Letters to the Editor

Public commission should regulate gas

In her June 29 letter, Melissa Pavlicek of the Western States Petroleum Association blames our high gasoline prices on our geographical isolation and our state's high taxes and costly regulations. There must be more to it than that.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Association, the average U.S. price per gallon fell 6.4 cents per gallon over the past two weeks. For California, the price fell 5.2 cents per gallon over the same two weeks. Our prices have not budged over that period. The reason is that the refineries here do not have to lower their prices. They don't have any competition, and there is no regulatory agency to prevent them from charging whatever they wish.

What is wrong with the idea of setting up a commission to regulate the prices gasoline refineries can charge service stations here in Hawai'i? Gasoline refineries certainly meet the criteria for public control. Their product is essential to our economy, and they do have a monopoly here. We don't hear complaints about Hawaiian Electric's prices.

State foundation cut doesn't make sense

Many parents keep a visual reminder of their child's education in their kitchen such as a painting or drawing posted on the refrigerator door as a personal reminder of their child's creativity and self-expression.

Unfortunately, by cutting nearly half of $1.2 million allocated by the Legislature for the state Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the governor does not appreciate the value art plays in a child's education and development. Museums, theaters and cultural centers where schools participate will be affected by the governor's cuts. One cannot quantify the importance of art, as it is a great way to develop our children's creativity and entrepreneurial skills.

Further, the Legislature has been focused on improving our tourism industry by emphasizing our local culture through the arts. The governor's cuts will hamper the development of cultural tourism.

If you want to support Hawai'i's art programs, you can appeal to the governor by calling her at 586-0034, faxing her at 586-0006, e-mailing her at gov@gov.state.hi.us, or writing to her at State Capitol, Honolulu, HI 96813.

The law's there to protect your children

So Deane Gonzalez (Letters, July 1) objects to the seat-belt law because she's been driving "40 years" without trouble.

Well, I was raised prior to the seat-belt era, and when I was about 10 years old, I banged my forehead on the front windshield and received a severe bruise when my mother made a sudden stop. A few years later, my brother, who was 4 years old, hit the dashboard, suffered a swollen lip and could not sleep that night because our father made a sudden stop.

Since then, I have always supported seat-belt laws, especially to restrain children in vehicles.

Fight for your freedom of choice, Deane, but make sure any minor-age passengers you carry in your vehicle are properly and legally restrained. For they are the innocent victims and you would be the criminal if they were injured.

Dobelle should accept his failure, move on

Dear Mr. Dobelle,

Please save the state of Hawai'i the time and money and give up your defense.

Don't you realize you failed as a leader? You've lost credibility and respect, and now, all you can do is fight back this way? Move on and save yourself the embarrassment of this attempt at saving face.

Just as a professor fails a student for not academically performing, the regents did the same in failing you.

It'll be a long time before we find out

Which do you think will be the first to see the light of day: the proof of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, or the evidence of wrongdoing by Evan Dobelle that justified the UH regents firing him for "cause"?

If you're expecting to see either anytime soon, then you probably also believe there's nothing political about the UH president's firing, since there were both Democrats and Republicans on the board.

Op-ed on Portland system was refreshing

Roger Morton's June 29 commentary on Portland's light-rail system was very welcome after the nonstop, unrelenting diatribes of Cliff Slater against any kind of sensible solution to O'ahu's growing traffic problem.

Why wasn't I surprised at Cliff's manipulation and omission of facts in his attack on Portland's successful system? Cliff is surely the "Wolfowitz of Hawai'i" for his ignoring of reality and telling us only what he wants to believe.

The sad tale of Honolulu's failure to have a rapid-transit system goes back to the 1970s, when the Burns-Gill feud killed our chances of a federally funded system linking Hawai'i Kai with Pearl Harbor and all the key stops in between. Our city is probably the most suitable in the country for such a system: very long and very narrow so that one long line is sufficient rather than the wide network that most cities would need.

I hope that other spokesmen will follow Morton in bringing some alternative views to the Johnny One-Note, blinkered outlook of Cliff Slater.

Check with the GOP

A June 30 letter writer ("Don't wait till it's too late to get involved politically") said that he would like to see more regular people at Democratic Party-sponsored presentations — more soccer moms, troop leaders, bus drivers, supermarket checkers, office workers and Wal-Mart shoppers — rather than representatives from the Revolutionary Communist Party that he observed in attendance. Particularly, he was wishing to see more people for whom religious faith guides their life.

I believe you will find them all down the street at the Republican gathering.

Shame on government for highway conditions

Driving from the North Shore Monday night to attend an awards ceremony for Scenic Hawaii, a group dedicated to making Hawai'i a more beautiful place, I was appalled at the condition of the freeway on the way to town. Trash was strewn everywhere, and lots of it, and there was no landscape maintenance whatsoever, with weeds and grass 2 to 3 feet tall along the roads.

It's ironic that private groups with volunteers are doing more to beautify Hawai'i than the government is doing to just do the minimum maintenance on our highways. Is this the way we want to present our state to the world? Why are the roads (potholes!) let go when we have maintained them in the past? Is this part of our "tropical paradise" of the Pacific?

Shame on the government for letting this happen. Please clean up our highways.

Stop giving sanctuary

Why do we have bird sanctuaries? Birds can't read sanctuary signs. I don't see many birds in sanctuaries. Maybe the birds are getting lazy and don't want to hunt for food.

Instead, I see the birds having lunch with the rest of us at the beachfront hotels and restaurants, and making messes on the furniture.

Dining with birds is for the birds.

Unsupervised youths give bad impression

Recently I was taking a walk through Waikiki, and as usual I stopped at the Waikiki beach groin or "wall." Since school is out, there were a number of local kids swimming and hanging out on the wall.

However, their idea of fun was blasting loud rap music on a boom box and yelling all kinds of profanity at one other. I noticed that a number of tourists were heading out to the end of the wall but turned around when encountering this scene.

Is this what we want to convey to visitors who expect friendly Islanders to greet them with open arms? I know that the wall is to be shared by visitors and locals, but I think these kids' parents should monitor their kids' behavior and teach them aloha.