Letters to the Editor
Quality UH coaches being yanked around
What is it with the University of Hawai'i athletic department? When we're fortunate enough to have good, successful, longstanding coaches, why must UH yank them around?
Every year Mike Wilton takes the men's volleyball team to national prominence. And his reward? A hard-fought one-year contract.
Now Bob Coolen, who has successfully coached the women's softball team for a decade, taking it to multiple post-season tournaments, got stiffed with a one-year contract offer — which he declined. Good for him.
As the new UH president says, "I get good people, I pay them a lot and I expect them to perform." Sounds like a solid guideline for the UH athletic department too. Or is it just for the "big-time" sports like football and baseball?
Get a grip — before we lose some quality people.
Cliff Marsh
Population explosion more of a threat to us
When will the media finally realize and acknowledge that the misery in this world will not be brought about by global warming but by the population explosion?
In 1930, our Earth had 2 billion people; now it has 6 billion. In another 40 to 50 years, the population will double to 12 billion. A slight warming of our climate will mean little compared to the impact of 12 billion humans, who will trample the Earth to death.
It would be wise for the environmental activists to direct their attention to the population explosion, not just to global warming.
Klaus Wyrtki
Traffic cameras save city police resources
While visiting Honolulu for my 20th class reunion these past two weeks, I read with amusement editorials on traffic camera use.
I now live in Arizona, and we have used these traffic cameras for several years with success. Yes, they are used to generate revenue. But, hello people, so are traffic tickets issued by police officers. And revenue should be generated from people breaking the law.
And wouldn't you feel your tax dollars going to better use by police officers using their valuable time to chase criminals and not speeders?
Why are you concerned about electronic traffic cameras doing the job of humans? Shouldn't you be obeying the law regardless? There is no "conflict" except that no one wants to get a ticket in the mail.
My 16-year-old son, who recently obtained his driving license, is extremely careful driving through the areas with red-light-running cameras and speeding-photo-radar cameras. He knows he'll have more to answer for with me than just a ticket to pay. Why do you see that as bad?
Instead of harping only on the financing issue, open your minds to the fact that these devices can free up limited policing resources for much more critical work. This is a safety issue, and it will be a deterrent for breaking driving laws, trust me.
Rebecca Yoza
Scottsdale, Ariz.
Westbound traffic comes to a standstill
Ever since the highway was widened, the traffic light at Kalaniana'ole and Keahole intersection has been arbitrarily set in the afternoon at between two to three minutes for eastbound traffic, while allowing under one minute for westbound.
Even when there is no oncoming traffic, westbound drivers must wait and fume while traffic backs up — at times all the way to the Koko Marina Shopping Center. This creates an almost permanent afternoon and evening bottleneck.
All complaints in the matter have gone unheeded. If you are a Hawai'i Kai resident and fellow sufferer, let your voice be heard.
Giv Cornfield
'Pearl Harbor' provides distorted view of war
Some people are missing the point entirely in their attempt to bash those of us who wish American films to be historically accurate.
While movies have always distorted some of the facts, it wasn't until Oliver Stone ("JFK") appeared on the scene that the director decided he could pile lie upon lie even to the point of indicting the U.S. military and the vice president for a conspiracy resulting in the assassination of the president.
Now comes "Pearl Harbor," where the Japanese appear justified in bombing us because we didn't want to sell them our oil, where two Southern-bred illiterates become ace fliers and never utter a racial epithet, where the Doolittle Raiders are not tortured, where a cook shoots down a Japanese Zero with zero training and where the president, an inveterate racist in real life, appears as an astonished hero.
The only group in American society who should cheer this film is our military recruiters. The end effect of this awful film is that a lot of American teenagers will find war glamorous.
Perhaps a few torture scenes of starving POWs would have gone a long way toward reducing this effect — the overseas ticket buyer be damned.
Matthew M. O'Connell
