Dutch statistics show guns help reduce crime

I would suggest to G. Fogarty of Queensland, Australia (Letters, Aug. 3), that he look up the study done by the Dutch Ministry of Justice. It is from the 2000 International Crime Victims Survey.

According to the survey, Australia and England had a higher rise in violent crime than the United States. In most of this study, the United States came off behind Australia and England.

Contact crime, where the bad guy has direct personal contact with the victim, was highest (double that of the United States) in Australia, England, Wales, Canada, Scotland and Finland. Could it be that because 37 states allow their citizens to carry concealed firearms, many Americans are not victims of violent crime? (Hawai'i is not one of the 37.)

I would presume from the study that Americans feel safer in their homes and outside than their English and Australian counterparts because of Americans' right-to-carry (concealed firearms) laws.

G. Fogarty should know that in today's terrorist-threatened world, the unarmed sheep will be slaughtered first. The armed sheep aren't going to be anybody's dinner.

Situation is infuriating

Regarding the "Final audit calls for clearer UH policy" article in Sunday's paper: Last week, I was simply angry at the Board of Regents' professional relationship with Evan Dobelle. But this article describes the distraction (discretionary fund) that is merely a symptom. The board's inability in handling this professional relationship with Dobelle from the beginning is a tragedy costing taxpayers a lot of money. This whole thing is wrong on a variety of different levels. Now, I'm livid.

Doesn't make sense

Wait, let me see if I understand this: First the Board of Regents hires him. Then it fires him. Then it rehires him and gives him $1.8 million.

But wait, that's not all: The board gives him future employment and lets him hang around for two more years! Can I get fired by the regents, too?

Kaka'ako by night is down-right scary

I couldn't help but notice, after your glowing article on the Kaka'ako development, the different picture I saw on walking the Waterfront Park area. I found people camping in vans, the can picker rushing ahead of me to claim his territory and the fellows having a beer party in the parking lot of the park.

What was designed to be beautiful becomes down-right scary. I walk with only my keys. It is dark and decidedly lawless.

As a new arrival to this wonderful state, I frankly find it shocking that many of your laws and regulations are not enforced until one complains.

The beautiful vistas and open green spaces and the medical school with the homeless campers and parking lot drinkers do not make this an attraction for our beautiful state. Spending millions sounds impressive and is indeed ambitious, but try the walk when the sun goes down and the police vanish.

Now it's Kerry's turn to release his records

Your Aug. 10 editorial "Attacks on Kerry's war record are unfair" is very disingenuous. You repeatedly attacked President Bush's service in the National Guard and said if he would just release his records, it would be a "done deal." He did, and you continued the attack.

Now I say to you, "If Kerry would just release his records, it would be a done deal." Not to mention his wife's tax return, which she says "is nobody's business."

I know this paper is a left-wing, liberal paper, but at least try to take the other view into consideration. Besides, Kerry was the one who decided to use it as political ammo — or did you miss his acceptance speech? All he talked about was what he had done, not what he was going to do.

Neighborhood board wouldn't listen to us

I was angered by the last Makakilo/Kapolei/Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board meeting during which the community was restricted from asking questions about future development of the area.

After limiting questions to one per person, then denying a proposal for a follow-on meeting to address the additional concerns by a 5-4 margin, the board voted to approve the whole 2,400-home plan.

If these board members are to be representing the community, they failed miserably. It's time for the community to take them to task.

Inouye's age makes him a poor candidate

My name is Brian Evans, and I am running for U.S. senator from Hawai'i.

This year we have to make some tough choices, and one of them is whether or not to re-elect Sen. Daniel Inouye.

There can be no question as to Sen. Inouye's massive accomplishments in this state ... but we also have to say what most people seem to stray from talking about out of fear of being morbid.

Outside of the laundry list of issues I believe require Sen. Inouye's replacement, his age must be taken into consideration. The fact is, he's 80 years old, and this is a six-year term. Should he be unable to finish his term for any reason, then Republican Gov. Linda Lingle would have the power to name his replacement. I doubt she would name a serious Democrat.

Aside from this fact, we are in deep trouble in Hawai'i right now. Healthcare is almost non-existent, dental care is but a dream, gas prices are skyrocketing, and most people are working several jobs just to pay the rent, and it's not right.

When Mainland massive corporations pay Hawai'i residents $9 an hour for jobs that would pay up to five times that on the Mainland, something is definitely wrong. They essentially make millions off the backs of our residents, and the checks get sent back to the Mainland, and it's just not right.

Re-electing U.S. Sen. Inouye will do nothing for the state of Hawai'i but continue its fascination with the memorabilia aspect of Sen. Inouye, and with all due respect to the senator, it's simply time to put a new person in that seat with a current vision.

Let's hear from Duke, Mufi on Kamilonui Valley farms

Where do Duke Bainum and Mufi Hannemann stand on real farmers and real farmland and community desires?

Bainum and Hannemann both claim to support the "real" farmers who are actually engaged in farming and not the big landowners who hold on to agricultural-zoned lands, with their very reduced real property taxes, for future urban development. This tax dodge is called land banking. Both of these fine men have different takes on City Council Bill 10 and Bill 35, which are supposed to do away with this practice.

For a clearer look at the candidates' "real" position, I offer a much better example than Bill 10 and Bill 35. Kamilonui Valley is the last agricultural-zoned land in East O'ahu. There are 23 farmers who have ground leases with Bishop Estate that expire in 2025, and the valley is master-planned for agricultural use until 2020. However, next year the master plan is reviewed by the city, and at that time the master plan could be overturned by a majority on the City Council.

Recently Stanford Carr, housing developer, and Bishop Estate, major landowner, have made preliminary efforts at rezoning this precious agricultural valley. According to the Board of Water Supply, the landowner and housing developer want to see these farmers replaced by a new housing development of 200 to 650 new homes. As evidenced by petitions and testimony at neighborhood board meetings, the vast majority of Hawai'i Kai residents support the master plan 2020 provision and are opposed to losing Kamilonui Valley to housing.

Here is the real test for the candidates. Where do these two candidates fall on Councilman Charles Djou's Resolution No. 04-198, "Preservation of Agricultural Uses in Kamilonui Valley" until 2020? There are pro-development council members and neighborhood board members who will oppose this resolution, but what are Duke's and Mufi's position on this resolution? Do they support the farmers and Hawai'i Kai community, or do they support the developer and the major landowner in Kamilonui Valley?

Both gentlemen have served on the council and understand the process very well. They know that if the landowner and developer get their way, the 23 farms in Kamilonui Valley are gone forever, and the vast majority of Hawai'i Kai residents opposed to more urban development will be ignored once again.

Here's better offering

I know this drawing needs help. However, I think my design is, by far, much better than the professional ones.

University should first define its needs

Logo design is not about creating pretty images; it is about solving problems. How can the public effectively critique a logo when it has no idea what the problem is?

A logo is often the center of an organization's identity — a viewer's first impression of an organization's attitudes, goals, values and commitment levels — and is generally designed with these issues in mind.

As the media have not assessed or published the university's full range of needs concerning this project, we therefore cannot put much stake in the public's evaluation of a logo's effectiveness toward an unknown goal. We can only hope that at the very least the university understands the problems it needs to surmount and takes the opinions of the public for what it is — its first impressions.

That local touch

I'm just a 76-year-old retiree from Hilo and I would like to put in my simple shaka logo idea, above, for the university contest.

Design has a sense of place, symbolism

The above logo incorporates the U shape for the university and the H shape to emulate a shape of a volcano and two waves representing the fast-appearing sets of waves common to Hawai'i.

The two waves also represent the women's and men's athletic programs within the university system. The H would always be green for the university system, the smaller wave could be printed in colors working well with the green of the university system, but each color and logo type would be specific to and representing any college or campus under the University of Hawai'i umbrella.