Letters to the Editor
U.N. should decide on Palestinian nation
In 1948, the U.N. Security Council voted to establish the nation of Israel. The Soviet Union had walked out of the council meeting and therefore could not cast a veto.
Perhaps it is time for the Security Council to take up the issue of how to establish a Palestinian nation and perhaps the United States could abstain from the final vote provided two conditions are met:
• The safety and sovereignty of Israel be ensured.
• The city of Jerusalem be recognized as an international city and its religious sites open to the peoples of the world.
This would be a monumental task, but it has been addressed by the prime minister of England, the president of the United States and recently by Jordan. This should be a United Nations issue now. It is an issue of basic humanity.
Thomas R. Cunningham
Waipahu
We need solutions, not more warfare
As our media are filled with words of U.S. war, I am deeply concerned that almost nothing is said about why the "unseen enemies" are filled with hatred for the world's only superpower.
President Bush said on Sept. 20 that it is because "They hate our freedoms," which is an answer without understanding. Without listing the scores of possible valid reasons, we can begin with the fact that many in the Middle East and beyond are moved to hatred and anguish not toward our populace but toward the U.S. powers-that-be for their:
• Continual assistance to Israel in its forceful occupation of lands designated for the Palestinians by the United Nations.
• Support of backward and brutal regimes like Saudi Arabia in return for a military presence in an attempt to maintain hegemony over Mideast oil.
• Totally inhuman sponsorship of sanctions against Iraq that have caused the death of over 500,000 children in an attempt to unseat Saddam Hussein, who is now more firmly entrenched than ever.
It appears that the U.S. government has no better idea of how to proceed in the wake of the tragic events of Sept. 11 than did Ronald Reagan in the 1980s in his failed effort to "wipe out terrorism," which only brought more antipathy toward the United States. The simplistic analysis that Rudoph Giuliani gave the United Nations that "They are wrong and we are right" overlooks the fact that we face enormously complex political problems that require wise political solutions.
This planet does not need another unjust war.
Larry S. Jones
Invest in education, not in tourism, building
OK. Let me get this straight. Hawai'i is suffering because 25 percent of our economy depends on tourism, a fragile industry that suffers first when economies founder, whether in Asia or on the Mainland. The solution? Pump 20 million more tax dollars into tourism.
I don't get it.
Gov. Cayetano is correct in saying we need to diversify our economy. But how will giving another billion to the construction industry do that? He's been handing over tax dollars to them for years, and all we have to show for it is shoddy, often useless buildings.
To really diversify our economy, we need to invest in our future, in the industry in which studies, opinion polls and common sense indicate is notoriously underfunded: our schools, from kindergarten to the university. And that doesn't mean building libraries that lack funds for books and librarians.
On second thought, I think the governor found a perfect solution in taking a trip to Japan. But he should stay there.
Cynthia Ward
Japan Airlines should not cut back on its service
How can Japan Airlines expect Hawai'i to remain prosperous when it decides to cut back its flights?
JAL should not be discouraging visitors by cutting back service but instead encouraging them. Mainly, it should be pondering how to get the numbers of people to Hawai'i, and concentrate on making the demand go up, not letting it fall. That, in turn, would boost its business and also help Hawai'i's faltering economy.
Shelby Wong
Student, Roosevelt High School
There are better ways to promote Hawai'i
So the governor and the usual lot of politicians and business leaders will go to Japan to try to drum up sagging business. I am sure polite bows will be exchanged and promises to "look into the matter" will be assured by the hosts.
In short, another feel-good junket without results at taxpayers' expense. Why not, instead, offer something tangible and creative for the duration?
• Offer to pay for additional sky marshals on each flight at Hawai'i's expense.
• Give assurances that any tourists stranded by acts of war and terrorism will have their extended hotel bills paid by the industry and reimbursed by the state via tax credits.
• Offer state-backed flight insurance.
• Via a tax incentive, lower the hotel bills further so that tour companies can offer cheaper tours.
Since they are going anyway, I have a suggestion: Get away from being driven around in limos while in Japan. Feel what ordinary citizens there do. Mayor Harris, for instance, may just find out that in Japan, there are no dirty and rusty taxi cabs (drivers are clean-shaven), and when you ride their buses, you can actually be told where the next stop will be.
Tom Kenney
Mililani
Ocean ferry service should get go-ahead
Many people are now afraid to fly. The airlines are cutting back on flights and the number of employees. Inter-county passenger transportation in Hawai'i is only by airline.
The 21st state Legislature found that inter-island maritime passenger transportation is insufficient. The Legislature held public hearings on the proposal of Rainbow Island Express to provide inter-county transportation by high-speed sea-kindly ferries. The Legislature authorized special facility revenue bonds in support of the proposal by Rainbow Express. The governor agreed by signing the bill into Act 158.
Rainbow Island Express requested the go-ahead lease from the director of transportation on July 10. No reply has been received by Rainbow Island Express, nor even an invitation to negotiate.
This project is required at the earliest for the mobility and security of the residents of Hawai'i.
E. Alvey Wright
Column that opposed Arctic drilling distorted
The Oct. 2 Island Voices column opposing Arctic drilling urges readers to contact Sen. Dan Akaka. Those aware of the typical distortions repeated in that piece should instead urge Akaka's support.
Estimates of the output there have been disingenuously conflated with total U.S. energy production (including nuclear and hydroelectric) to arrive at that 2 percent figure. Actually, oil production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would equal the amount now received from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait combined. This should dampen OPEC price-fixing while creating some half-million jobs.
The Gwich'in Indians oppose drilling, but live hundreds of miles from the refuge. Ironically, they had sought drilling on their own lands, but no oil was found. The ignored Inupiat Eskimos do live nearby and favor drilling.
There is no reason to believe that wildlife would be adversely affected. Even the Audubon Society once permitted drilling on its Louisiana preserves. Caribou herds have increased fivefold near Prudhoe Bay since drilling began there. Only a hundredth of 1 percent of the refuge would be affected.
Solar and wind can be useful sources of Hawai'i's power, but not in our lifetime will they be able to fuel jets and cargo ships — nor, without Arab oil, keep the U.S. economy strong enough to encourage tourists.
Duane White
Child suspect cannot be treated as an adult
I suggest the editorial staff try a little more introspection when tackling difficult criminal issues.
What proof is there that increasingly younger children are turning to violent crime? I know of no such study. Because of our improved media coverage, we hear about crime more often. Yet on a percentage basis, I would imagine that aberrant youthful behavior has not risen nor decreased in the last 100,000 years.
A child being tried as an adult reminds me of Abe Lincoln's old saw:
"How many legs does a dog have if you call a tail a leg?"
"Five!" someone shouts.
"No," disagrees Lincoln. "Just calling a tail a leg doesn't make it one."
And just calling a child an adult doesn't make him one.
Adults are (or should be) aware of their constitutional rights, such as the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney, etc. Yet constitutional law is rarely taught in middle school. How can a child exercise rights he's never heard of?
These child suspects are often interrogated for hours, usually without a parent present, not to mention an attorney. Police usually only call in the parents to pressure the child into confessing. Many children will confess to anything after they've been promised by any adult that they can go home if they just say the words, "I did it." False confessions are legion among children.
If we are going to treat children as adults only after we have amassed an airtight case against them, then I suggest that such activity is unconstitutional behavior, because the "adult" rights click in as soon as there is a reasonable suspicion that the person interrogated has committed a crime.
The safeguard: The decision to treat all such suspects as adults regardless of age should be made prior to the investigation. All interrogations of children will then be done in the presence of their attorney — which means they won't take place. Police will be between a rock and a hard place, wanting to "clear up" the crime for political reasons, while preserving their evidence according to adult trial procedures.
Even then, however, how much can a child assist his lawyer in his defense? This is another necessity of a fair trial. A child is simply not a leg.
David Childs
Wai'anae
Akaka Bill would make some better than others
Breathes there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land?
— Sir Walter Scott
The following comments are in response to a talk given by Beadie Dawson at the Honolulu Rotary noon luncheon meeting of July 17 concerning the bill before Congress to recognize Hawaiians as Native Americans similarly to the way Indians are treated.
Dawson expressed the feeling of some Hawaiians that attachment to one's native land and citizenship should be based on race and not place of birth and that Hawaiians have a certain feeling about the 'aina that others can only feel for the land of their forefathers, i.e., Europe, Asia. The Akaka Bill, co-sponsored by our two senators, perpetuates this un-American and un-Hawaiian concept.
Citizenship based on race was not practiced under the kingdom, formed when King Kamehameha the Great (with some help from foreign advisers and weapons) conquered and united the Islands of Hawai'i. Before the overthrow, citizenship was did not depend on race. At the time of annexation, native Hawaiians were in a minority. Currently, citizens of pure Hawaiian blood number less than 2 percent of our population. In no other place in America has the citizenry become more of a racial "melting pot." Akaka has said his bill is not racist. But how can a bill that favors but one race not be racist?
It has been the practice, in Hawai'i, to call those with any amount of Hawaiian blood "Hawaiian." Others, regardless of place of birth, are called something else.
My own children, all born in Hawai'i, cannot call themselves Hawaiians, though their love for their native Hawai'i is no less than those with ancestors born here. I, who left my native California to move to Hawai'i more than 50 years ago, proudly think of myself as a Californian. I certainly never think of myself as English or German or Swedish.
While native Hawaiians have been here longer than the rest of us, in a larger sense, they have not been here that much longer. Great civilizations rose and fell long before anyone set foot on these Islands.
The Akaka Bill defines Native Hawaiians as "indigenous native people" without quantifying the amount of Hawaiian blood required. That presumably will be left up to others to define.
But the bill does presume to grant Native Hawaiians some sort of undefined sovereignty, something that Congress may not be free to give away. Let us hope not.
Bob Robinson
