Letters to the Editor
There's another H-Power alternative
Gary Okino, our councilman from the 8th District, apparently is misinformed or hasn't been paying attention at recent council meetings. He continuously promotes "plasma gasification vitrication," or PGV process, to handle our trash.
I agree the H-Power plant is antiquated, but there are other less expensive alternatives Okino never mentions. The Hydromex system, which has been introduced to the council, is probably the least expensive alternative on the market today.
The trash would be collected, recycled and processed in a single day. The by-product that the system produces can be marketed throughout the world. The Hydromex system can be up and running within 90 days, pending land acquisition, financing, permits, etc.
The end to landfills is right at our fingertips, but because of typical city and state bureaucracy, the people pay the price.
To the members of the City Council, in particular Mr. Okino, stand up for the people of Hawai'i; your vote may be your legacy.
Jimmy Lewis
Travel agent meeting will be impressive
As a member of the planning committee for the upcoming American Society of Travel Agents' World Travel Congress to be held in Honolulu Nov. 3-8 at the Hawai'i Convention Center, I must express to you how impressed I was to witness what our city and state agencies are doing to lay out the red carpet for our group.
This conference is open to all travel agents and built to be the event of the year. We expect 6,000 members for this international event. Our association consists of 25,000 members in the travel business throughout the world, and Hawai'i will welcome each and every one with aloha.
The Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau and the American Society of Travel Agents convened a meeting of officials from the city, state and private sectors. They came from all segments, including retail merchants, litter control, airport division, visitor's information, public relations groups, to name a few. Liz Culkin, vice president of meetings with ASTA, said she does not recall any convention city having these resources ready, willing and coming together to make our visitors' experience a warm one.
I sat at this meeting proud to know that our visitor industry offers all of this to us and all the many conventions, to make our fellow travelers enjoy their stay and to make it a memorable trip.
Kudos to the HVCB and its island chapters too for opening to the many visitors your back yards. Many agents will return to their desks to sell Hawai'i, to sell long-awaited vacations, and the return will be tenfold. Keep up the good work.
Rachel R. Shimamoto
Travel Ways Inc.
Pledge of Allegiance is not in Constitution
Not being allowed to recite the Pledge of Allegiance anywhere is a violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It is written, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." I can find no place in the Constitution that says "separation of church and state."
In order for something to be deemed unconstitutional, it must first be in the Constitution. The Pledge of Allegiance is not a law that Congress established. There is nothing in the document that says a person must recite the pledge. But it does state in the second part that Congress cannot prohibit the free exercise of a person to say the pledge.
If we were to create a law that tells a student that he or she cannot recite the pledge, regardless of place, then that in itself violates a person's rights. It has been made clear that we cannot require someone to believe what another person believes. The choice is always theirs.
Simply sit down and wait until the patriots proclaim their love of country by reciting the pledge. And then go about your day. No one has violated your constitutional rights. In order for a right to be violated, it must first be present in the document you claim is being violated. The separation of church and state is an interpretation of the First Amendment. It is by no means stated or implied in the document.
Let me end with this, from the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights ... Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." Who is the Creator?
Michael Marcelo
'Ewa Beach
We should indeed focus on corruption
Sometimes the editorial page is funnier than the comics.
The headlines lament that Hawai'i has the lowest voter turnout of any state. The editorial cartoon shows the Democratic donkey chained to a ball labeled "indictments and convictions." Yet your lead editorial says we should ignore the obscene number of local politicians caught breaking the laws and ripping off the public and it implores candidates to not run a negative campaign. Instead, the candidates should focus on the positive.
What a laugh. I can't find a single positive thing about the corruption in Hawai'i's government.
One reason so many don't vote is they think all the politicians are crooks. Who can blame them? Reminding the voters of recent scandalous history may be negative campaigning in The Advertiser's view, but the public needs to be as mad about the shameful state of our government as they were about van cams.
Let me ask you this: If these convictions of elected Democrats are not relevant, why do you give them so much print space? It seems to me the media reports are "all corruption — all convictions — all the time." You are being hypocritical when you report this news and then say we should not use it in deciding who will restore trust and integrity in government.
OK, maybe there is one positive thing to say about the scandals: They sell newspapers.
Clif Purkiser
Drivers should face tougher licensing
According to the Honolulu Police Department, there have been fewer than two accidental firearms-related deaths per year in the last 10 years. The HPD estimated there are over a million firearms in Hawai'i. Gun owners overall are very responsible people.
Cars, on the other hand, are responsible for over 80 deaths a year in Hawai'i. The federal government does not call car crashes "accidents"; it calls them "traffic crashes." There is a difference between an accident and a crash.
I understand on O'ahu there are about 630,000 (give or take a few thousand) registered vehicles. Many of these vehicles are on the road without current safety checks, registration and insurance. Many drivers do not have current driver's licenses.
I and my family and friends have never been endangered by a firearm. Yet we are endangered every day by bad drivers. Some people are deliberately attacked and killed by aggressive drivers or by drivers under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
It is about time people understand that owning a motor vehicle and driving are not constitutional rights. They are privileges granted by government.
It is time that the police, MADD and other organizations start treating motor vehicles the same as guns. The same requirements of gun ownership should be applied to motor vehicle ownership and driver's licenses. We would all be safer and more of us would be alive.
Vernon Okamura
City Council district now has new lines
The announcements for the new Honolulu City Council District 3, including my own, require some clarification.
The Advertiser articles consistently say "The seat is open because Councilman Steve Holmes has reached the term limit for the office." In fact, the new District 3 comprises portions of the districts now represented by Councilman Holmes and Councilman John Henry Felix.
The clarification is important because we are finding many voters confused about their own districts. The May 9 Advertiser editorial called on candidates to "play a greater role in voter education." Please consider this part of my own small contribution.
I would ask The Advertiser staff to be extra careful in this confusing election year to be as precise as space allows in describing the new districts.
Barbara Marshall
Candidate for City Council, District #3
We must break hold of longshore workers
After 25 years of full-time formal education (to become a dentist and scientist), I've learned that just 12 years of school might have been enough. This is because high-school-educated Hawai'i and California longshore workers are paid six-figure salaries that exceed what is earned by many doctors, most states' governors and virtually all university professors.
They earn these huge wages to perform the mostly low-skill tasks needed: to tie up, load and unload container ships.
Yet their union is once again unashamedly prepared to hold our entire state hostage to obtain even greater benefits.
It's time to break this union — and hold responsible those elected officials who've allowed this small group to point a loaded gun to our (economic) head every few years.
Mike Rethman
Kane'ohe
Heroes of Portlock rescue unrecognized
This letter is in reply to the June 26 article on the jet ski accident at Portlock. While my friend and six others were fishing at Portlock, fire crews informed them about an unfortunate jet ski incident in which a man drowned and a woman was missing.
They were told if they heard the woman's whistle to contact them. Later that night, someone heard the distress whistle of the woman. When they pointed their lights toward the source, they saw her hanging on to their fishing lines. They managed to slide a rope down to her and, at the risk of themselves falling in the water, went down the rocky cliff to hold on to the rope so she wouldn't get swept farther out to sea or slammed against the jagged rocky shoreline. They then contacted nearby firefighters.
In short, the woman was not rescued by the Coast Guard.
I was disappointed to hear of the lack of appreciation on the part of the Honolulu Fire Department, Honolulu Police Department and the Coast Guard after the incident. No one ever made an effort to go back and express his appreciation in assisting in the rescue effort.
This unfortunate result led to some "bad" feelings among some in the group about further rescue efforts. Please forward this to the respective organizations involved in the rescue effort and let them know just a "Thank you" would have made the efforts of my friend and the six others worthwhile.
Gary Shiroma
