Letters to the Editor

Try taking the quicker Palailai interchange

Recent articles in The Honolulu Advertiser let your readers know what we in Kapolei have known for a long time: traffic gridlock in Kapolei town.

Afternoon rush hour is the worst. It doesn't have to be that way. Three of the largest employers in Kapolei are 1) the city office building, 2) the state office building and 3) the Bank of Hawaii building. How many employees work in these three buildings alone? The answer is probably hundreds and hundreds in each one. If most of these employees are headed to Honolulu after work, they are probably going through busy Kapolei town to get to the Makakilo on-ramp. This contributes greatly to our traffic mess.

If these employees would turn left onto Kamokila Boulevard (instead of going right through town), this would allow east-bound traffic to Honolulu to use the Palailai interchange. Some think going through town is shorter. Think again! When you go through Kapolei town, you go through four traffic lights. When you take the Palailai interchange, you only have one traffic light, and even then you can turn right on red after a stop. Please give it a try.

Don't crucify fruits of the vision teams

Please permit me to respond to the Oct. 21 letter by Bill Nelson of Hale'iwa about cutting off funds for the vision teams.

Hey Bill, where have you been? If it weren't for the vision team, the children from Waialua Elementary School would not have the use of a safe, mud-free and beautifully landscaped sidewalk to the school and the recreation center. I am hopeful that you have seen the Hale'iwa Ali'i Beach Park bathroom being constructed, after more than 10 years of waiting. The Waialua Bandstand to bring back memories of the culture and history of our once-beautiful plantation era is nearing completion, thanks to the vision team.

Other meaningful vision projects include improvements to Ehukai and Sunset beach parks, construction of bikeways throughout the North Shore, improvements to roadways and sidewalks in Hale'iwa Town, and there are other community projects under planning and design.

You may be correct to allude that there may be some "not wanted" projects. However, do not crucify the beneficial returns emanating from many vision projects throughout the county.

West O'ahu provides excellent education

Since 1976, the University of Hawai'iiWest O'ahu has provided an excellent educational resource to many students. West O'ahu has existed for over 25 years, and now some political figures want to shut the doors of this inspirational campus.

It would not be economically feasible, socially influential or even politically plausible to shut this campus down. Instead, there would be adverse effects, such as loss of jobs, less educational opportunities and less economic growth for the Leeward side.

I am currently a West O'ahu student and I would not have it any other way. When I was deciding what school I would attend for my bachelor's degree, I received good advice from my professors at Windward Community College. Mainly, I had to pick between West O'ahu and Manoa. I chose West O'ahu because of the small class sizes, the personal feeling of the school, the accessibility of the campus compared to UH Manoa, and positive things that I heard about the campus from WCC teachers.

However, the one thing that influenced my decision the most was that one of my teachers at Windward really believed in the quality of education at West O'ahu. Now I am glad I took that advice because I have been more than impressed with the quality of education and instruction I have received.

It really saddens me to see some of our government officials not fighting for what their constituents want and believe in.

State spending priorities wrong on West O'ahu

Does anybody else find it ironic and disturbing that the state government was able to finance the $360 million to build the Convention Center but can't finance the $350 million needed to build a West O'ahu campus for the University of Hawai'i system?

Where are our priorities? The state government goes all out to help the tourism industry provide service-related jobs, which doesn't require a lot of education. But in the last few years, the state government has cut the University of Hawai'i's budget and, worse still, has neglected our primary public schools until they are arguably the worst in the nation.

The way our government spends our money, I sometimes wonder if it is the state's intent to ensure a poorly educated population so as to provide a cheap labor force for the tourism industry.

Ala Moana homeless get beachfront view

I drive past Ala Moana Park every day on my way to work, and it seems the homeless tent population at the park is growing before my eyes.

Sometimes I envy them. I could work two, three jobs and still never make enough to have a home on one of Hawai'i's best beaches.

I know, on the Mainland the treatment of homeless can seem cruel when they take vagrants from the parks and dump them at the edge of town in the middle of the night. They rarely go to jail; there's no room.

Being homeless is not a pretty sight, but in Hawai'i they are given the best view.

Article was unethical, even promoted Mystikal

In Derek Paiva's article about the rapist/rapper Mystikal coming in concert (Oct. 23), the management of Volcanoes Nightclub claims that it has received no complaints about the concert.

I did in fact send Volcanoes Nightclub a complaint on Oct. 10, asking that it not allow this admitted rapist to make money in Honolulu. I know others have complained as well. I was extremely disappointed by Mr. Paiva's article on the matter, which turned out to be just another advertisement for the horrible venue.

When I wrote to him to notify him about the issue, I did not mean for him to write a commercial that included the time of the show, price of the tickets and means for getting in touch with the nightclub for more information on the concert.

Op-ed piece on Iraq was ignorant, insulting

Having lived most of my life in Europe and the Middle East, since coming to Hawai'i I have been constantly amazed at the ignorance of the average American about foreign affairs. Recently, I have been somewhat impressed with The Advertiser as, after a long, arid period, some articles are being published showing the "other side" of the Palestine/Israel conflict.

However, I was shocked to read Dr. Peter George's Oct. 19 op-ed commentary. I was mystified as to why you would offer space to such simplistic unawareness. The condescending nonsense about "Middle Eastern countries" and the "humane mission of planting (an American-style) capitalist democracy in the Arab world" just shows the dangerous depths to which our standing has fallen all across the globe.

Conjoining 9-11 into a discussion of Iraq and bemoaning Iraq's purported flouting of U.N. resolutions even as Dr. George's "model state," Israel, continues to defy dozens more resolutions as it commits genocide in Palestine are just over-the-top. Dr. George's rant about Muslim prayer is a despicable insult; one of the ritual tenets of that great religion requires prayers to Allah five, not six, times daily.

The average person needs to be educated on today's global realities. U.S. troops continue to die and be maimed in large numbers by Iraqis who do not want to be occupied by the U.S. or be molded into American puppets. Iraq has a history and culture older than anything America can offer.

Gay prom was a brave stand by young people

I wanted to reply to Kathy Martin's Oct. 23 letter, but I really don't know where to begin. The "gay prom" was neither a fiasco, as she states, nor was it an "attempt by gay activists to recruit."

It was, in fact, a courageous stand taken by a group of brave young people who simply want to enjoy the same excitement and rite of passage at graduation that their mainstream friends enjoy.

As Ms. Martin says, "the teenage years are tough for everybody." I find it a grave disappointment that she supports a status quo that makes these years even tougher for these young people, who have spent their entire short lives being marginalized and ostracized by the mainstream. I am glad that Ms. Martin did not have to live through that in her youth the way many of us did. I salute these brave, young men and women for taking a stand. It bodes well for our future.

Booting Cheryl Soon would end troubles

Mayor Harris said recently about BRT, "Every time we try to do something, some politicians come along at the last minute and try to stop it. Where's it going to end?"

I think it will end when Cheryl Soon, the city's Transportation Services director, is replaced. Why does the director not seriously take up useful, less costly, but innovative suggestions by Sen. Gordon Trimble and many others? Her job security and Honolulu would be better served by a more open attitude to ideas that will improve transportation but not degrade the beauty of the island any further.

I'm happy that we do have "some politicians" who step up to the plate at the last minute and voice their concerns over the same old proposals that get resubmitted with minor revisions.

'Crowd on the street' has a greater role to fill

The crowd, which was much larger than reported by the media, represented Honolulu. There we were, hot and tired, with aching feet. We were young and old, Native Hawaiians dressed in native dress, Democrats for Dean and Kucinich. We were loud! We were orderly! We were diverse! A small religious group held signs for anti-abortion beliefs. The truck with the gross fetus photos painted on its side drove up and down more than once. We were there with our passions.

I watched the faces of the tourists and the press, but the faces I found most interesting were the people dressed mostly in black who were going inside to pay $1,000 to $20,000 for the privilege of rubbing shoulders with the Bushes. They appeared neither angry nor annoyed. They brushed past us as if we were part of the entertainment, and I'm sure we were.

I thought about the fact these people, mostly, are untouched by what is really going on in Iraq. We are told that we are spending our children's inheritance on an illegal war that is taking more lives every day. The world, almost in unison, protested this war. Who wanted it? Certainly not most of the people on the streets in front of the Hilton.

I recalled Carl Sandburg saying so aptly in one of his many poems that lifted up the masses, "I am the people, the mob ... the crowd ... the mass. Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?" The "crowd on the street," I believe, will have a greater role in building a peaceful world than the people who had their photos taken with Bush in the Hilton.