Letters to the Editor
Cayetano must be careful on economy
If Gov. Ben Cayetano comes up with some innovative and realistic ways to buoy Hawai'i's economy, we should give him our total support. We need to be working together.
But working together starts at the top, and the group the governor met with to discuss our state's new woes looks suspiciously like the same "blue-ribbon panel" of business and labor leaders who came up with Cayetano's off-balance economic recovery plan three years ago. That plan was an evil stew of supply-side incentives, plus new taxes on the working class to pay for them.
New taxes on families will not bail us out of this situation. Nor can we afford to mortgage our future with additional heavy debt, whether through bonds or other borrowing. Cayetano's new plan must recognize that. It must be bold, compassionate and fiscally sound.
If our governor can produce such a plan, he has my absolute support.
Ken Armstrong
McCully-Mo'ili'ili Neighborhood Board
Geothermal energy must be developed
Tourism's dropoff has finally forced us to realize that as a state we really generate no significant product. We mainly gather money from tourism and recirculate it.
Hawai'i should become a valuable strategic manufacturing state and stop being reliant on tourists' whims in considering Hawai'i as their destination.
Manufacturing needs large amounts of power at reasonable rates. Let's finish what we started by developing natural geothermal energy found on Maui and the Big Island. We are in a wartime situation — we have to investigate supplements to oil-fired generators.
The research has already been done and shown to work. Power generated is limited only by technology's ability to extract it. A local company has also demonstrated an efficient fuel cell using hydrogen. Hydrogen can be extracted from water through electricity.
Gary Viveiros
Political cartoon was stereotypical
I found your Wright political cartoon in the Sept. 24 issue of the newspaper to be in very bad taste. It was racially stereotyped and offensive.
I found the depiction of the Afghan in the cartoon to be strikingly similar to ones on propaganda posters in World War II. Those posters portrayed "Japs" as buck-toothed, squint-eyed monsters.
This cartoon showed the same ignorance in play. It shows a toothless, ugly, dirty-looking Afghan wearing a turban.
While the cartoon clearly identifies the Afghan as one of Osama bin Laden's followers, it still stereotypes and insults Middle Easterners. There are people being killed over prejudice like this, and this will only contribute to that.
The attacks were horrible, but think of a better way to make your point. I hope the mistakes of the past aren't repeated. Aren't we bigger than this?
Kenji Hobbs
Roosevelt High School
Make airport safe and they will come
The tragic events of Sept. 11 have left the traveling public with a justifiable fear of flying. This in turn is devastating our tourist-based economy.
I believe that a possible solution to our economic woes would be to inject a sizable, perhaps immense, measure of funding into Honolulu International Airport for the purpose of procuring the latest high-tech security measures and hiring large numbers of first-class security personnel. If we mount a quality effort, we can guarantee a safe, fast, relatively hassle-free transit through our airport.
Such an effort would doubtlessly be noted by the Mainland media. If during these trying times we can lay claim to being the safest, most care-free tourist destination on the planet, we shall reap the obvious benefits.
Clyde Hudson
Makaha
Buddha's teachings offer important advice
This may be the time when we should all reflect on the twin verses of the Dhammapada (an ancient collection of Buddha's teachings in verse form).
"For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love.This is an unalterable law.
"There are those who forget that death comes to all. For those who remember, quarrels come to an end."
J. L. Oberholzer
Fighting terrorism with kindness won't work
Kit Smith, in his Sept. 25 letter, advocates not fighting terrorism and the Taliban by taking revenge but by giving food and drink. He says we should give the Afghans aid and the Taliban would show its true colors by blocking it.
I am sorry to say that the Taliban has already been confiscating all of the food aid that relief agencies have been sending to the Afghan people. As long as ignorance prevails among the do-gooders, the Taliban and other terrorists will not block anything that aids their causes.
He says, "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."
Unfortunately, the only coals we have seen are the ones that killed over 6,000 innocent people at the World Trade Center. How many more terrorist acts do we need for people to understand that we can only defend ourselves and others in the free world by increasing national defense, intelligence activities and internal security?
The lessons to be learned here are: Freedom is not free and the peace dividend is a myth. All the savings we made in defense, intelligence and security in the past eight years just blew up in our collective faces.
Russel Noguchi
Pearl City
History shows war in Afghanistan tough
In his Sept. 14 letter, Keith Haugen takes on Osama bin Laden, threatening "severe consequences" to those harboring him. Magnanimously added is "wiping out" the Taliban for "the people of Afghanistan to choose new leadership."
It is obvious Haugen is unaware that:
• The former Soviet Union was forced to abandon its 10-year war to occupy Afghanistan, albeit the U.S. military supported Afghan resisting forces.
• Although the Soviet-backed (Taliban) government, which subsequently came to power, controls 95 percent of the country, there has been an on-going opposition to control the other 5 percent adjacent to Pakistan.
• As Sen. John McCain points out, "no one is envisioning occupying a country. Afghanistan is one of the most rugged, remote countries in the world." If Haugen's "wipeout" suggests aerial bombing, he was not witness (as I was in 1943-45) to the on-going will to fight in Britain (despite nightly bombing by the Luftwaffe) and in Germany (daily around the clock by the Allies) despite the loss of lives and massive destruction. As always, it takes infantry/armor on the ground with a myriad of supporting organizations.
John K. Kingsley
Wahiawa
U.S. should use economic weapon
Our most logical course of action is to "hit 'em where it hurts." We can do this both by increasing domestic spending to strengthen our (and the world's) economy and by tracking down and drying up the terrorist's sources of finances.
Second, when will war bonds be available for purchase both to help our economy and to fight terrorists?
Third, can't people see that we are helping bin Laden destroy this economy by making massive layoffs, spending less, etc. We are playing into his hand and letting our panic hurt us when we should "bite the bullet."
Ted LaFore
City's bus rapid transit proposal looks good
Lots of accidents, traffic snarls and tie-ups have made the news lately. On the radio, the traffic watch reports blare out daily hot spots and back-ups.
We definitely need to be smarter. We need a better solution to our traffic mess, and I don't mean more traffic lights and bigger highways, as some might suggest.
Plans for the city's bus rapid transit look better and better to me each day I have to sit in traffic and waste my valuable time.
Scott D. Sunaoka
Kane'ohe
Insurance article claims unfounded
Your Sept. 9 article "Insurance firms use illegal criteria" puts forward unfounded assertions about the use of credit information as a factor in developing insurance rates.
Drivers with good credit histories — more than 70 percent of the population — get lower insurance rates from these companies.
The article states that consumer advocates argue that the credit information used by insurance companies "rewards white, affluent consumers while penalizing the poor and minorities." The article cites no evidence for this argument. In fact, no such evidence exists.
Some auto insurers have found that a person's credit history is a good predictor of whether the person will have an insured loss. These companies use credit information as a factor in developing insurance rates. Drivers with good credit histories get lower insurance rates from these companies.
The credit information used by insurers does not include a person's income or race. Insurers consider how a person manages his or her financial affairs, not how much money a person has. Numerous studies have shown that low-income individuals and minorities manage their finances just as well as the general population.
Thus, the lower rates that credit information achieves help low-income families and minorities find affordable insurance.
The Sept. 9 article should have mentioned that a 2000 report by the Virginia Bureau of Insurance concludes that the credit information used by insurers does not discriminate on the basis of income or race.
Instead of reporting unsubstantiated arguments of economic and racial discrimination, your article should have provided a more balanced discussion of how auto insurers use credit information to benefit their customers, regardless of income or race.
Samuel Sorich
Vice president, National Association of Independent Insurers
Reconstructed cars should be impounded
Everyone is looking for a solution to the problem of street racers. Here is my idea: Police should not be ticketing cars that are found to have been reconstructed without a permit. If a person is going to put several thousand dollars into modifying his car, paying a fine is no big deal.
The police should impound, on the spot, any vehicle found to be reconstructed without a permit. This should be for any motor vehicle, racer, monster truck or other type of modified vehicle. The vehicle should not be returned to the owner until it is made street-legal, either by returning it to factory condition or obtaining a reconstruction permit.
If the owner does not do one of these two things within 30 days, he should be charged storage fees and the car should be scrapped or broken down and sold for parts. The reason it should be scrapped or sold and not auctioned is that we should not provide a cheap way for the next racer or trucker to buy a vehicle that is not street-legal.
Steven E. Marsh
Mililani
Sentence violators to be crossing guards
Regarding the recent article on the shortage of school crossing guards: Why can't the appropriate judge sentence those who speed, run stoplights, fail to yield to pedestrians, etc., to community service as crossing guards? It's a win/win solution.
To take this a step further, the offender must bring back a "grade card" from his charges and must show, at the least, a good, helpful attitude.
This kind of deterrent would make drivers more conscious of the road rules.
Rita M. Miller
Kahuku Sugar Mill must be preserved
The Kahuku Sugar Mill building and mill machinery are priceless historical and educational resources for locals and tourists alike.
I hope the state and city fathers or some institution of influence has the wisdom to see the potential benefits of saving this priceless reminder of Hawai'i's sugar heritage. It is rapidly being destroyed. The time to take protective action is now or it will be too late.
R. Moody
