapi'olani Park. The proposed hike takes the parking rate from the present 25 cents per hour to an astounding 25 cents every 10 minutes.

Poor families from everywhere outside Waikiki will strain to feed parking meters while they try to relax at the zoo, park and beach areas. Crafters, sports teams, event attendees, small businesses and just plain folks will feel the financial slap the mayor and City Council are considering.

Mufi Hannemann said on public television recently that the increase that "amounts to the price of a plate lunch" per Waikiki visit is needed so the city can continue to provide "city services to the people." I wrote his office contending that reasonable parking fees are a city service.

Councilmen Todd Apo and Duke Bainum are against this rate increase. We hope the rest of the City Council will agree to dump this bad idea.

Oppose the hike? Please attend the Honolulu Hale meeting or at least call the mayor's office: 768-4141.

John and Rita Shockley | Kapolei

KAREN'S LAW

OSHIRO HAS CHOSEN TO PUNISH VICTIMS

Rep. Marcus Oshiro suggested that he understood what my family and I had gone through with the rape and murder of my mother.

My son and my expected daughter will grow up in the absence of their grandmother, and Kevin Callahan, her boyfriend, will be without his lifelong partner. Our family has, and still is, waiting for the judicial system to serve its justice. Two years have gone by without a verdict for my mother's alleged juvenile murderer, and two years have gone by where my family and I have had to relive my mother's death.

Oshiro stands for the status quo of the justice system and has chosen to punish victims and their families rather than criminalize murderers. Oshiro had a chance to pass a bill that would start putting victims first. Instead he found every excuse not to.

Malanie McLellan | Daughter of Karen Ertell

GOVERNMENT JOBS

LET'S NOT CUT OFF HARD-WORKING FOLKS

Have you ever renewed your license, registered your vehicle, paid your real property tax, borrowed a book or had to get a marriage license?

I bet you went to a government-sponsored agency or library. The men and women who helped you are the same people who are being asked to sacrifice their health benefits and in some cases relinquish their jobs. These are the men and women who contribute to make our lives easier by doing their jobs efficiently. Let's not cut them out of our lives.

Rose De Lima | Hilo

HEALTH INSURANCE

WHY IS INDUSTRY SO AFRAID OF PUBLIC PLAN?

The insurance industry and their allies promised President Obama that they'll cut healthcare cost inflation by 1.5 percent a year.

The insurance companies want us to believe this is a big deal, but it's not.

Heathcare costs are actually rising by more than 6 percent a year, and the industry is only promising voluntary efforts to trim that.

This is a disingenuous attempt by the health insurance companies to derail healthcare reform we need.

The only way to make reform work for patients and payers is to allow the option of a public insurance plan.

A fair, competitive public insurance plan will compel the insurance industry to find the savings they've promised, and give Americans another choice if they don't.

Obama and lots of congressional leaders have committed to that in the past, but insurance companies are trying to talk them out of it.

Congress and the president should not listen to the insurance companies. They should listen to voters. Congress and the president must pass healthcare reform this year that gives us the option of a public plan. If the private insurance plan is so good, why are they terrified of the public version?

John Johnson | Honolulu

MEDICAL SCHOOL

MAHALO, LAWMAKERS, FOR LISTENING, CARING

I would like to share with your readers one of the untold stories of the just-concluded legislative session: the enormous access lawmakers provided to many of us being impacted by the budget shortfall. The legislators made time repeatedly during the process to hear us out, as we explained our programs and how they uniquely serve our communities.

We shared how the school trained health professionals desperately needed in Hawai'i and how many faculty members themselves deliver important specialty care and support to the underinsured. They listened patiently, even though we all recognized that many state agencies and private interest groups also sought important operational relief.

The John A. Burns School of Medicine is grateful for the dedication of these public servants and their professionalism during what certainly must have been one of the most stressful sessions on recent record.

Jerris R. Hedges | Dean, John A. Burns School of Medicine

CHINATOWN

STEPPED-UP POLICE PRESENCE HELPING

I applaud the Honolulu Police Department for increasing the patrols in Chinatown at all times, day or night. I work in Chinatown and only recently have felt comfortable going to the office before 7 a.m. or staying past 5:30 p.m.

The Chinatown merchants, residents and neighborhood board should be more concerned about the abundance of urine and feces odors around the neighborhood rather than the police officers working to keep everyone safe.

Joyce Takahashi | Waikele

TAX INCREASES

THOSE IN THE WRONG MUST BE VOTED OUT

The recent override of the governor's veto on tax increases by the Democrat majority in the Legislature, as distasteful as it is, may have a silver lining. We may have achieved real accountability. There is no ambiguity on where everyone stands on these issues. Despite warnings from economists, the governor and the tourism business community, our legislators have voted strictly party lines to tax us till we bleed. If our economy tanks as the business community predicts, they will have no option but to look in the mirror and blame the guy who looks back. If thousands of visitors go someplace else because of the onerous transient accommodations tax increase, causing significant job losses, we will know who to talk to.

Only time will tell who is right. The record will speak for itself. Those who were wrong need to be voted out and common sense restored. Throw the bums out! There is an election only next year. But get involved. May your memory be long.

Gordon Fowler | 'Aiea