Letters to the Editor
Fire Department responding to needs
In a March 26 letter, Hunter Charles criticizes the Honolulu Fire Department for upgrading the medical training to EMT and states O'ahu needs more ambulances. I am sure Mr. Charles is aware that on any given day, the EMS division has between five and 20 positions to fill with overtime.
This situation is causing a high rate of attrition. The paramedic program at Kapi'olani Community College cannot train enough paramedics to keep up with the rising number of medics leaving.
Mr. Charles should take his hat off to the Fire Department for responding to the community's needs and raising the level of service it provides.
The Fire Department has no problem recruiting; 5,000 people applied for the test in April. I don't see people banging on the door to the paramedic school.
If the EMS division continues to lose personnel, the Fire Department may have to rise again and provide ambulance service.
Mr. Charles should also know the Fire Department's automatic defibrillator program is very successful. Most EMS services in the country are fire department-based and very successful.
Lopaka Thompson
Hale'iwa
Young Democrats leading resurgence
I was somewhat amused with Deron Akiona's March 25 letter to the editor ("New Democratic ideas are digging us in deeper").
The usual rant against members of the state Legislature who belong to the Democratic Party is that they recycle tired ideas and are afraid of change. So, it is surprising to me that legislation such as campaign finance reform, which is progressive in scope and challenges the way politics in Hawai'i is done, is attacked by the very same people who criticize the Democratic Party for being stalwarts, unwilling to change.
The truth is, the Democratic Party is changing. Young Democrats in the House have been instrumental in passing key forward-thinking legislation such as the privatization bill, health fund reform, education reform and, yes, campaign finance reform. These young legislators give me hope for our future.
I, for one, am proud to be a member of the "new breed of Democrats." We respect the history of our party, and we are proud of it. We do not try to pretend our history does not exist or distance ourselves from it, as the Republicans do.
The men and women who built the Democratic Party made it into an organization that is tolerant of other people and ideas. It is for that reason the Democrats have remained the majority party in Hawai'i for more than 50 years.
There is one other thing I took exception to in Mr. Akiona's letter. He asserted that Rep. Brian Schatz and the new breed of Democrats are "trying" to lead Hawai'i. Mr. Akiona, the new breed of Democrats are not "trying" to lead Hawai'i; they already are.
John White
President, Young Democrats of Hawai'i
Governor wants to bring back Prohibition
Gov. Ben Cayetano has revealed the true reason for his proposed 50 percent increase to Hawai'i's liquor tax. Turns out it's not really to help balance the budget after all. Cayetano would like a total ban on the consumption of wine, beer and other alcoholic beverages.
Surely he must know this country decided Prohibition was a bad idea by repealing the 18th Amendment to the Constitution in 1933.
Cayetano revealed his real motivation for wanting to keep us from enjoying that after-work beer or a glass of wine with dinner during a March 27 Channel 2 News interview: "We went to the liquor tax because it is a so-called sin tax. Alcohol doesn't help anybody, you know, and if I could wipe out alcohol, you know, by passing a law, I'd do it, but we can't do that. Same thing with tobacco."
So it's not about balancing the budget after all. It's because Cayetano has a dislike for the civilized consumption of alcohol. Next thing you know, we will find ourselves with a Department of Strict Morality and Pure Thought.
Ed Michelman
Access to Internet already reasonable
After reading Otto Cleveland's comments on getting your money's worth using the Internet (Letters, March 25, "Access to Internet should be reasonable"), I have to wonder what he expects from the Web.
If he can access the Web and get all the information that he needs, then surely he has his money's worth. One does not have to stay online 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to justify money's worth.
Michael Nomura
Kailua
Throw off the yoke of machine dependency
My thanks to Pearl City resident Otto Cleveland for having the courage to speak out against the false god of technology in the name of the Internet (Letters, March 26).
While our political and media establishments would like us to think many of our problems can be solved by putting our trust in the hands of inanimate machines, Mr. Cleveland points out what is becoming an increasing frustration with the lack of utility and financial deprivation that comes about when we become dependent on machines to live our lives.
This reality no doubt played a large part in the downfall of the "information revolution" when the stock bubble broke over the heads of market mavens. The world should have paid attention to surveys in the year 2000, which showed that for the first time, the number of new Internet users was surpassed by those who had given up on the technology and, like Cleveland, canceled their expensive ISP service.
Now would anyone like to talk about their overpriced and unnecessary cable television service?
Ikaika Valdez
Pearl City
U.S. hasn't renounced 'nuclear first strike'
I believe your opinion, "The moral high ground and nuclear weapons" (March 27), is in error on one point: The United States has not in fact renounced the option of what you call "nuclear first strikes."
Throughout the Cold War until the present, it is my understanding, our country has preserved the options of either riding out an attack or launching on warning. Indeed, one of the great advantages of having strategic weapons for use as a deterrent is the availability of such options.
For the United States to "forswear nuclear first strikes," as you urge, would be to weaken our strategic deterrent and embolden potential adversaries.
Americans fundamentally mistrust weakness, and with good reason.
A nation does not "maintain the moral high ground" by gratuitously exposing its citizens to any more risk than necessary or by prematurely ruling out options that are in fact available.
Jimmy Carter's reflexively ruling out military force as a response to the taking of U.S. hostages from our embassy in Teheran in 1979 substantially paved the way for his defeat to a former movie actor a year later and ushered in what the Washington Post headlined "The Reagan Era" the day after the election.
Thomas E. Stuart
Kailua, Kona, Big Island
HTA did indeed cater to gay tourist market
Rick Humphreys, the Hawai'i Tourism Authority's executive director, said the recent "Volcano Party" targeting the gay tourist market does not mean the HTA is planning a specific push toward the gay tourist market (Advertiser, March 23).
But the facts make it clear that just the opposite is true. On the HTA's own Web site, it says, "The Volcano Party is Hawai'i's first festival geared toward the gay and lesbian visitor. This event reaches out to an emerging growth demographic. Events such as these at other U.S. venues have proved to be very successful."
It's shameful both that Hum-phreys would make such a blatantly false statement publicly and that The Advertiser would let him get away with it. I guess investigative reporting or even a simple follow-up question is too much to ask for when The Advertiser shares the views of the person being interviewed.
Robert Owen
Aggressive tailgating dangerous, provocative
I am an experienced urban warrior. I learned to drive in Philadelphia, Boston, San Juan and Atlanta. I have lived here for 10 years and have witnessed the advent of extremely dangerous and inhumane driving stunts on O'ahu.
Aggressive tailgating is the norm. This is dangerous and provocative. It makes me angry because it increases my chances of having an accident. Tailgaters pass aggressively and dart in and out of traffic wantonly. I slow down, which makes the tailgater really angry. I am also angry at this point. This is road rage!
Our traffic mess is inconvenient and wasteful. It is also dangerous because road rage becomes general rage ready to strike randomly. Traffic cameras can't deal with this. We need more police visibility on our roads and at intersections. We need many more buses to absorb traffic. Buses are flexible and do not require special infrastructure because we have sufficient concrete and blacktop.
Tunnels and bridges may help a bit, but buses are the best bet to solve this nightmare. Otherwise we will become another city where the car is king and people are garbage.
David T. Webb
Mililani
Anti-Harris ruling should be reversed
Can an ordinary citizen be a "friend of the court"?
Briefly, my amicus curiae is this: The Supreme Court should not permit an arbitrary and capricious reinterpretation of the "resign to run" law. This law was an arbitrary exercise itself, designed to "get" Mayor Frank Fasi, but whose meaning has become well-established and understood over time: A person becomes a candidate when candidacy papers are filed.
Judge Sabrina McKenna's ruling, cynically changing this meaning at Russell Blair's instigation in order to "get" Mayor Jeremy Harris, should be reversed.
Michael G. Palcic
Noise hypocrites?
I can't understand how Mililani residents oppose a needed bark park for the many pet owners in the Leeward area, yet tolerate the noise and danger created by the increasing number of teens (and preteens) tearing up the peaceful community with motorized scooters.
Dean Hegg
Mililani
Celibacy of priests is indeed the problem
Your March 26 commentary by Father James Martin, "Celibacy is not the problem," proposes to untangle the issues surrounding the Catholic Church's celibacy issue. However, except for his support for open discussion, his position reflects the Vatican party line.
To put the matter candidly, he just doesn't get it.
He correctly points out that there is no necessary relationship between homosexuality and pedophilia. Implicit in his statement, however, is that homosexuality is itself an issue in the priesthood.
Conservative estimates by Catholic sociologists suggest at least 20 percent of priests are homosexual, 10 percent of them sexually active and 4 percent pedophiles. Additionally relevant to the issue of celibacy, another 20 percent are sexually active heterosexuals. What percentage of these latter are also engaged in pedophilia, I don't know, but recent news reports are less than reassuring.
Father Martin's main point is that celibacy is about loving others, and he uses the argument that priests in a family situation would not have as much love to give to others in the community at large. This is an interesting stance given the church's demonization of contraception, which employs a complete reversal of this quantitative view of love by insisting that parents can love eight children just as easily as one.
He reminds us that Jesus was a model celibate for the way he understood love. But what has celibacy got to do with love? Buddha and Gandhi weren't celibate, and they seem to have spread the love pretty well.
While I have nothing against celibacy, neither can I find any reason to respect it. The fact is that the only reason the church thinks we should respect celibacy is its stubborn but resilient belief that sex is evil.
Celibacy is a rule in the church, but a rule that is no longer followed ceases to be a rule, and those who continue to insist on it turn it and themselves into caricatures of "eunuchs for the kingdom."
David Panisnick
Professor of religion, Honolulu Community College
