Posted on: Friday, February 25, 2005

Letters to the Editor

Homeless solution: shipping containers

I read a Smithsonian article from August about shipping containers being converted into shelters. What a perfect idea for Hawai'i.

An Australian architect, Sean Godsell, has designed a workable idea to practically create housing for refugee victims of natural disasters and the homeless: a 22-foot-long container that is shaded by a plastic canopy roof and is named FutureShack.

One end of FutureShack swings up to form an awning and reveals a glass door. Inside, plywood covers the insulated walls, floor and ceiling. Two beds and a table fold out from the sides. At the far end is a kitchenette and a bathroom outfitted with a shower and a stainless steel toilet. Two hatches in the ceiling and a window at the far end provide ventilation. Solar power generates electricity for lights and heating.

These dwellings are estimated to cost $15,000 each — mass produced. This may be an answer for our thousands of homeless if an appropriate location could be found near bus lines and a shaded area.

Biting the hand that feeds them

As a longtime season ticket holder of UH football, baseball, volleyball and basketball, I am deeply concerned about the UH proposal to increase prices for premium seating, especially for football.

I am a retiree, and my family and I have been avid and loyal supporters for over 25 years. This increase will definitely impact my fixed-income ability to attend events.

In the past, we have supported them devotedly through lean years, despite poor records and attendance. However, now that the sweet taste of success is here, UH suddenly wants to bite the hand that feeds it. How quickly they forget!

The public should have their opportunity to be heard.

I question the timing of this proposal with attendance declining and the availability of pay TV. Perhaps the UH board should seriously reconsider its decision.

Unquestionably, if this proposal passes, you can kiss my season tickets aloooha!

Go 'Bows!

Churchill's message is worth listening to

I was disappointed to see your editorial describe Ward Churchill's now-famous, but usually unread, essay as "inaccurate," with no explanation of what you were referring to. That kind of blanket condemnation says more about you than it does about what he actually said.

If more people read the article instead of listening to out-of-context sound bites that the power elite feeds us constantly to try to manipulate our feelings, democracy might be safer in this country. As it is, all too many people seem too eager to hand their minds over to others.

While Churchill's tone in his article is strong, his message is soundly reasoned and quite accurate, depending on what one's opening assumptions are. He proposes that the targets on 9/11 were well-chosen, not only for symbolic value but because they were the actual centers of the U.S. military and the mega-corporations it really serves. He argues that 9/11 should have been a wake-up call to all Americans to reflect on the role our military and financial institutions play abroad, which all too often is destructive and exploitative.

Churchill backer was against free speech

While I support the UH administration's commitment to free speech and its approving the speaking visit of controversial ultra-left-wing professor Ward Churchill ("UH takes heat over visit by professor," Feb. 19), it has yet to be demonstrated that the key organizers of this event have the same noble commitment to free speech themselves.

One of the organizers of the event, UH American Studies professor David Stannard, was quoted in the article as saying, "If we invited a right-wing political commentator like Bill O'Reilly, we'd defend him the same way we defend Churchill."

Back when I was a student at UH and an editorial cartoonist and columnist for the student newspaper, Ka Leo O Hawai'i, David Stannard was one of the very people who publicly demanded my firing from the newspaper for cartoons he considered "hate speech."

Take Tuesday's event for what it really was — a promotional tool for several professors who share Churchill's mentality of an immense hostility toward the United States. That's the reason they brought him here, not any commitment to free speech, which they have sorely lacked.

Focus on improving our bus system

In the early days of Hawai'i mass transit, there were trolleys that followed power lines along their routes. In a sense, these trolleys were a fixed-rail system. This became an issue over time as people wanted more routes, or different routes, and people realized how much it cost to modify the routes.

Tax dollars were spent to convert mass transit from fixed-rail trolleys to today's bus system. That was a big step forward. We went from a fixed system with fixed routes to a more dynamic system with routes that could change based on the demands of the public. So why are we considering spending tax dollars to take a step backward? Have we forgotten to learn from our mistakes?

Instead of building a new fixed-rail system, we should be looking at how we can better use the bus system we have. I agree that traffic poses a problem for TheBus, so let's focus on that issue instead of changing the subject.

Here's one idea: In downtown, there is a lane just for buses — no cars allowed. Would it be feasible to have more of these lanes built around the island? Surely it must cost less than a raised fixed-rail transit system. And it would still allow TheBus to modify its routes with little to no cost.

Inefficiency on view

Recently, I was looking through Sail, the world's leading sailing magazine, when I noticed a picture and blurb about the poor condition of the state-run Ala Wai Boat Harbor. Now the whole world knows how inefficient our state is.

Political cartoons missing the danger

When I read the many political cartoons in The Advertiser, I get the impression that the Bush administration is fighting tyranny, ineffectively, around the world, i.e. Iraq, North Korea, Iran. Yet the fight against these evil regimes is our fight, America's fight. It's our fight for survival.

So, instead of joining the fight against that which seeks to destroy us as a nation, we make jokes about our own inadequacies, secretly wishing for this administration's failure and ignoring the fact that such a failure might lead to our own demise.

We all must remove the blinders that keep us in a dark rut before we attempt to enlighten others or we will simply make fools of ourselves and mislead those who laugh at our gallows humor. Cartoonists are remarkable individuals who could do so much better.

Selling alcohol in city parks a bad idea

What is Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi thinking? Selling alcohol in city parks? Does she think everyone walks to the park? Would all the consumers be responsible and only have one or two and then still not drive?

Alcohol causes more death and destruction to American lives than anything else, and she wants to help it along. As the interviewed police officer said, "They can sell juice, soda, hotdogs, but alcohol?" ("City considers sale of alcohol at 3 parks," Feb. 23).

An "early booster of soccer in Hawai'i" said "I'm for it. ... We could serve liquor until it started causing problems, then cut it off." Can you even read that line and keep a straight face? And what about the possible liability?

Declare amnesty for state tax delinquents

I read your editorial on tax collections with surprise.

The editorial stated the problem very well, but neither The Advertiser nor state tax director Kurt Kawafuchi gave any indication of a solution.

Beyond "just" delinquent income taxes is the massive problem with delinquent traffic fines that go uncollected.

Here then is my suggestion: amnesty.

No jail, no court action; just pay the taxes, fines and penalties.

Amnesty.