Letters to the Editor
Kapi'olani has become dangerous race track
I wonder if the people in the vicinity of Wai'alae Avenue have called the police many, many times, notified their neighborhood board and even written to the mayor's office about the problem of drag racing and illegal mufflers disturbing their sleep every night.
I have. But to no avail.
The stretch of Kapi'olani Boulevard fronting McCully Shopping Center is a race track every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, from about 12:15 a.m. to after 3 a.m.
How fortunate that no one was innocently traveling home on the highway below when that car came over the guardrail. Bad enough that our young people continue to kill themselves senselessly, but how much worse when they kill others; and it's just a matter of time until it happens on Kapi'olani.
Marijane Carlos
Students endured despite vandalism
Students at Wai'anae High School worked very hard and showed great resilience despite the theft and destruction on campus this past year.
The marine science students had their products stolen. They rely on the ogo (edible seaweed) they make for their classes and their fund-raising for field trips and other educational opportunities.
A classroom was burned down and students had to have their class in the library for the remainder of the year.
Students spent endless hours learning about native plants and restoring a site near campus. Many small trees the students had been growing for months were ripped out and taken. The entire nursery of plants that was going into the students' park site was stolen. Greenhouse supplies were taken.
Yet the students endured.
Daniel Forman
Parking lot already exists along coast
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources has proposed parking lots along the Ka'iwi coast. People soundly and resolutely oppose such unsafe eyesores.
However, the city already owns a large parking lot in the supposed preservation area. That large, littered but safe parking lot starts at the stoplight opposite the surf spot known as Irma's and extends east along the shore toward the rock formation known as Kapaliokamoa at Makapu'u Point.
Because of the slope of the land and intervening ground cover, cars would not be visible from the road. And because of hard usage by off-road vehicles, much of that land has already been environmentally compromised. A well-planned parking lot with appropriate landscaping and discreet paths leading up to Makapu'u from the ocean would be an improvement and a more pleasant walk for locals and tourists.
A model for such discreet (nearly invisible) parking and paths already exists at the Cape Canaveral National Sea Shore.
Whether the land is "owned" by the city or the state bureaucracy should not be the obstacle. A park is "owned" by the people; government exists to serve the people.
Mandy Higa
Banning distractions in cars is essential
In response to Von Kenric Kaneshiro's June 11 letter, "Banning distractions in cars is useless": Well, then, why don't we just ban cars? Oh, that would definitely put a constraint on our modern society. Well, let's just paint bull's-eyes on pedestrians so they are easier to target.
What does it take? Almost every day we hear about another pedestrian being hit by a car. Usually they are the elderly or the underage, those who cannot outrun a speeding vehicle being operated by a distracted and inattentive driver.
What about them? What about a pedestrian's right to get across the street in one piece? What about a driver's responsibility to operate a car in the safest manner possible so as to not turn that automobile into a lethal weapon?
If our society would take more personal responsibility, there would be no need for "constraining legislation."
Mary C. Hunter
Kapolei
Air is getting too thin in the ivory tower
Must we once more be insulted by the official Chinese party line masquerading as an editorial by David Polhemus?
The man, assuming he is an individual and not merely the collective pen name for a group of Chinese bureaucrats, has in recent weeks proposed that the United States accept full responsibility for the EP-3 incident and allow the Chinese to keep the aircraft as a gesture of our appreciation for their warm hospitality extended to our crew, willfully ignored countless human rights abuses in Tibet and has belittled the defense relationship between Japan and the United States as an oxymoron.
This mollycoddling of China not only dismisses the facts but is so egregious that I'm sure even Vidkun Quisling would be uncomfortable making the same statements.
Somebody had better call 911. There's a distinct lack of oxygen in the old ivory tower.
Matthew K Kokkeler
If she can qualify, let Michelle tee up
Michelle Wie should be allowed to play in any golf tournament she can qualify for.
Wie has to wait two more years before she can compete in the 13- to 14-year-old division.
She has to wait three more years before Punahou will let her play on the Punahou golf team.
Frank Scott
Kailua
