Natatorium important to older generations

I write this with the holiday blues on my mind. A divorce had forced me to liquidate my possessions. I finally got rid of the last piece of furniture.

Among my possessions was a koa buffet. That I sold without a single thought. It was my grandmother's, the only thing left from her. As I look back now at all the dinners she held, I have regret. That was my memorial. I had to clean and set it every time we had parties.

Originally, I had said to let the Natatorium go. But now I have had a change of heart. We still have veterans and people to honor. Maybe the newer generations are ready to let it go, but some of the older generations are still around and still want to hold on to their memories until it's their time to go.

I now say sorry to our kupuna and veterans. Please keep the Natatorium until it is time to let go. Once it's gone, it will be another thing taken away from our living historians.

Column on Harris ignored the reality

What a mealy-mouthed column by Jerry Burris, "Legacy for Harris unclear as his City Hall stint ends," in the Dec. 19 Advertiser.

If Mayor Harris has truly made Honolulu into "the most livable, sustainable city on the planet," then why are our roads full of potholes? Please, don't give us "the recent heavy rains" excuse again. Sure, heavy rains make existing potholes worse, but cold, hard numbers provided by the city itself clearly show that Harris has neglected road resurfacing and maintenance since he was first elected in 1994.

Is it a "livable city" that has a record number of sewage spills, to such a degree that the Sierra Club and Hawai'i's Thousands Friends had to file a lawsuit against the city to try to stop the pollution?

Burris cites a city budget that has remained stable but fails to mention that Harris achieved this by raiding the sewer fund and borrowing huge amounts of money, leaving behind a "city debt time bomb."

Burris hopes the Harris legacy will not be overshadowed by allegations about misused campaign money. According to state Campaign Spending Commission Director Bob Watada, $1.5 million was illegally funneled to the Harris campaign during the period 1996-2001. This type of illegal activity undermines the electoral process, the very cornerstone of democracy. For Burris to suggest we overlook this so that it does not "overshadow" the Harris legacy is irresponsible.

Anti-Muslim feelings in survey immoral

To date, U.S. military personnel in Iraq have suffered more than 1,320 deaths and nearly 10,000 wounded. Some researchers estimate the number of Iraqi casualties at more than 100,000. The monetary cost of this war for U.S. taxpayers exceeds $151 billion so far.

These numbers continue to increase with no end in sight. However, such numbers do not begin to express many other costs, long term as well as short term, not the least of which is the ruined lives of survivors, including family members.

One of the more recent rationalizations for this war is to spread freedom and democracy in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East as well as to defend freedom and democracy here at home, according to President and Commander in Chief George W. Bush and his associates.

However, as reported in this newspaper on Dec. 18 and commented on in David Shapiro's column on the 22nd, a recent national survey by researchers at Cornell University revealed that nearly half of all Americans believe that the U.S. government should restrict the civil liberties of Muslim Americans.

In other words, at the same time that the United States is fighting a war to promote the freedom of the Iraqi people who are overwhelmingly Muslim, half of the American public believes that the freedom of Muslims in the United States should be restricted. That is hypocritical, immoral and anti-American. There is no greater threat to homeland security than ignorance and prejudice, which undermine freedom and democracy.

America must keep its commitment to Iraq

UCLA professor Tom Plate's Dec. 16 commentary, "Full-court press on bin Laden is needed," was insightful and credible in outlining Graham Allison's alarming message in his new book "Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe." That message is that the gravest danger facing the United States comes not from Iraq but from the threat of nuclear terrorism by Osama bin Laden.

But Americans cannot withdraw from Iraq guided by a fear for our own safety from this threat. Instead, we must say put, led by a nobler cause: our moral commitment to the people of Iraq. Like it or not, our nation has made this commitment. We cannot renege on it when American honor is at stake.

Military families are under great stress

During World Ward II, our family received a shocking telegram from the War Department, notifying us that my father had been wounded in the South Pacific. We did not know then that his injury was not extremely serious, though he carried mortar shrapnel in his leg for the rest of his life. He had volunteered for the U.S. Marine Corps, and he was in the 4th Division.

I was an 11-year-old boy then and had been taught not to cry no matter what happens. However, while my father was recovering on a hospital ship off Saipan, I sometimes hallucinated, and I saw him sitting in his favorite chair at our home in San Francisco.

I have repeatedly learned since then that the public generally does not realize the great stress that can be suffered by families of military personnel.

Muslim-American survey was flawed

I was shocked to see the wire story reporting nearly half of Americans favor curbs on U.S. Muslim-American civil rights. I'm not buying it.

A closer reading of the story shows that these were the results of a student survey of only 715 people. This is worrisome enough to raise a flag but not, I believe, a true reflection of our national beliefs.

We must petition our representatives in Washington to ensure the rights of American citizens, whatever their religion, are maintained and ensure respect for all our neighbors.

I am pleased The Advertiser picked up this story and hope it will lead to additional research and education. This small survey is not the bottom line.

Follow California's lead on investigations

The Dec. 21 "Crash paralyzes traffic" photo seems to indicate that police opened up one lane to traffic when two could have been opened. Apparently it is an HPD policy to block off all, or nearly all, lanes during accident investigations. A couple of years ago, the HPD blocked off the entirety of H-1 to investigate a fatal one-car crash near Alexander Street, even though the car occupied only one lane.

By contrast, I witnessed an SUV flip-flop scene on a California freeway where the CHP blocked off only two of the four lanes. This policy allowed rush-hour drivers to proceed at about 15 mph. Given the maddening gridlock that was Honolulu for hours last Monday night, it might behoove the HPD to adopt the sensible lane-blocking policies of its California counterpart.