Your Views for September 7

Subscribe Now Choose a package that suits your preferences.
Start Free Account Get access to 7 premium stories every month for FREE!
Already a Subscriber? Current print subscriber? Activate your complimentary Digital account.

Bouncing bags

Bouncing bags

I am writing about trucks overloading their beds with trash bags en route to the rubbish dump.

On the way to the rubbish dump to dispose some garbage, I came across a trash bag sitting smack-dab in the center of my lane leading into the county rubbish dump. I could have gone around it, but then I realized that others would have to do that unless someone removed it. It also posed a traffic hazard.

So, I parked my car on the side of the road, got out of the car and flagged down the first truck that would stop. Cars passed and looked at me like I had dropped my trash and was about to pick it up. I drive a sedan, and my garbage definitely would not have fallen out of the trunk.

The bag was too heavy for me to drag to my trunk. One truck with a young couple stopped, and I asked the driver if he would be kind enough to pick up the bag and take it to the Dumpster. He very kindly did so.

Drivers should realize that there is a distinct possibility that something could fall off their truck if they overload it without securing things. It is not only commonsense but also your civic duty to take the proper precautions so you do not put other people at risk.

Sachi Fukuda

Hilo

The DUI industry

The amazing number of drunken driving arrests is a glaring statement of the failure of our legal, economic and social systems to keep our community roads safe.

Why are these numbers so consistent? Who is benefitting from DUI? Certainly, attorneys who represent DUI clients, ushering them through the legal system. What is your intention, besides your fee? Establishing a reputation as the “go to” attorney for DUI so you can collect more fees?

It is time for our attorneys to be part of the solution to keep drunks off the road.

What about the bail bond community? You benefit financially from every drunk you pull out of jail. Insurance companies? Higher rates for DUI records line your pockets.

What about our judges? You have a moral responsibility to protect us. Are your rulings made with that in mind? Or only to follow the letter, rather than the spirit, of the law? Why are there so many recurring arrests?

And, what about the rest of us? What has happened to us that we allow this to keep happening? What are we teaching our children? Allowing our family, friends and colleagues to do? Making excuses, turning a blind eye?

All of these questions raise even more questions, but they are meant to move toward a solution. That all of us commit to a bottom line attitude — towards everyone — that there is no support economically, legally or socially for a drunken driver.

Jan Dean

Honokaa