Letters to the Editor

What penalty for 'reckless disregard'?

I read with some satisfaction Steven Marsh's response (Dec. 2) to Gerald K. Nakata's Nov. 24 letter in which Mr. Nakata regarded the killing a woman by Nicholas Tudisco while street racing as an accident.

Steven Marsh got it about 99 percent correct. His oversight was "Nicholas Tudisco chose a few minutes of excitement in committing the crime of street racing."

A few minutes? Which time? The fifth race, the 50th? This was more of an "ongoing criminal enterprise." Mr. Tudisco knew or should have known that his repeated actions could easily end in serious injury or as in this case, death. His "reckless disregard" for the lives of others sounds more like the definition of murder than the charge for which he was incarcerated.

As a registered nurse I am very familiar with the devastation this type of "reckless disregard" causes in others. As I am now working primarily in the prisons of O'ahu I see it from both sides. Is five years (out in three with good behavior) a proper punishment for the taking of a life?

Taking Iraqi life so cheaply will cost us

Max Boot's commentary ("What the United States won in Fallujah," Dec. 4) argues that what was accomplished in the recent Fallujah assault was worth the cost. What is disturbing is his assessment of the cost as 71 Americans killed and hundreds more wounded ("less than half the number of casualties suffered in Hue, Vietnam").

Certainly what happens to the Americans involved is a serious concern. What bothers me is how this looks to Arabs, or any Muslims for that matter. And Boot's opinion is quite typical in this respect of the American media.

Nobody knows how many innocent Iraqis were killed in this assault or elsewhere since we invaded Iraq. I've seen estimates from as low as 10,000 to as high as 100,000. The U.S. government itself makes no estimate and — like the U.S. media — seems largely uninterested.

Some Americans seem to feel there isn't much difference between terrorists and any other Arabs. We also seem to feel that the ones we say we're trying to help there have a capacity to accept "collateral damage" that we wouldn't have — that they don't have the same kind of feelings that we do when our brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, fathers, or mothers are killed.

We've been told again and again that our inability or refusal to recognize the cost of a Palestinian life as being as high as an Israeli life has been a major reason for the fury against us that led to 9/11. We're showing the same kind of contempt in Iraq when we treat Iraqi life as so cheap.

Why is so much trash swirling around field?

While watching the University of Hawai'i play Michigan State at Aloha Stadium on Saturday I was appalled at the amount of trash that fans had thrown onto the field. Celebration after scoring is great, but where does throwing trash onto the field fit in?

Over the years I have noticed an increase in the amount of trash swirling around the field at local football games. By the end of the game on Saturday the amount of paper on the field was truly embarrassing. I have never seen it occur anywhere but here in Hawai'i.

The people who are responsible should be singled out and held accountable for their actions.

If the stadium authority feels that nothing can be done to remedy this situation then I think it should turn Aloha Stadium over to the City and County. Why turn it over to the city? It would solve the problem of finding an alternative landfill site. Just turn Aloha Stadium into a landfill. It already has a head start!

Rail transit won't make O'ahu traffic any better

I still remember how the public's support for rail transit, two-thirds in favor, evaporated into two-thirds against when the lies told by rail transit advocates were exposed by the city's own studies.

When the public found out the truth about how traffic congestion will not get better with a rail system — which Advertiser reporter Mike Leidemann conveniently omitted from his article (really, a press release disguised as news) — the same public said no to rail.

Your newspaper needs to stop substituting advocacy for reporting. By attempting to manipulate the public through incomplete news stories and manipulated polls, you'll wind up with less integrity than Dan Rather. If you persist in pushing your agenda by implying to readers that building a rail system will make O'ahu's traffic move faster, you will have confirmed that The Honolulu Advertiser is only good for lining bird cages.

Honolulu is stuck with old technology

Rail succeeds only when the topography of the metropolitan area served lends itself to significant ridership to sustain the ongoing cost of the infrastructure. Just as TheBus routes have only a handful that "pay" for themselves by the amount of ridership, rail in Honolulu would have to be substantially subsidized in order to go to all the places that would be necessary to have an impact on automobile use.

What kind of economic activity can we foresee that will generate that kind of financial necessity? Casino gambling?

It is damned-if-we-do and damned-if-we-don't.

Perhaps in a few centuries, after Hualalai erupts in a splendid and catastropic epiphany, we can rebuild Honolulu into a technologically contemporary city. Until then, we are likely stuck with the centuries-old stuff we've got.

And don't forget, rail, light or otherwise, is also old stuff.

All Islanders share in gifts of Creator

Proponents of government preferences for natives of Hawai'i often challenge the people of Hawai'i with "Imagine Hawai'i without Hawaiians." So what would the people of Hawai'i — descendants of people who gave their lives building and protecting Hawai'i — find if they found no "Hawaiians"?

A glorious sun, nurturing climate, striking mountains and an enchanting ocean. These are gifts from the Creator to all humanity.

A wonderful spirit of cooperation and mutual respect called aloha spirit here (and neighborliness where I was born). That is a gift here (as it was in my birthplace) from varied immigrants whose harsh and unjust lives forced them to cooperate with, respect and mutually support one another, and to find a common means to communicate.

Vibrant and vital art and culture of islands such as Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, etc. Even today tourism depends more on the vitality and variety of these cultures than on the recent preachiness of proponents for natives of Hawai'i.

Relief from the massive government and tax expenditures dedicated to a minority that by its own claim is characterized by below-average health, accomplishment and education, and above-average violence toward those they should love. The Bishop Estate tax exemption alone costs the people of Hawai'i more than twice the cost of raises that teachers deserve.

In short, the people of Hawai'i would find the same Hawai'i blessed with the Creator's gifts and the aloha spirit of all Hawai'i's people.

Making Colorado arena feel like home for Wahine

Picture yourself cheering for UH from your television set among family and friends. There's pupu, drinks and grilled food. You see several friends yelling and screaming at the referees on TV, some feeding their faces with 'ono grinds, and others talking story in the kitchen.

During a commercial break, you lean back on the couch and come to the quick realization: you aren't in Hawai'i. You are thousands of miles away from the blue skies and tropical breezes of home. Somehow, life directed you away from home.

Singer-musician Justin Kawika Young once sang, "You can take the boy from the island, but not the island from the boy. Cause the island stays in your heart, and I'll never forget where I'm from."

On Dec. 2 and 3 at the Moby Arena in Fort Collins, Colo., homegrown pride was at its highest. Local college students, adults and fans from across the state of Colorado united in support of our Wahine volleyball team.

When word spread among our group of locals at Colorado State University that the Wahine were going to play here, excitement and anticipation filled our homesick hearts. We called family and friends at other colleges and towns in Colorado to unite and support our Wahine. We knew how important it was for us, as UH fans, to cheer for "our" team.

We also felt motivated by the quote in a Nov. 29 Advertiser story saying, "The Rainbow Wahine (28-0) will not play another match this year in front of their sport's largest — by far — and most loyal crowds." We felt that it was our duty to make the Wahine feel at home. We wanted to bring the Stan Sheriff atmosphere to Colorado.

From a fan's perspective, I hope that our presence at the Moby Arena helped the Wahine settle down and feel somewhat at home. Although there weren't the usual 7,000 fans cheering for the Wahine, the hundred or so of us did anything and everything possible to support "our" team. Even if it meant making fools out of ourselves, it showed the Wahine and the state of Hawai'i that we are proud to be Hawaiian.

Good luck, Wahine!

Support green waste recycling

Don Najita hit the nail on the head in his Dec. 3 letter "Our mountains of trash lie on our own shoulders." Recycling must take center stage in the trash arena if we are going to end our dependence on landfills.

It all comes down to personal habits and choices. We, as a state, need to make better choices about reducing what we purchase. We've all become very reliant on disposable one-use products. We need to be mindful of what we throw away, reuse what we can in the home and recycle the rest.

Don says we must recycle our yard debris and other compostable materials. These services are already available. We run the largest greenwaste (yard debris) and untreated woodwaste facility in the state. Hawaiian Earth Products Ltd. has two facilities on O'ahu, at Campbell Industrial Park in Kapolei and Kapa'a Quarry Road in Kailua.

All O'ahu residents with automated trash collection already have city curbside greenwaste collection from their home twice per month. Anyone is welcome to bring uncontaminated greenwaste or untreated woodwaste directly to our facility. There is a tipping fee for commercial customers, but there is no charge to the homeowner. We also distribute free mulch to homeowners. We recycle these items by composting it, turning it in to high quality Menehune Magic soil amendments and erosion control products for landscape use.

While this service is already available to every resident on O'ahu with automated trash collection, only a small fraction take advantage of it. If you don't know your free curbside greenwaste collection days, call the city's recycling office at 692-5410.

Hawaiian Earth recycles approximately 75,000 tons of greens/wood waste annually, 75,000 tons that would otherwise go to H-Power or the landfill. This is the equivalent to 7,500 big truckloads per year, 20 large trucks each and every day!

Before we started 12 years ago, greenwaste was the single largest item going into H-Power and the landfill. Greenwaste and untreated woodwaste are among the only recyclables here in Hawai'i that completes the recycling loop. Every ton of greenwaste we compost is put back into beneficial use right here in Hawai'i. It is not shipped out of state for recycling and reuse elsewhere, as are the majority of our paper, cans, plastics, etc.

However, it is just as important for consumers to buy products that are recycled here in Hawai'i as it is to recycle it in the first place. If you buy compost and soil amendments made on the Mainland, you are supporting their recycling programs, not ours. Recycling works. Support it!