Letters to the Editor
European hostility greatly exaggerated
The "hate U.S." essay in The Advertiser's Feb. 9 Focus section greatly exaggerates the extent of European hostility toward this nation.
No doubt there are many European radicals and immigrants from North African and Middle Eastern areas who feel this strongly, perhaps including Yasmin Anwar's friends and relatives.
More realistically, stern criticism of the U.S. for, among others, the reasons cited by Ms. Anwar is a preoccupation of most European intellectuals, politicians and commentators. Many of us criticize our federal government and our popular culture for the same shortcomings.
In general, Europeans struggle to understand America and are upset about the differences between us. They do not hate the U.S., they just want us to be more like the way they see themselves.
John Thorne
Excuse for Iraq war doesn't make sense
Would someone please explain why it makes sense to start a war to disarm a country because we cannot find arms in that country?
Would someone explain why the United States feels so threatened by arms it cannot find?
George Kent
A slight miscalculation in crunching numbers
Scott Allen's letter of Jan. 30, "Shipping cleaner than transportation ashore," was a waste of ink. He suggests using ferries between Hawai'i Kai and downtown, and 'Ewa and downtown, instead of building highways.
He notes that cars use 5,000 BTUs (energy units) per ton per mile while ships use 500 BTUs — one-tenth the energy. He didn't mention how many ships, infrastructure, etc., would be needed.
If a 50,000-ton ferry could carry 1,000 cars, 50,000 cars would need 50 ferries, given that this is the number of cars traveling between 'Ewa and Hawai'i Kai.
Fifty ferries times $500 million equals $25 billion. OK ... Wait a moment! A 50,000-ton ferry would need 25 million BTUs, divided by 1,000 cars equals 25,000 BTUs per car. That's five times the energy used per car per mile on the road. There must be another way ...
If we built a one-ton ferry (uses 500 BTUs) for each car ... Yeah, that's it! That's it!
George Avlonitis
Legalizing assisted dying good all around
Thank you so much for your recent editorial on assisted dying. As executive director of Compassion In Dying of Hawai'i and spokesman for the Death With Dignity Hawai'i coalition, I appreciate responsible and accurate commentary on the issue, even from those who may not personally support assisted dying.
What we don't appreciate is misleading information that is based on conjecture, speculation and the use of fear, which is more often than not a smokescreen by religious groups who have decided not to openly acknowledge their opposition is faith-based.
You rightly point out that while this whole thing is being (endlessly) debated, terminally ill people are suffering, and suffering badly.
Some take their life by violent means, others may use drugs they have accumulated or find a physician who is sympathetic to their plight.
The problem with keeping assisted dying a secret practice is that many of the safeguards the bill calls for may be overlooked or intentionally avoided. A second diagnosis confirming the terminal condition may not be requested, opportunities to counsel on alternatives to assisted dying such as pain management and palliative care may be overlooked, and drugs that night be less than effective might be employed so as to avoid leaving a paper trail of Schedule II substances.
If there is a slippery slope, we are already on it. Legalizing assisted dying would improve overall end-of-life care, introduce safeguards to ensure the practice is only one of last resort, and hold physicians harmless from civil and criminal liability provided the safeguards have been both followed and documented.
Roland L. Halpern
Bus Rapid Transit is an excellent plan
I ride the bus a lot. We have a sort of love-hate relationship, the bus and I. It gets me where I want to go (usually), and is environmentally sounder than taking a car everywhere.
At the same time, it's not even close to being punctual and can be tremendously slow. And, though better than every passenger in his or her own car, as a large vehicle, the bus emits a lot of pollution.
Hawai'i has been attempting to improve its transportation system since the '60s. Multiple plans have been made, and every one has been rejected before it got anywhere.
I think Bus Rapid Transit is an excellent plan. I don't understand what's not to love — it's faster than our regular bus (by an estimated 25 percent), would be more reliably timed, and would reduce air pollutants by more than one-third.
Over 50 percent of the island's population and 80 percent of the island's jobs are located along the planned transit route. No taxes would be created or raised to cover BRT costs.
We need to support the BRT, which is in danger of being rejected by the City Council. It is true that O'ahu has a good bus system. But why not make it better?
Leah Bevis
Drug testing is going in the wrong direction
Drug testing in the schools is not going too far, it is going in the wrong direction.
Why is it, when we want more money for education, the response is, "You can't solve problems just by throwing money at them"? But when the subject is drugs, throwing money is the first response.
Drug testing in schools will be incredibly expensive. When the first test is positive, how will you know it is valid? All testing systems have false positives. When you hold that kid up to public ridicule as a drug user, you know there will be a lawsuit. A lot of lawsuits.
City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle says he can maintain confidentiality. In this town?
When you catch students, what can you do? Arrest them? It is not illegal to have used drugs. Refer them for treatment? That, too, is expensive. There are nowhere near enough competent drug treatment programs as it is; and it will have to be at school expense. Anyone remember the Felix case? There will undoubtedly be another lawsuit.
When papa creams the kid because his parenting skills are so excellent, will you arrest him for child abuse? More court cases. Will you expel the students with dirty tests? Few of those want to be in school anyway. And put them where? State law requires they be in a program. Another lawsuit.
What message will we be sending our kids? This one: We will spend gobs of money on something that is ineffective but makes us look like we oppose drugs. But give you a quality education system? No, that's too expensive.
Rev. Mike Young
Minister, First Unitarian Church
Being pro-union isn't being against business
I agree with Donna Rewick's Jan. 17 comment that Republicans crossed over to vote for Democrat Ed Case, over Republicans Barbara Marumoto and Bob McDermott.
I suspect that, had the special election been a regular election, Matt Matsunaga would have defeated Ed Case in a Democratic primary. Ed Case won, I believe, not because "Republicans were fearful of Matsunaga winning," but because Republicans simply preferred Case's conservative agenda.
Many Republicans I know like Matsunaga's CPA/business attorney background and voting record, but voted for Case because Case did not receive any major union endorsements. I hope people understand that being pro-union doesn't always mean being anti-business.
R. Carolyn Wilcox
'Real Hawaiians' designation foolish
Regarding Emmett Lee Loy's Feb. 7 letter: It is foolish to label Hawaiians with 50 percent or greater blood quantum as "real Hawaiians." This labeling lacks the foresight that will be necessary to perpetuate the Hawaiian culture and creates divisiveness within the Hawaiian community.
Mr. Lee Loy, how can my grandmother be a "real native" while I am not?
Unless Hawaiians make a concerted effort to avoid intermarriage, the koko (blood) will be watered down over the course of time. How long will it take until there are few "real Hawaiians"? If the status quo is kept, money that helps perpetuate the Hawaiian culture will continue to shrink with each generation, until it becomes nonexistent.
The blood quantum designation, originally imposed by haole, pits Hawaiians vs. Hawaiians. We must work to defeat the crab-in-the-bucket mentality that helps only the Kenneth Conklins of the world succeed in their cause to ignore the past wrongs against our ancestors.
Clifford Wassman
Mililani
Marijuana is the lesser of the two drug evils
The Green Harvest policy has done exactly what it was supposed to have done: It limited the amount of marijuana available and drove prices sky-high. It also had a bad side effect: a rise in the number of people using crystal meth or "ice."
The rise in the use of ice goes hand-in-hand with Green Harvest. If marijuana is not available, then people will find a drug that is.
There are two evils here. If society must choose between them, it is clear that marijuana is the lesser of two evils.
James Walters
Mililani
Lottery by any other name might work
Gov. Lingle should initiate a new charitable program wherein you could freely volunteer to donate money to help finance our ailing state government. Participants would be recognized for their generous philanthropic contributions and funds would go directly to needed public services.
And, oh, by the way, one of the donors would receive a prize.
But, for the sake of the squeamish, let's not mention those two little pesky words "lottery" and "gambling."
Michael Van Dorn
'Genetically altered shrimp' was incorrect
In your otherwise excellent Feb. 6 article regarding the start-up of a shrimp-breeding facility by Moana Technologies at Hawai'i's Natural Energy Lab in Kona, I believe that a small but important clarification needs to be made. Reference is made to "genetically altered shrimp" in the latter half of the article.
Moana Technologies is developing a superior shrimp brood stock using intensive and very careful selective breeding. Its process does not employ genetic alteration or genetic modification processes to achieve desired shrimp characteristics.
All of us involved with the development of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai'i believe that many of our tenants are on the leading edge of aquaculture technologies that have the potential to provide a tremendous boost to Hawai'i's economy during the coming decades. We would hate to see a misunderstanding within our community lead to unnecessary concerns.
Donald Thomas
Chairman, NELHA Research Advisory Committee
Mililani's portables better than Wai'anae's
Mililani parents, who do you think you are? Why do you think your children are so special that they cannot learn in portables like the rest of O'ahu?
I live in Wai'anae and work at Wai'anae High School in a portable classroom. There are more than 20 portable classrooms at Wai'anae High School. I noticed in the picture of the Mililani portable that it was equipped with an air-conditioner. The Wai'anae Coast may have the hottest and driest weather on the island, and yet none of the portable classrooms at Wai'anae High are air-conditioned.
It does not seem fair that Mililani parents would demand permanent concrete structures for their children while the rest of us make due with portables that are "not conducive to learning."
Dominic J. Tafao
Wai'anae
Don't make registration to cast ballot any easier
I see where the paper is pushing to make voting easier by allowing people to register on election day. Why don't we just send someone to their houses and help them vote? Or, better yet, why don't we allow one person in each neighborhood to cast everyone's vote — then the others would not have to be bothered with such a mundane act as voting?
The act of voting is not to be taken lightly. Increasing the amount of voters is nothing but a disguised effort to dilute the votes of people who actually are interested in the system. I don't care if only 25 percent of registered voters cast votes.
These are the people who are interested enough in their government to care. Voting is a right that people throughout the world die for every year. Please don't make it as easy as going to check your mail; it would degrade the sacrifices made by our forefathers and millions of immigrants to come to a free country.
If it gets that easy, we might as well live in Iraq, Iran, China, etc., where the voting percentages are high but mean nothing.
Larry Symons
Why is it the citizen is always wrong?
Regarding your Feb. 9 story "Residents were correct on low-flying jet, records show": Why is it that every time someone makes a complaint to a government agency, that agency has a number of excuses as to why the person is wrong?
Look how many people complained or reported this incident and they all were told no, you must be wrong. Why is it that the agency is always right and the citizen is always wrong?
Ross Kuhnle
Pahoa
