Left legacy of tree

One of the victims of the hijacked airliner that crashed outside of Pittsburgh was the project manager of the Outdoor Circle, Christine Snyder, 32, of Kailua.

Christine was a friend of Hula's Bar & Lei Stand. She arranged for the old Hula's tree to be "air-layered" and propagated. Unfortunately these tree "keikis" died in the nursery.

Then Christine arranged for another tree to be planted in their stead, across from Hula's, by the corner of Kapahulu and Kalakaua on Zoo property. When the memorial, for the "iwi" (ancient Hawaiian remains, uncovered during construction in Waikiki), was proposed for the this tree site, Christine then arranged for the tree to be moved, with Hula's management consulting, to its present location across from Hula's.

Bless Christine Snyder, her family and her co-workers.

Jack Law

Give peace a chance through education

Given the recent terrorist attack, peace seems the furthest from anyone's mind. Retaliation. Vengeance. These actions are appropriate responses — in the short run.

We need to go beyond being reactive and be proactive for not only our national security, but our global security. In order to be more proactive, we need to build tolerance and peace among nations and, more importantly, among the people of all of the nations. We need world peace for our survival.

We need a worldwide peace education program in order to prevent generations to come from creating such travesties. With a universal peace education program, no matter how naive or unrealistic it may sound, we could have world peace in as little as 20 years, or a single generation. A single generation is all it would take.

Michelle Lopez

U.S. must retaliate

At first I was saddened by the attacks on the United States; now I am angry. I have heard enough. We know where these attacks came from and we know why. We knew why before they even happened. The U.S. must strike back now.

Josh Shuman

9-11: an infamous date

Like Dec. 7, from this day forward we Americans will always remember Sept. 11. Our national emergency call number (9-11) will also live in infamy.

Mel Tom

Lack of insurance? Impound the vehicle

Will Scott Ishikawa, transportation writer for The Honolulu Advertiser, and the officer in charge of the HPD Traffic Division please tell us, of the 1,388 citations issued over the Labor Day weekend, how many of those were to drivers without no-fault insurance papers, as required by Hawai'i statutes?

When Honolulu's finest issued citations to drivers for lack of proper insurance at the scene, what happened? Were these drivers allowed to drive off from the scene when issued a citation or were their vehicles impounded for lack of proper insurance?

If they were allowed to drive off, once issued the citation, then the HPD has allowed these drivers to violate the law. Their vehicles should be impounded at the scene of the infraction.

Rodney W. Botelho

Closing dental clinic would be disgrace

Regarding Dr. Kevin K.L. Ching's Sept. 6 letter on the closing of the dental clinic at Queen's Hospital: He could not be any more right. To close that clinic is a disgrace and will hurt so many people, myself included, who have used the clinic for the past five years.

Not only is it not supposed to be a profit-making situation, it helps people from all walks of life — the older folks, the prisoners, the hospital in-house patients — and provides a training hospital for the young new dentists.

I wonder if the governor's wife, Vicky Cayetano, can do what she can to save it, just as she jumped in so helpfully about a year ago.

Someone sure does not want the medium-income folks to have the good dental care we were getting there, with a great staff of doctors and nurses who truly show they care.

Please help again, Mrs. Cayetano, if you can.

Lois Bunin

Downplaying shark threat wasn't smart

Jeremy Harris downplaying the shark threat in Waikiki reminded me, and I'm sure others, of the whining mayor depicted in the movie "Jaws."

Reading the article quoting a great marine biologist, Dr. J. Harris, evoked the same reaction I had to the movie mayor — reach up, grab that whiny sucker by the scruff of his neck and shake the living bejeebers out of him.

The statement of statistics concerning lightning strikes and dying from shark bites also minimized the threat of attack, especially when few people are killed outright from shark attack. This makes all those other hundreds of people with missing hands and legs or internal organs and hundreds of stitches feel a lot better that the shark just "took a taste."

Charles Davis
Kailua

Widening of sidewalks doesn't make sense

The widening of the sidewalks on Wai'alae Avenue is a waste of time, money and manpower. Anyone who lives and travels on the street will tell you what is needed is more parking and new businesses.

I can see how widening the sidewalks downtown made sense, but if you look at the number of people in Kaimuki, at even the busiest of times, it's just not necessary. So for months, running into the busy holiday season, drivers and existing businesses will suffer — for what I feel won't make a whole lot of difference anyway.

Dean Hayashi

First the police must police themselves

John Hyytianinen wrote in his Sept. 7 letter: "Just because I prefer a sports car as my mode of transportation does not mean I deserve to be tailed by every HPD cruiser on the island, waiting for me to do something illegal."

Exactly.

I also drive a sports car, though it isn't customized at all. One night recently I was going home, doing the speed limit in line with a car in front of me, and saw this police car come up in my mirrors. As is the case with most police officers, he was going well above the speed limit — at least judging by how fast he came up to me. In fact, he had to brake when he came up in the lane next to me, and he hovered there, looking for what, I wondered.

Disappointed that I wasn't racing, he sped off.

It was a clear-cut case of profiling, this time instead of based on race, it was based simply on a preferred type of automobile. Would the police officer have acted that way if I were driving an SUV? Doubt it.

It's just another knee-jerk response from the Police Department, something it will forget about after a few months (see intersection blocking). Given the fact that the police can't police themselves (see food-gate), much less quickly open up a freeway after an accident or figure out how to build a workable radio system, I think the department would better serve the public by getting its own act together.

James Ko

Car enthusiasts can cheat on modifications

Regarding Brad Takahashi's Sept. 5 letter stating that not all car enthusiasts are breaking the law: Being in my mid 30s, I have been a part of the modified-car craze where paint jobs, exhaust and suspension modifications were considered to be a way of expressing your feelings.Ê

However, there has to be some form of clarification on the statement for receiving the reconstruction station's seal of approval for a car. During our days of modified cars, all it would take was a change of wheels from your standard factory set to a more stylish and customized one. Meaning, your 14x6 rims would be changed to a 15x7 and thus would afford you a reconstruction sticker stating that change.

However, being that reconstruction stickers are vague as to what limitations a vehicle could undergo to be considered unsafe, once the sticker is placed on your car, you could then go ahead and increase these modifications and add various enhancements thereafter.

Takahashi's letter went on to urge not punishing car enthusiasts due to a "couple of bad apples." In my view, these "bad apples" are more than a handful and have caused fatalities. The letter also said that we need to realize that it's the driver of the car and not the car itself that's unsafe. A licensed driver bearing poor judgment can be a disaster waiting to happen, thus deemed unsafe in any circumstance.Ê

Our laws are not tough enough to penalize those who do break the law. If these car enthusiasts want to maintain peace and gain the respect of the people of Hawai'i, they should spread the word to their fellow car enthusiasts whom they know are "bad apples" and educate them on how modified-car owners should be acting when out on the road.ÊAnd the same should apply to us as well.

M. Sasano
West O'ahu

Dispute is affecting teacher shortage

I am a "Mainland recruit success story" now putting in my fifth year of teaching at Wai'anae High School. I consider it a privilege to be part of the Wai'anae community, and I strive to be the kind of science teacher that I would want for my own children.

I have brought a student to the Arctic on a National Science Foundation grant, another to San Diego as a presenter for a conference and helped send three students to Michigan to compete in the Intel International Science Fair. I make less as a fifth-year public school teacher in Hawai'i (just short of my master's degree) than the entry-level Kamehameha teacher.

Gov. Cayetano states that he is unsure that the current contract dispute is affecting the teacher shortage in Hawai'i. I can assure him it does. Although my husband has been given the opportunity to extend his tour of duty here, I am less enthusiastic than I would have been three years ago. If this contract is not settled satisfactorily, you can count one more vacancy on the Leeward Coast for the next school year.

Every citizen in Hawai'i should be insulted by his blatant disregard for public education in this state.

Michele McCormick

No gated community at North Shore area

Doesn't the City Council ever learn from its predecessors? Everyone (except the developers) now laments that back in the 1960s and 1970s the government gave permits and variances that allowed hotels to be built along practically the entire length of Waikiki, completely shutting off the beach from the people.

Today, on the North Shore, if you drive from Hale'iwa to Velzyland, there are only a half-dozen places where you can actually see the beach, and those have little or no parking and practically invisible access paths. Locals and tourists alike must park in the dirt along Kamehameha Highway and cross the street (not easy or safe) in order to get to the beach. This is even true at Sunset Beach, which has new facilities.

The council now has the opportunity to save the only remaining open space on the North Shore: Velzyland. It is large enough for a roomy, beach-side park with beach-side parking.

Please, do not give it over to a gated community that only a few can enjoy. This is the last chance to make a real difference. Once you cave in to developers, it will be gone forever — for everyone.

John Ilnicki
Hale'iwa

A detective's reward

It was fun to read Juel Makamae Gustafson's Sept. 10 letter regarding Hagure Keiji.

Detective Yasuura reminds me of Columbo, and I watch the television show regularly. Sometimes I wait for the show to end so that I can see Yasuura having that satisfying sake drink from the hands of oh-so-feminine "Mama." She is sooo good.

Ash Kapoor