Are we doing enough on the recycling front? It’s easy to hold the city responsible for coming up with a curbside plan. But really, it’s going to take a good degree of personal responsibility — from all of us — to truly move the needle on the recycling front. That’s probably why I get so flushed with guilt anytime I toss an empty into the  trash can, I should know better, right?

Having lived in the Bay Area and other cities that make recycling part of daily life, it was strange coming home to Hawaii to find no curbside bins for plastics, paper goods and more. I remember my son, Jake, would walk around the house, looking for the “right bin” to toss his empties in. Pays to start’em young!

Without a curbside program in my neighborhood (at least for now), it’s up to mom — that would be me — to come up with our own “bins” and method of turning in our recyclables. And, I’ve been taking a pass on those plastic bags at stores.

Is it a hassle? Yes.

Is it worth it? Absolutely. Wanna join me?

A recent letter writer commented that those who write letters to the editor are “merely humming to the organist.” His point was that there are many others who needed to get the message in his letter, which was about the need for a constitutional convention.
I obviously won’t — and can’t — quarrel with his point that there are many who do not read the letters to the editor.
But as the editor who handles the letters we receive, I can tell you I am every day struck by the passion, humor, varied interests and community spirit of our letter writers. They are a diverse group from a cross section of the community and they care deeply about our island home.
And anyone who reads the letters pages regularly knows that those in positions of authority in Hawaii read those letters and frequently reply to them.
Letter writers care deeply about this community, are not afraid to argue their positions and are part of a community discourse like no other.
So, check out the letters page. It’s a window on what a community cares about.
Anne Harpham

The only thing missing was the popcorn.

Really, it was like a horror flick — all the more horrifying because the “actors” are talking about spending billions of our dollars on the mass transit system.

They were members of the Honolulu City Council, and some of us at The Advertiser’s Opinion Section spent most of Wednesday watching them. We would have felt like absolute couch potatoes if we hadn’t been jumping up and down in vexation half the time.

There was suspense: Would the council ever break the 4-4 voting deadlock? Would Todd Apo ever haul off and sock Charles Djou — Mr. Roberts Rules of Order — in the kisser? Would anyone figure out what that last vote meant?

Would the absent Barbara Marshall hear what was going on and jump on a plane, never to return again?

Mostly, it played like a mystery. Not a whodunit, but a what-are-they-thinking.

Don’t think even Sherlock Holmes could unravel that conundrum

– Vicki Viotti

We named the dog Roswell because he looks like an alien.  Since the cat disappeared last Halloween he’s been very depressed.  He sleeps a lot and refuses to go out.  Actually he never was housebroken and will only poop on ceramic tile.  Always on the same square.  He wouldn’t eat and we thought he’d starve to death until we discovered he’d only eat cat food.  He used to bark a lot now he only purrs.  Maybe he really is an alien.

In the course of this long, long, long primary campaign, all the candidates for president have blurted out some pretty impolitic things. Barack Obama is no exception.

Saying that people in small towns, who are struggling from the lack of jobs and the empty promises of past presidents, may get “bitter” and “cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigration sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,” well, it’s not a smart thing to say.

Did Obama make a mistake? Even he admits it, however half-heartedly.

Does it prove he’s an elitist, out-of-touch phony? Some would like you to believe it.

Can we use this sentence, uttered in a private meeting in San Francisco last week, to draw broad and definitive conclusions about the man’s character and his fitness to be president of the United States? That’s what his opponents are hoping we’ll do.

There may be any number of reasons why working-class Democrats in Pennsylvania won’t vote for Obama. They may think he lacks a coherent plan to restore manufacturing jobs to the small towns hit by economic hard times. Or that Hillary Clinton’s experience in the Senate and at her husband’s side in the White House make her a stronger candidate. Or that John McCain’s better than either of them.

But because Obama is an elitist? Voters are wiser for that.