Your Views for December 8

Ridiculous detour

So, how about opening up the Railroad Avenue bypass so the many of us in Pahoa and lower Puna aren’t stuck in that ridiculous Keaau-Pahoa detour?

Really, who thought that up?

Linda Heintz

Pahoa

Our rights

The citizens of our nation are supposedly free people in that they have a right to choose how to live their lives as long as they don’t violate the rights of others.

The government, on the other hand, has a responsibility to protect the public and preserve public health. If public safety or public health is threatened, the government has a responsibility to act to protect and preserve the public health and safety, even to the point of restricting the freedom of the citizens.

In October, I asked my elected representatives in the state Legislature a question. I asked: “If alcohol, tobacco and firearms don’t present enough of a threat to the public health and safety for the Legislature to make possession of them illegal, why is possession of marijuana illegal under state law? What are the specific public health and/or public safety issues that make marijuana so dangerous — more dangerous than alcohol, tobacco or firearms — that the rights of citizens to make their own decisions have to be overruled by the state?”

I have yet to receive a reply.

It is not the job of those elected to government to enshrine their personal values into law in order to coerce citizens into living according to those values. Their job is to protect the right of every citizen to live according to their own values.

My right to live my own life and make my own choices has been infringed. I want that right restored, or I want to know the reason why it can’t be.

Russell Wichman

Keaau

Look it up

You can Google “mosquito repellent” and find homemade recipes for your body, or to spray around your garage and yard area. FYI.

Wayne Knapstad

Volcano