Your Views for May 19

Sue Obama

President Obama issued a proclamation about bathrooms in public schools.

Education is a states’ rights issue, and the federal government has nothing to do with it. The state of Hawaii should file suit to stop this silliness.

Bob Dukat

Pahoa

Ban everything

Hey, Margaret Wille!

Let’s ban the following: petroleum fuels and oil; all detergents and any other liquid chemicals; fishing nets and lines; rubber tires; all plastic bags and bottles, etc.; sun block; pesticides and herbicides; fertilizers; cardboard; waxed paper containers; plastic utensils; rubber items; and anything else that ends up in the ocean.

We should also ban cars, airplanes and appliances. Oh, heck! Ban anything and everything that is not organic, biodegradable or adds any degree of toxicity to our environment. Let’s also ban cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, soft drinks and anything that harms our bodies.

The argument that people ingest foam when consuming products in them … is greatly exaggerated.

If you really think about it, the biodegradable and environmentally friendly containers are produced by bonding various materials together with various substances to shape and form these products. Now, has it been studied and researched how it might leach chemicals? These items break down quicker in the environment, but it still takes a considerable amount of time and these materials will leach into the environment.

Furthermore, when we start to find litter consisting of these biodegradable containers, etc., will we argue to ban them also? Would the animals ingest these items, too? Wouldn’t it be equally harmful to them?

It seems the argument reflects the littering problem. These items end up in the landfill. What’s in the ocean is caused by littering. If this is such a big problem at our coastal areas, then our beaches and parks must look horrible!

The littering is the problem. All around our island, ignorant and lazy people are not able to properly dispose of their trash.

Cary Tahara

Hilo