Letters to the Editor

Stop focusing on those who caused the crash

Recently, we've been having an increased number of traffic fatalities from kids speeding on our streets. It is definitely a tragedy having these people dying as a result of these accidents. However, why is it the news media always focus on the people who cause the accident? What about the victims?

Three innocent people were injured in the recent speeding accident on Ala Moana Boulevard, and one is in critical condition. Why is there no coverage on them or the effects on their lives? It seems as though the criminals get more attention, sympathy and rights than do the victims.

Nowadays, friends and family of people who are killed in car accidents are leaving balloons and flowers and even spray-painting the sidewalks near accident scenes. I see this as a hazard for everyday drivers. And the paint on the sidewalks has to be a form of graffiti.

These things should not be allowed. The flowers and balloons can be placed somewhere else and do not have to be at that exact site. It's just not safe.

I am in no way saying that these kids shouldn't be grieved over. Any loss of life is tragic. But the victims always seem to be pushed to the side. Shame on the news media. I really do hope these three military men injured from this recent accident do make a full recovery and that their lives can return to normal.

Fatal traffic crash was not an accident

My family and I were saddened to learn of yet another tragic motor vehicle crash, this time claiming the lives of two young men and critically injuring an innocent man.

While the news is bad enough, we continue to fool ourselves and others by reporting these events as motor vehicle accidents — implying that they occurred without the influence of human intervention. This was no accident. This crash actually began the moment the car was constructed and the driver was licensed.

The outcome was predictable by looking logically and factually at the contributing conditions: speed, the lack of personal judgment and skill of the driver, access to our streets, and perhaps inadequate enforcement of existing traffic laws. Now we know alcohol also contributed. The tragic outcome was the logical conclusion of these observable and preventable conditions. Change any of the conditions, and the outcome would have been very different.

We need to come to terms with the truth about what needs to be done without hiding behind the euphemism of an "accident." Let's begin by calling events like this the way we see them: the crash of a high-performance vehicle operated by a driver who violated our trust. Let's also lose the term "no-fault" while we're at it.

Solving the problem of speeding and related deaths begins with defining the problem openly and honestly, then taking actions that directly confront the cause. Until we do, our streets will never be as safe as we can make them.

Definitive state laws needed on pollution

Any useful discussion on the relative merits of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) versus definitive state laws regarding the polluting of state waters by cruise ships, as discussed in the Oct. 15 Advertiser, must take into consideration the records of both the cruise ship industry and the diligence of the state of Hawai'i in dealing with the issue of polluted waters.

On the one hand, there have been numerous cases of some cruise ship companies paying multimillion-dollar fines after being convicted of deliberate discharges of waste into the ocean.

On the other hand, we have a Department of Health in this state that had to be taken to federal court to tell the truth about polluted waters in our state (see Advertiser, Nov. 20, 2001). The DOH submitted 19 polluted sites to a 1998 national compilation of such waters by the EPA. This number, upon being challenged by the public in court and under court orders issued in September 2001 to tell the truth, magically became 111.

So, what should the public rely upon? An MOU (which has no legal force behind it) between the cruise ship industry and our Department of Health, or a set of laws adopted by the Legislature specifically regulating the industry?

It would seem that the latter course would benefit not only the welfare of the people who live here, but also enhance the tourism industry by lending credibility to the industry's advertising of the highest environmental qualities of Hawai'i.

Matter is not settled on Hawaiian justice

In an Oct. 14 letter, Robert Chapman dismisses professor Jon Osorio's comments in an Oct. 8 letter about annexation on the basis of two century-old court cases, saying with regard to crown lands and annexation, "The matter is settled."

Important issues are often not settled forever on the basis of an old court decision, or even two of them. Imagine what life would be like in the United States if the U.S. Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott decision had forever "settled" the matter of slavery. What if the U.S. Supreme Court's 1944 Korematsu v. United States decision "settled" the justness of the Japanese American internment?

Times change — and so does our perception of justice. Perhaps the matter is not settled, nor should it be.

Don't use a Mainland model for our land use

The recent land-use discrepancies and contradictions belie larger issues that are not being addressed. We are being shortsighted in developing our land as if we were a Mainland state instead of an island state. It is simply not sustainable to develop our land as if it were in Texas or California.

Developers are not at fault for building in the most cost-efficient and unsustainable ways, following established Mainland development models. Their expertise is in making a profit (nothing wrong with that), not in long-range planning of limited resources.

Smart long-range planning is what we pay our elected representatives and land planners to do. We need creative, unique planning that makes sense for our unique Islands. Why use cookie-cutter Mainland development models here?

College students should get special bus rate

After the recent bus strike, the bus fares increased dramatically, raising the student fare to $1 and the adult fare to $2. As a UH student who rides the bus every day, this is becoming a big financial burden because college students are required to pay the adult fare regardless of age.

I know that many other college students are facing the same problem because, according to a recent article published in the UH student newspaper, the number of students who ride the bus has dropped due to the high cost.

One possible solution is that the City Council and the bus company come up with a special college fare or issue a discounted monthly pass to college students who show valid identification. This would benefit not only the students but the bus company because it would increase the number of students who ride the bus.

Kamehameha Highway lights are out of sync

Traveling from 'Aiea to Makakilo on Kamehameha Highway today at 2:30 p.m. took me and at least a thousand or more of Hawai'i's citizens one hour to get from 'Aiea to the traffic light at Home Depot/Sam's Club. There was no fire, no elderly person run over by a car, no fender-bender, no disabled car, no construction, no stray coconuts in the street. Just traffic lights completely out of sync. What a waste of human time for the good of Home Depot and Sam's Club.

Please, let our people enjoy quality of life and not be imprisoned by bureaucracy or stupidity.

Let's not have more studies or testifying. Just rectify the problem and let people enjoy life.

Self-determination should be our right

As a Hawaiian, I would like to raise some legitimate points. Hawaiians had one of the highest literacy rates in the world. Hawaiians also had the luxury of both reading and speaking in Hawaiian.

I would like to thank the Kamehameha Schools and other Hawaiian language immersion schools for pursuing a curriculum that promotes the teaching and education of the Hawaiian language and culture. Without their efforts, Hawaiian would be another dying language. Based on letters to the editor within the last few weeks, it seems as though certain individuals would not want Hawaiians to succeed in maintaining their identity.

I firmly believe that native Hawaiians, or more accurately kanaka maoli, should be allowed to retain and promote their language and culture in Hawai'i by all means. If Jews can have their own land in Israel to maintain who they are as a people, then why can't Hawaiians have the same right to self-determination in their own ancestral lands?

Hawaiians deserve a place to be who they are without losing the distinct characteristics that define who they were, who they are and who they will become.

Military is doing a good job on the environment

I'm writing in regard to the military and the impact it has on the environment. As far as I'm concerned, the military is trying to please the people of Hawai'i.

It is very concerned about the way the land is kept. Case in point: Kalaeloa (Barbers Point). Before the Navy opened it up to the public, it was spotless. No trash along the highway, no brush fires that I know of. It kept up that place. If you drive through it now, you'll see trash all over the side of the roads and littered beaches.

I'm all for Hawaiian rights, but let's be real. Most of us don't know a good thing when it's staring us in the face. So to the people of Hawai'i, let's give the military a chance. I'm sure we'll be pleasantly surprised at what it can do.

Not just the cruise ships must be held accountable

"The loveliest fleet of islands that lies anchored in any ocean" was how Mark Twain described Hawai'i. Those who press for more regulation of the cruise ship industry, such as your Oct. 16 editorial "Cruise industry can't be left to regulate itself," need to be careful not to enact regulations that our "fleet of islands" cannot meet.

The amount of trash, debris and toxins — including pesticides, herbicides and petroleum products — that flows from island streets and streams is immense. Our beloved trade winds blow dropped trash into the ocean. Cruise ships don't dump plastic alongside Aloha Tower, but plenty of take-out packages, plastic shopping bags and soda bottles drift around Honolulu Harbor.

According to an article in the May 30 Honolulu Advertiser, the Sand Island Treatment Facility dumps 70 million gallons of wastewater into the ocean every day and " ... the plant is in continuous violation of its federal permit."

The antique primary treatment facility, one of only 50 left in the U.S, claims that by dumping the effluent "nearly two miles offshore," no further treatment is necessary. In primary treatment plants, undissolved solids are allowed to settle out of suspension to form sludge. (Translation, big chunks are removed before it is pumped into the ocean.) This method may remove some of the metals but has little effect on toxins and bacteria.

In contrast, the SS O'ahu, under existing federal law on cruise ships, cannot dump wastewater within three miles of shore. The editorial references the illegal dumping of 16,000 gallons of raw sewage near Whidbey Island by the Norwegian Sun, yet makes no reference to the 22,000 gallons of raw sewage spilled at Hawai'i Kai last week.

The cruise ship industry must be held accountable for what and where it dumps in the ocean. But so should the residents of Hawai'i. Clean up our "Cruise Ship Hawai'i" now.