Regarding your Dec. 12 story, "Kidney is link of life, friendship for three in marathon": The generosity of live organ donors like Kristie Walker is remarkable. Most Americans won't even agree to donate their organs after they die. Over 6,000 Americans die needlessly every year waiting for transplants.

The solution to the organ shortage is simple — if you don't agree to donate your organs when you die, you go to the back of the waiting list if you ever need an organ to live.

Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to sign donor cards. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. About 70 percent of the organs transplanted in America go to people who haven't registered as organ donors.

Anyone who wants to donate his organs to other organ donors can join LifeSharers. LifeSharers is a nonprofit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. They do this through a form of directed donation that is legal in all 50 states and under federal law. Anyone can join for free at www.lifesharers.com. LifeSharers has 2,750 members, including 31 members in Hawai'i.

Hawai'i should create Pacific Peace Museum

During wars, it is traditional to think seriously about peace, especially among soldiers who are doing the face-to-face killing and dying. They hope for a quick end to the war they're in and to not see another.

Rather than reconstruct the Natatorium to honor victims of World War I, why not commit creativity and resources to create a Hawai'i Pacific Peace Museum to honor the peace aspirations of victims and survivors of all wars and violence?

Such a museum would introduce peace heroes, heroines and practices of the people and cultures of Hawai'i and the Pacific. All countries of Asia and the Pacific Rim from which Hawai'i's people and visitors come would be honored.

Would not a perfect location be the site of the former Consolidated theater on Kalakaua Avenue? With a modest entrance fee, souvenir shop and increasing numbers of peace-seeking visitors, plus Hawai'i's people, would not the Hawai'i Pacific Peace Museum be a financially self-sustaining contribution to Hawai'i's cultural treasures?

Is there not some combination of visionary entrepreneurs, benefactors, banks, city, state and federal leadership, museum design skills, construction expertise, management skills and community support that could create this unique peace institution — especially amid continuing wars of the early 21st century?

Bottle redemption system set up to fail

I have been coming to Hawai'i for the past six winters and was excited for the people of Hawai'i when your bottle return bill was passed. Now that it is about to be put into action and I have checked further into it, I see it is set up to fail.

To make a bill like this work, it must be easy for the consumer to get his money back from his deposit on the cans and bottles. But, Hawai'i has only limited redemption centers. I just checked the Web site that lists redemption sites and see there are only 19 of them on the entire island of O'ahu, and many of them are only opened a few hours a week.

I am sorry, folks, but it just isn't going to work this way; you really don't expect large numbers of people to drag bags of bottles and cans for an hour ride on the bus to some redemption center that is only open a few hours a weeks, do you?

You (the state legislators) must put some teeth in your law. I know the store owners cried to you that it would be too much cost for them to have to redeem the bottles and cans that they sell. We listened to those same stories back in Michigan when we set up our bottle bill many years ago. But guess what? The stores have found ways to take the containers back, the distributors have found ways to get the containers to recycling centers and the roadways are not littered with bottles and cans like they were in the "good old days."

I strongly urge the people of Hawai'i to contact their legislators and demand that they change the state's bottle bill to require anyone who sells drinks with a deposit on the container be required to take the empties back and refund the 5-cent deposit to the customer.

Environment Hawai'i subscription great gift

I'd like to add a suggestion to Jan TenBruggencate's Dec. 13 column, "Give Earth a holiday gift, too." How about a gift that benefits Hawai'i in a special way and benefits the readers on your list 12 times a year?

For $35, a subscription to Environment Hawai'i offers political intrigue, insights into how your tax dollars are being spent and misspent, who's getting special favors, what's going on with reef damage, pollution, alien pest species, and on and on.

I accidentally let my subscription lapse temporarily, and boy did I miss it.

Because its work is so important, I asked anyone who wanted to give me a gift to make a donation to Environment Hawai'i. Their toll-free number on the Big Island is (877) 934-0130, or visit environment-hawaii.org.

We knew truth but elected Bush anyway

The Dec. 16 editorial "Americans need the truth ... " rings hollow. Americans had the truth about this war in Iraq two full years before the November 2004 election.

The number of U.S. soldiers' deaths were climbing. Colin Powell's National Security Council's WMD show was proven to be 100 percent false. Senate hearings and congressional panels all reached the same conclusions: Iraq, and Saddam Hussein in particular, had zero to do with 9/11.

Yet the majority of American voters still accepted G.W. Bush as their fearless leader.

Whether the eight Marines were killed in one city or the other is not going to make a difference to people who voted for a war that will go on for five to 10 years.

All the cards were on the table Nov. 2, and the most we can expect from those "red states" is maybe a scratching of their collective heads.

Traffic light indeed was unnecessary

Regarding the Dec. 15 article by Mike Leidemann about the traffic signal at Honowai Street and Kunia Road: I am very relieved that the Department of Transportation has decided not to build the traffic light there. The proposed traffic light was unnecessary for two reasons:

• Waipahu residents have four ways to get onto H-1 or Kunia Road. Just a block makai of Honowai Street is the Waipahu Street entrance to Kunia Road; just below that is Leolua Street; and farther makai is Farrington Highway. These are simple and easy alternatives for Waipahu residents.

• Traffic entering Kunia Road from Honowai should only be allowed to turn right onto the H-1 on-ramp because of safety reasons. It would be simple and easy for Waipahu people to enter from Waipahu Street or Leolua Street.

Defense of Abercrombie missed several key points

Rick Ermshar's Dec. 16 letter is an odd and contradictory attack on both Dalton Tanonaka and me.

First, Ermshar attacks Tanonaka for his letter to the editor about Abercrombie's absence from one of the most critical floor votes in recent congressional history. Ermshar points out that, "I found the answer in the paper just two pages later, where there was a large box on the obituaries page noting that Abercrombie's mother passed away on Dec. 4."

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that Tanonaka couldn't have read an obituary that appeared in the same issue as the letter he had written. Ermshar's attack on Tanonaka appears to be more political than logical.

Cheap shot No. 2: Ermshar attacks me as someone "who appears to be a disgruntled former employee of Abercrombie." I have, in fact, never been an employee of Abercrombie, whether gruntled or disgruntled. I am, however, a former supporter and volunteer campaign adviser who has become tired of Abercrombie's special-interest politics.

Further, Ermshar says that if Tanonaka "had bothered to simply pick up the phone and call Abercrombie's office," he would have known what happened. Well, if Ermshar had done a little homework before his partisan attack, he'd know that I did, in fact, contact Abercrombie's office by e-mail and received an acknowledgment of my inquiry, but never got a response as to why Abercrombie missed the vote. Dalton Tanonaka knew that I had made that contact. If Ermshar had gone to my Web site, which Tanonaka cited in his letter, he would have known that, too. And he would have found an e-mail address that he could have used to contact me and ask that question before he made his unfounded accusation.

The fact is that three out of four members of Hawai'i's congressional delegation missed the vote on one of the most important pieces of national defense legislation in recent history. That vote took place days after Abercrombie's mother died. And while we all do truly extend our sympathy to Abercrombie's family at the loss, there are some people — our president, our military and our members of Congress among them — who are often faced with continuing to do their incredibly important jobs even in the face of personal tragedy.

Who does he think he is?

Now that my high blood pressure has returned to a normal level and my above-average propensity for violence has temporarily subsided, I can now address a most remarkable letter from a George Berish (Dec. 8). Of course, you must keep in mind that my mediocre education may prevent me from adequately expressing my opinions, but I will try my best.

Who does this guy think he is? With nothing productive to offer, he contemplates living in Hawai'i without Hawaiians and concludes that Hawai'i really doesn't need any Hawaiians. After all, our "glorious sun, nurturing climate, striking mountains and enchanting ocean" were created by the Creator for all humanity, not just Hawaiians. Auwe, I was planning to move to Houston with some mauka showers, but I guess I'll have to leave them here for all humanity. Give me a break.

And what about our so-called aloha spirit? Well, you'll be glad to know that it's really called "neighborliness." Sounds so Hawaiian, doesn't it? Imagine one of our local airlines referring to itself as "The Spirit of Neighborliness."

As for the Hawaiian culture, forget it. Tourists really come here to experience island life in Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Tahiti. Did anyone tell the folks at the Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau that they're promoting the wrong islands? I think George must have visited the Polynesian Cultural Center one too many times.

And, finally, what would a good old Hawaiian bashing be without trashing Bishop Estate? Darn those rich Hawaiians exploiting hard-working immigrants and stealing money from our underpaid schoolteachers!

In all seriousness, every Hawaiian and those Hawaiian at heart should condemn this pathetic attempt to criticize and humiliate Hawaiians. This is outright racism and smacks of a time in the not-too-distant past when arrogant, ignorant foreigners considered the indigenous people of Hawai'i as "inferior."

Well, George, contrary to your myopic view of Hawai'i, there are many more people thankful for Hawaiians. Our numbers grow because we are colorblind. Our children's faces reflect our diversity. We're not perfect, we make mistakes, we wear our feelings on our short sleeves, and sometimes we act from our na'au instead of our head. But we are the namesakes of this land, and despite years of unwarranted criticism like yours, we are still ku kanaka, standing tall.

As the Kamehameha Schools' song proclaims, "Go forward, Kamehameha, until you have gained victory. Fight, fight always." I mua!