Letters to the Editor
McDermott is groping for issue to help drive
I support Republican President George Bush and Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell in their efforts to find a way to end the violence in the Middle East.
They are being condemned as appeasers because they are talking to Yasser Arafat. The president, Secretary Powell and I condemn terrorism. We also condemn suicide bombings.
Bob McDermott, an announced Republican candidate for Congress, says it is time for Americans to stand firmly on the side of reason. The president, Secretary Powell and I stand for reason.
On Sept. 24, I voted to allow President Bush to use force to seek out and rout Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. I can think of no greater way to have expressed my abhorrence of terrorism and the terrorist attack on America.
Bob McDermott is clearly groping for an issue to bolster his faltering campaign (Island Voices, April 26).
I have condemned terrorism and will continue to do so at every opportunity. Like President Bush and Secretary Powell, I believe America is the only country that can bring peace in the Middle East. I join them in pleading for peace there.
I am condemned by Mr. McDermott for my "No" vote on HCR 280. I voted as I did because, like President Bush, I could not support a resolution that urged "the president to suspend all relations with Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority." The resolution was, of course, ignored by the president. He sent Secretary Powell to talk to both Ariel Sharon and Arafat. I pray that these and future talks will lead to peace.
Rep. Patsy Mink
Raises for city officials are inappropriate now
Some public servants are more equal than others. In a time of tight budgets, I can't believe that the City Council is thinking of giving themselves and other city officials raises, when every department is having to cut back.
If they have money for raises, then they should not cut some of the much-needed programs for the working-class people who elected them.
Maybe they need to be reminded that this is an election year.
Alvin Kim
Mililani
Rees' commentary was wrong about HTA
Waikiki Beach Activities serves as lifeguards and beach boys at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. In spite of our location in the trenches, we do know a little bit about what is going on in Waikiki and at the Hawai'i Tourism Authority.
For instance, we know that Robert Rees' April 15 Counterpoint commentary is simply wrong, wrong, wrong.
In his column, Rees clobbered Outrigger's David Carey, the state, House Speaker Calvin Say and the very hard-working HTA staff and its directors. If there were a grain of truth in what Rees says, I would be the first to jump all over the state and HTA, but he is wrong. I know that Peter Schall, my boss at Hilton, has worked his 'okole off serving as a director at HTA, and he was not in any way controlled by Outrigger's Carey.
Furthermore, to replace tourism experts like Carey and Schall with "good old boys" from government is also a big mistake. The HTA could not afford to pay for the kind of top-level counsel the HTA has received from the present board, and it is a very big mistake to think someone not connected to tourism is going to manage Hawai'i's very limited advertising money.
The current success we are seeing in tourism is due largely to the brilliant work of the HTA board and staff, and its agency, the Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau.
Bob Hampton
President, Waikiki Beach Activities
Government controls prevent competition
Remember back in March 1999 when U.S. Restaurant Properties bought the old Texaco terminal and 27 service stations on O'ahu. Your news, at the time, talked about how the new competition was going to make gasoline prices fall.
USRP, operating as BC Oil, rebranded all the stations as ARCO and opened for business. Prices didn't fall. Now, three years later, it seems that all the ARCO stations are closing. Could it be so much profit was made gouging the Hawai'i public that they've all retired and moved to Fiji? I think not.
America is as great as it is because of free enterprise, not government-controlled industries. Sure, Hawai'i gasoline producers make a little more off their gasoline sales in Hawai'i. But not excessively so. If gasoline profits were that high, you can bet that some enterprising company would have found a way to edge into our "lucrative" market. If anything, it's Hawai'i's already "excessive" government controls that have prevented any viable competition.
Please stick to writing news. Leave the socialist advocating to others.
Ross M. Rolirad
Makakilo
Regulating gasoline would be a mistake
Are our legislators really ready to put their proverbial feet even deeper in their already-full mouths? Put a lid on gas prices to protect us? Give me a break.
Let's think it out. Shell or Chevron sells all the gas it wants in California for $1.98 per gallon. Our leaders decide the most they can sell a gallon in Hawai'i for is $1.60 per. Of course, we don't need as much gas as California since we are barely more than a million people. We don't have the 35 million people who drive to California to visit each year and fill up their tanks several times while they are there, plus 19 million residents who drive everywhere. It is pretty hard to drive too far here and use up a lot of gas since we are restricted to driving only on dry land.
It is pretty expensive to ship gas to Hawai'i. There are no pipelines or train tracks that can carry it here cheaply.
If all the Arab countries listen to Saddam and quit selling the U.S. oil at competitive prices or cut back on quantity, the price will go up (Economics 101). Oil companies, being as smart as they are, will soon figure out that they can sell all the gas they want in California at $2 a gallon and will quit sending it to Hawai'i where our dim-witted leaders have ordained they can only sell it for $1.60 a gallon.
Have we so soon forgotten those long lines of the 1970s when the Arabs cut us off? This time we are going to cut ourselves off. At this juncture, Hawai'i is firmly rooted at the bottom as a state friendly to business investment and as a place to conduct business.
Bob Gaddis
No regard for humanity
I am appalled at the attention given to the dog on the abandoned ship. I cannot understand why so much attention and financial support has been given to rescue a dog but no one seems to care about the deceased body left on the ship. How would you feel if this was one of your relatives and you saw all this clamor about the dog but none about recovering a loved one? Where is our humanity?
Ron Varley
A double standard
I wonder how many people concerned about the dog rescue are meat eaters. That involves supporting the massacre of animals.
Nandarani Evans
Reefs, fish off Maui are being destroyed
It's been six months since I've done any snorkeling at Turtle Town in Kihei on Maui. On this last trip, I was appalled by the destruction of the coral and the lack of fish.
How can the shoreline from Turtle Town go from vibrant to dead and dying in such a short time? I was just there in October. There is a lot of development going on in the area. Is it the runoff?
I snorkeled from Turtle Town down to downtown Kihei and found the same destruction. Is there an algae that is spreading? There is some major destruction that is killing our reefs and depleting fish. What is going on?
You only need to get in the water with snorkeling gear too see the devastation. This is so serious that I don't know what can be done to restore the reefs.
The beauty of Hawai'i is the ocean, its reefs and fish. They are all dying — you just need a snorkel and mask to see it. Get involved to rectify this situation.
Leslie R. Moore
BRT, not more roads, will solve our problem
Cliff Slater is missing the point in his April 23 commentary on traffic in Honolulu. He claims we can solve traffic problems by building more and more roads to accommodate more and more cars.
Mr. Slater, it's not just a matter of increasing capacity for automobiles. It's a question of how we envision the entire future of our urban life, both here in Honolulu and around the world.
Cars create more than just traffic. Our dependency on cars contributes to air and noise pollution, isolation, obesity and related health problems, and addiction to fossil fuels — for which we pay enormous costs, not just in terms of gasoline money, but also in America's strained international relations.
Bus/Rapid Transit is a way to get what we need — mobility — without the harmful side effects. Like the automobile, BRT will get us to our destinations quickly and pleasantly. But unlike the automobile, it will help save fuel, decrease emissions, make streets more pedestrian-friendly and improve community life.
Slater should take his own advice and think outside the box. This is 2002, not 1952. Times change, and hopefully after building three major freeways we have learned that maintaining paradise requires so much more than new pavement.
We deserve a clean, peaceful, environmentally friendly city where people — not cars — come first.
Nikki Love
Rail transit should have been included
Is the Bus-Rapid Transit system the best or even a reasonable use of a billion-plus tax dollars? We may never know.
It may prove to be calamitous that Mayor Harris did not have the political courage to include rail transit as an alternative to be evaluated.
Compare the cost vs. benefits of today's BRT versus the rail proposed 10 years ago, and most will agree that a lack of vision and political courage prevented a true transit solution like rail.
So, because certain leaders lack the courage to make the hard decisions, taxpayers will have to fund a transit system that (certain portions) arguably may or may not work.
Even if it does work, the city's studies tout BRT as a 25-year solution. That has about as much vision as the knucklehead who planned only three lanes on each side of H-1 going through urban Honolulu.
Government needs to design and invest in infrastructure with a vision of Honolulu in the year 2050 or beyond. And voters need to support leaders who make the tough, long-term decisions instead of those who are guided by a four-year election cycle.
Craig Watase
Dobelle showing us that he's a spender
UH President Dobelle is either a fantastic salesman or a tremendous con man.
He elevated himself from a private college of 2,074 students on one campus to a statewide entity with over 40,000 students. He had a faculty of 196 and an operating budget of $86 million. According to the college, $38,603 is budgeted for each student and each has a "hidden" scholarship of $13,943 funded by alumni donations and an endowment with a market value of $343 million. The college advertises a student/faculty ratio of nine to one.
Coming from such rich surroundings, he negotiated a million-dollar termination contract with our Board of Regents. He arranged a renovation of his home for nearly a million dollars. And now he is looking for an office away from campus, I guess with more luxurious and comfortable surroundings. After all, coming to a poor university with publicly provided facilities certainly must be a bummer.
He asked for the resignation of key staff members without going through the usual procedures for a state institution and brought in his own cohorts. Then he dipped his fingers into the foundation's donated monies to entertain his friends at the Janet Jackson concert.
If he is half the administrator that he is a spender, then he'll do all right. He'll fit in perfectly with our politicians. Being a former politician, he certainly has the experience.
Tom Shimabuku
Kailua
D-2nd Congressional District
