Posted on: Thursday, June 9, 2005

Letters to the Editor

Professor's stance on religion unfounded

Professor David Panisnick's response to Jonathan Durrett ("Even token support of any religion by state is perilous," June 2) was not only logically unsound, but also rather offensive, since Mr. Panisnick's selective use of disliked religious figures to justify his personal aversion to religion conveniently ignores the many other religious figures who were great humanitarians.

Furthermore, the strawman argument against religious views based on those who commit crimes in the name of religion is a pendulum that swings both ways: There are atheists like Stalin in the last century alone who are guilty of the murder of tens of millions of people. Should we then reason that atheists are evil? In fact, was not Hitler well within his evolutionary beliefs in that the strong survive and the weak should be eliminated? Are evolutionists evil?

Indeed, the professor's objection to Lt. Gov. Aiona's "implementing those beliefs into education and government" is followed by a synopsis of "facts" used to justify his own beliefs, which, ironically, he would himself aim to impose upon society.

Why should Mr. Panisnick's beliefs be implemented and not the lieutenant governor's? Well, the usual tactic is to declare something a "fact" and to build upon that presumption, which is neither scientific nor honest.

UH football team priced out of market

Well, there goes the old ballgame: goodbye Jim Leahy, hello Bobby Curren and Don Robbs. In its mad rush to keep up with costs of June Jones' dreams of Top 25 teams every year, the UH administration is leaving behind many old and faithful supporters in all fields. Who would pay for a replay a day late?

Six years after a stroke that left me paralyzed on the right side, I could still pay to watch my beloved Rainbows, whom I first wrote about in 1956, and follow football, basketball, baseball and volleyball, all of which I used to pay to see in person.

As many season-ticket holders have discovered, the new elevated game prices are out of their reach, and with no TV, they will be left to radio and newspapers. And, how long will it be before the Rainbows play before a stadium 65 percent full?

Of course, ESPN and ABC are planning to carry some of the football games live. It doesn't seem as if UH can force blackouts to rob stay-at-home rooters and make them miss those games.

I just happened to get my hands on a California Bears football season-ticket list and to my surprise, I discovered that they offer tickets in the end zone for $99, main grandstand for $235, including the "Big Game." What did surprise me was that the Bears play Sacramento State in their first game. By the way, those are season-ticket prices. Single-game prices are different.

So, it's aloha Rainbows. I hated those black uniforms, anyway.

Hawai'i fortunate to have Shriners Hospital

Reading the article about Shriners Hospital renovating and expanding, I just had to write and let folks know what a wonderful, wonderful institution Shriners is.

Our son started as a "Shriners kid" back in Honolulu. When we moved to California, he transferred to Shriners in Sacramento. It was a four-hour drive, one way, for those first visits. Through three surgeries and countless clinic visits, my husband and I have never ceased to be amazed at what they do for the kids and how very well they do it.

We hope the people of Hawai'i know how fortunate they are to have a Shriners Hospital right there for the keiki of the Pacific Basin.

My life was saved by getting a ticket

I wanted to comment on James M. Lee's June 4 letter "Forget Click It drive, focus on the speeders." I am alive today because I got a ticket for not wearing my seat belt.

Yeah, I was mad at the time, but the ticket made me put it on all the time after that.

About a year later, I was in a major accident that totaled my car. The person who hit me died at the scene because he wasn't wearing his seat belt. The driver was thrown 50 yards from his vehicle and died from massive trauma to the head. I walked away from the accident and was out of the hospital in two days.

I hate tickets, but they do save lives. Would Mr. Lee be willing to store and secure the 500 vehicles a day for the speeding tickets issued and would he front the money for more prisons to put all the second-time speeders in? Because that number will not fit in any of the current facilities.

Foster Village feud shows public's disgust

Jerry Burris (May 29, "Why do so few vote?") suggests many reasons why Hawai'i voter turnout is the lowest in the country. I think he overlooked a key explanation: disillusionment. Consider the recent fiasco in Foster Village with the construction of a roundabout (begun May 23). The opponents:

• Made their feelings known to Councilman Romy Cachola and gathered signatures totaling more than 505, representing over 56 percent of Foster Village households.

• Took the matter to their neighborhood board, which made a unanimous motion against the roundabout and recommended a three-way stop instead.

• Are greatly concerned with the safety of hundreds of schoolchildren from Foster Village and the Aliamanu Military Reservation whose safety will be jeopardized since drivers will be more intent on getting around the circle than watching out for them.

• Tried continuously to discuss the matter with the mayor. Their calls to the mayor's office went unreturned.

Why should these citizens continue to vote? The system/majority rules failed them.

Actually, there are at least two reasons to vote: Romy and Mufi. Let's make sure these two unresponsive individuals are not returned to office the next time they run.

Mainland results discourage voting

Regarding Jerry Burris' May 29 column about fewer Hawai'i voters: Time zones are the villains.

By the time our people have even decided which clothes to wear to the polls, they've been deluged, via the news media, with predictions from the millions of votes that have already been cast from the East Coast and the middle United States.

It's little wonder that so many just shrug their shoulders and conclude "Why bother?"

I'm so adamant about getting my two cents' worth every four years that I'd probably crawl to the voting booth.

But that's just me.

Medical marijuana crackdown shameful

It is shameful that U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo is threatening Hawai'i doctors to prevent them from recommending medical marijuana when they believe it could help seriously ill patients.

Hawai'i has a good medical marijuana law that allows people to use marijuana in private, and only if they are really sick and their doctors think it can help.

If Mr. Kubo is unable to look around the state and see thousands of crime-fighting needs that are more urgent, then someone else should be running the show.

Solve housing problems with better land-use plans

The high cost of housing on O'ahu, both for sale and for rent, is attributable to our unwise land-use and zoning practices. The relative scarcity of land here versus the Mainland is readily discernable; yet, incredibly, we still develop O'ahu land and retain zoning that promotes Mainland-style land-use practices.

The result is completely predictable: more and more people priced out of home ownership and reasonable rental rates.

Until land-use practices and zoning are revamped to reflect our unique (non-Mainland) situation, affordable housing will be elusive, no matter how much government money is thrown at the problem.

The solutions lie not with government subsidies for affordable housing, but for government to get out of the way of wiser development practices and allow market forces to solve the problem. Some suggestions:

• Revise our zoning laws to allow greater density and height in already-developed areas, particularly core urban areas. This need not be high-rises, but mid-height buildings of, say, five to eight stories.

• Promote redevelopment of existing parcels in already-developed areas. Rezone urban core parcels (at the owners' request) to allow mid-height multi-family residences (five to eight stories in height) and mixed-use retail/residential developments.

• Change our zoning laws to allow mixed-use developments, and live/work developments (and redevelopment).

• Allow the redevelopment of older single-story strip shopping centers into mixed-use projects incorporating both retail and residential or live/work-type units.

• Provide tax breaks to property owners to redevelop existing core urban properties into mixed-use projects or small-scale multifamily housing (duplexes, fourplexes, live/work units, etc.).

• Allow 'ohana zoning to residential lots over 7,500 square feet.

• Discontinue or discourage the development of more single-family Mainland-style suburbs, which waste land.

E bus service should be continued

It's not rocket science: The only solution to O'ahu's traffic problems is to increase reliance on public transportation. But instead of encouraging people to give up their cars, the city appears instead to be determined to drive people away from TheBus.

After several years of improved service (including the institution of the A, B and C express buses as well as the new community circulator routes), bus service has now taken a real turn for the worse. First, the bus strike and the recent fare increases have discouraged many riders — as a recent news article pointed out. Now, the city is discontinuing the new E route (see www.thebus.org and click on "what's new") — and doing so in a sneaky, underhanded fashion, only a few months after the city Director of Transportation Services promised that no such action would be taken without public hearings (in a Feb. 18 letter to the editor in your paper).

I have been riding the E several times a week since it was first instituted. Although there was quite a bit of misleading media coverage portraying the E as a riderless route — in the first few days, before anyone knew where the route went, and what stops it made — ridership on the E has been steadily increasing since then.

I get on at the second stop downtown and consider myself lucky if I get a seat; if anything, service on the E route should be increased, not discontinued. The E links Chinatown/downtown to the Ward shopping area, and the Ward area to Waikiki. If I were one of the many merchants in the Ward complex (or downtown or in Waikiki), I would be very upset with this development.

And then there's the new Kaka'ako medical complex — how are people without cars to get there? The E is the only bus that stops there.

On a personal note, I have an 88-year-old friend who loves the E bus. It stops right in front of his door, and right in front of his doctor's door — and at all of the other places he typically frequents. The other buses he might take are not as convenient and require him to walk farther. The E has made his life much easier.

The city instituted the E route based on surveys of bus riders, and it should have the decency to listen to its riders — as well as the businesses that profit from those riders. The city should think twice about discontinuing the E service. Maybe one of those city decision-makers might even want to get out of the car, get on the E bus, and actually talk to the people who use it.