Letters to the Editor
Settlement money must fight smoking
Regarding your Nov. 14 editorial concerning combining the medical school and tobacco fight: I was surprised to see you use the excuse, "If other states are going against the spirit of the settlement, why can't we?"
Hawai'i should set an example to be copied by all the other states and use all the funds from the tobacco settlement, set up an investment account and use the proceeds to fund a massive in-your-face anti-smoking campaign that would relentlessly bombard people from age 5 through 25 to never start smoking. This campaign would go on until the day when tobacco sales are virtually nonexistent. Only then should we take the principal from the tobacco settlement fund and use it for other purposes.
A medical center for Hawai'i is a great idea that should be pursued, but without using the funds from the tobacco settlement.
Mark Pillori
Smoking conditions should be there in ads
Enough guessing already about losing business if smoking is banned in restaurants. Let's find out.
I propose that the City Council pass an ordinance requiring all restaurant advertising, including print, TV and radio, to prominently state (in the same language as the ad) whether the restaurant is smoke-free or permits smoking, and if a nonsmoking section exists, whether it is physically separated from the smoking area in such a way that the smoke and odors cannot migrate.
Also require this same information to be posted prominently on the entrance door to the restaurant, in English and Japanese. Then let's see where the customers choose to dine.
Jim Swensen
Smoking ban vote brings shame to five
To City Council members Duke Bainum, John Henry Felix, Steve Holmes and Gary Okino: Thank you for voting for "No Smoking" in restaurants.
To City Council members Romy Cachola, John DeSoto, Rene Mansho, Andy Mirikitani and Jon Yoshimura: Shame on you! You put your commercial interests ahead of your constituents.
Donald D. Graber
U.S. foreign policy, lifestyle are targets
I read with great interest John Griffin's Nov. 4 commentary, "Is patriotism crowding out our tougher questions?" My response: "Yes."
We seem to be blind, if not in a state of acute denial. I liked especially the last sentence: "But I worry that not enough Americans are asking tough questions amid our understandable anger and terrorism."
Right on!
The first question is: Are we on the right track by trying to bomb Afghanistan into oblivion? I doubt it. The British couldn't do it; the Russians couldn't do it.
Couldn't we learn from that? Or are some of our top leaders just playing out their repressed aggressiveness? We are quite likely to get into an extended quagmire.
Second, are we willing to put up with our deteriorating home front? If so, for how long? The economy is going to hell; hardly anyone wants to fly anymore. People are afraid to open their mail for fear of anthrax. Bridges, pipelines, nuclear plants and other essentials may be blown up. And what else to come?
It is not our "liberty," or similar foggy notions, that our adversaries are attacking. It is our questionable foreign policy and our terribly careless and utterly wasteful lifestyle. That's what the poor people of the world hate us for. Think about it. Better today than tomorrow. Other great world powers have gone down. We still have time and space to delay our downfall. But for how much longer?
Our top policy-makers need to come up with substantial alternatives to bridge or eliminate the wide schism between the Western and Arab/Islam worlds.
Gerhard C. Hamm
Be done with Jones Act without any restrictions
I guess we should be encouraged by The Advertiser's lukewarm endorsement in the Nov. 11 issue for a repeal or exemption from the stifling effects that the Jones Act and similar protectionist statutes have had on the development of a cruise-ship industry in Hawai'i.
Of course, your suggestion that Congress "lift this restriction, at least until the day when another domestic company is interested ... " is absurd. What business in its right mind is going to make the enormous capital investment necessary to operate successfully in Hawai'i knowing full well that as soon as the politicians figure out a way to put the squeeze on, they will threaten to change the law?
You also state that "Sen. Dan Inouye said he might entertain an exemption of this sort." Since when does an elected servant of the people "entertain" us. He is not some stand-up comic, nor is he some political potentate who grants audiences at his whim so that the downtrodden can seek redress. The fact is, it's been his misguided efforts in the past on this issue that have been the principal reason that a Hawai'i-based cruise-ship industry is nonexistent.
Jack M. Schmidt
Kailua
You can be patriotic by getting solar power
Let's help Hawai'i's economy by following San Francisco and go solar. Residents voted to transform their city into the nation's largest producer of sun-generated electricity, approving a $100 million bond issue to install as many solar panels on rooftops in San Francisco as the entire nation does each year.
The media, Greenpeace and local electric companies must convince our government to fast-track funding and give 100 percent tax rebates for installation of solar panels on as many homes as possible. Currently less than 1 percent of U.S. households have solar water heaters. In Israel, 85 percent of households have them because a law requires them.
The U.S. Army solar water project in Hawai'i will place 650 solar water units on the roofs of Helemano military housing units and on buildings at the Wai'anae recreational center. This project will save them $250,000 a year annually in electrical costs for water heating.
President Bush's next patriotic speech should include the goal of cutting our country's reliance on Middle East oil by 50 percent with alternate energy sources and with technology in which all cars will get at least 50 miles per gallon.
Show your patriotism and help Hawai'i go solar. Our state can be the largest producer of sun-generated electricity while creating useful job opportunities.
Tom Sebas
Only federal financing can help our state
These last two months have been a great challenge for all in America and especially here in Hawai'i.
Our economy has taken a nosedive, with many companies both large and small experiencing layoffs and even closure. The sad fact is that Hawai'i is the only state that has not yet recovered from the 9-11 tragedy due to isolation from Mainland markets and the sudden fall in tourism.
The Hawai'i economic engine needs a major stimulus, but to date the governor's and Legislature's efforts have not produced the results. Although the bills passed in the special session were an important first step, they only begin to address the real and immediate needs of the business community. It is now time for Congress and the White House to focus on this critical issue and move to help us in our time of need with direct federal funding.
I call on Gov. Ben Cayetano and our U.S. senators and representatives to aggressively pursue a pro-active course in Washington to secure the necessary political support and federal funding for infrastructure and transportation improvements, high-technology development, new agribusiness ventures, education facilities, teachers and job retraining for all in Hawai'i who need it.
We need a shot in the arm that only federal funding can provide. With this, we can strengthen the Hawai'i economy to better ride out these uncertain and most challenging times.
Mark S. Hickson
Power line issue is about massive waste
I read your Nov. 13 editorial on the Wa'ahila 138,000-volt line with some sadness. Once again the issue has been cast as a choice between degrading the beauty of the Ko'olaus or disrupting Palolo Valley residents.
In fact, it is a choice between wasting $30 million for zero benefit, or not.
According to HECO testimony at the CDUA hearing, only one 15-minute outage in 40 years would have been avoided had this third backup line existed. Fifteen minutes equals $30 million?
Tod Scheibert testified on co-generation, which is saving Pohai Nani over $100,000 annually. Another article in The Advertiser on Nov. 13 covered a wave generation project being developed by the Navy here to comply with a presidential order to develop renewable power resources at federal installations.
San Francisco and Los Angeles utilities, in efforts to reduce dependence on oil, are rapidly developing photovoltaic and hydrogen generation. Reducing dependence on oil is only prudent and makes good financial sense.
If the underlying issue is jobs, we will create jobs and wealth by converting our economy from oil-burning electricity generation to clean and sustainable power. Few in Honolulu realize that more than 90 percent of our electricity is made by burning oil, with over 50 percent of that energy lost to waste in transmission. That means hundreds of millions of dollars permanently lost up the smokestack, to return to Earth as pollution and global warming.
Hawai'i's people are by nature and necessity a practical bunch. We cannot afford to waste $30 million only to permanently degrade our natural environment.
This is not a choice between the lesser of two evils, as you have characterized it, but a choice between the future and the past. There is no need for this line. The public is waking up to tomorrow.
HECO, are you coming, too?
Laurie Baron
Kane'ohe
