Letters to the Editor

New homeless shelter: What's the problem?

Regarding the negative backlash about the homeless shelter being built in Wai'anae: I don't understand what the problem is. I'm hearing that people think the crime rate will go up in Wai'anae, that more homeless will flock to Wai'anae and that it's basically a bad idea.

Look, people, not all homeless are drug addicts and thieves and looking to move to Wai'anae. Yes, there are homeless in Wai'anae. And yes, some of them are addicts and thieves. But many of them are also families. Families with children, mothers, grandparents. Families who just can't seem to get on their feet.

Downtown, there is a family shelter, a place where the homeless can sleep safely without worrying about being attacked or robbed or rained on. Ignoring them won't make them go away.

Wasteful policies are hurting U.S., people

Your editorial of Aug. 9 entitled "Getting better, says Bush — but it's not" was an excellent statement of reality. You expressed the growing concern of many citizens with the outrageous and wasteful policies of the Bush administration.

We have seen so many jobs lost and the real wages of workers diminished while profits, especially of oil companies, soar. And our government does nothing in the face of the gouging we are experiencing at the gas pumps. Where are the voices of outrage from our politicians, from our state officials?

Rather than take official visits to Israel or Iraq, Gov. Lingle should visit the gas stations here and witness the outrageous prices, courtesy of the big oil companies like Enron of ill fame, which promote our wars, or which, like Halliburton and its multiple subsidiaries, benefit enormously from them.

The oil price hikes are causing systemwide inflation that is outstripping the modest wage gains won by workers. We witness daily the diminution of ordinary citizens' dreams and the rise of fear, violence, joblessness, homelessness and uncertainty.

Your depiction of working-class losses rings true — the loss of jobs and health insurance, the cutbacks in social services and public safety, the growth of household debt and the incongruous cuts in taxes of the wealthy, forcing a bigger burden on the working people.

The so-called war against terror has been a disaster economically and internationally. It's time to end this disastrous policy and to boot out an administration that has been so dishonest, so destructive of our liberty and our future, and so accomplished at getting most of the world to distrust or despise us.

Bush's 'war on terror' is just doublespeak

I wonder how many others did a double take when our president declared a "war on terror" after the 9/11 attacks. Declaring war on an emotion? Impossible to win, but a digestible and satisfying news bite for a terrorized America. And as we have seen, this was just the beginning of the Bush administration's "double-speak" media policy.

Yes, we are engaged in a war against religious fanatics, as Richard Halloran reminds us (July 11 commentary). How many Americans realize that one strategy in this war involves the global nurturing of Muslim "cell" communities in every country, with the intention of Islamic separatist nation building? It is actively happening in countries like Indonesia, Thailand, France, even in the United States itself. Will our country willingly allow, say, Michigan or Ohio — or Hawai'i — to become a separate Islamic nation one day?

Despite his feeble, defensive protestations, the president's attack on Iraq has only served to galvanize the growing international Islamic anti-American movement, not curtail it. And the administration's persistent attempts to control the media continue to render Americans more ignorant than ever of what is really happening in the world today.

Logo proposal has elegant simplicity

The UH logo idea submitted to the Aug. 11 Letters section by Guy Hamilton is outstanding. Its elegant simplicity lends it a contemporary yet graceful feel the other submissions sorely lacked.

Part of its appeal is that this design speaks for itself, as opposed to those that required a detailed explanation that still left me scratching my head.

Imagine, a logo for a Hawai'i school designed by a Hawai'i resident. Go figure. Who would have thought we had such talent right here in our very own 'ohana?

Here's the winner

Guy Hamilton's logo design (Letters, Aug. 11) is the best one yet! A simple design that says so much. My vote goes to Guy.

Out of the frying pan and into the traffic fire

With the current closing of H-1 west-bound for resurfacing from 9 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, drivers are being directed to use Punchbowl Street to Nimitz Highway to the H-1 airport viaduct. The problem is that shortly after entering Nimitz, there is construction near Chinatown, which narrows the road to one lane. You can imagine the traffic mess and frustration of the drivers who have just been "kicked off" the freeway.

Does anybody ever think or talk to each other before planning roadwork? Couldn't the Nimitz project (which seems to be perpetual anyway) be suspended temporarily until the H-1 repaving is completed? Couldn't they contra-flow westbound traffic through that section of Nimitz during those hours?

If we had alternate transportation, such as mass transit, it would be different. But because we are still living in the Dark Ages, we have no choice but to drive our cars, no matter how messed up the traffic and construction become.