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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, March 1, 2005

Letters to the Editor

Hawai'i is doomed over mass transit

I am appalled by your rationale to fund mass transit as stated in your Feb. 10 editorial. In your own words: "There has been no decision on what the system would look like, where it would go or whom it would serve." But enough "tax revenue," whatever that is, to fund "it," whatever "it" will eventually be, is manini thinking.

This is the kind of thinking that bought a pothole repair truck/system that never hit the ground. This kind of thinking brought you an express bus system that isn't working efficiently, has been modified already and can't pull itself uphill.

Light-rail transit has never been able to support itself, and historical data supports that fact. It is a government subsidy funded by increased taxes.

If legislators are comfortable holding taxpayers hostage to this kind of thinking, if the author of this editorial accurately reflects Hawai'i government and the method of decision-making employed, Hawai'i is doomed.

Nito Quitevis
Waikiki


There's help for teaching tolerance

Miulan Nihipali (Letters, Feb. 7) has every right to be a proud Native Hawaiian parent who has been involved in her children's school life. Her wise counsel to endure and tolerate ignorant people has nurtured proud children who value themselves for who they are. Don't we all want that for all our children?

Remember the line from that song in the musical South Pacific referring to the racial prejudice of adults — "they have to be carefully taught"? Tolerance has to be carefully taught as well. There is an award-winning program that does that very well that I want all parents and educators in Hawai'i to know about. It's called Teaching Tolerance, created and distributed free by the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center to all educators who request it.

Educators who are not aware of this program can go to www.teachingtolerance.org for further information. Parents can do the same to learn more about the program so they can support their children's school in obtaining and using this program. It's never too late to start teaching children to acknowledge and celebrate our differences. Those children will lead the way to a more peaceful world.

Mahalo to Miulan Nihipali for setting such a valuable example.

Myrna Zezza
Kailua


Churchill's message reflects cold reality

The Native American political activist and university professor Ward Churchill was harshly battered in the media for publicly comparing some of the persons killed in the 9/11 attack with Nazis. Efforts are under way to fire him, despite his tenured status and national academic prominence.

Before we put our mouths in motion, let's put our brains in gear. Consider this:

The Twin Towers were home base for some of the most powerful corporations in the world. Many of them provide weapons for the Bush administration to wage imperial war on the people of the Mideast, not incidentally enriching themselves in the process. (Think Halliburton.)

Thousands of children and farmers in many countries are being killed and crippled today by unexploded ordnance left behind by the U.S. Air Force, as recently as during "sanctions" in Iraq and as long ago as the Vietnam War. To me, the people who provided the weapons looked as guilty as those who used them. It still does.

It is undeniably tragic that many little people were killed and hurt on 9/11. Is it less tragic that in Iraq, U.S. sanctions in the interim between the two Bush wars — not military action, but "sanctions" — killed more than 100 times as many people, mostly children, as died in the towers? (Source: The Lancet, one of Britain's most distinguished medical journals.) Madeleine Albright said it was "worth it." Bush says we are "at war." So the tower dead were just "collateral damage," right?

With this perspective, it behooves us to listen carefully to Ward Churchill's message.

Willis Butler
Kailua


Helmet requirement for children unneeded

I was the only person in the entire state to testify against Senate Bill 48 when it came before the Senate Transportation and Government Operations Committee recently. This bill would make helmets mandatory for moped riders and bicyclists under the age 18.

The bill is based on misinformation and emotionalism. My testimony debunked this bill line by line, but unfortunately mine was only one voice and the committee passed the bill.

The bill will go through other committees before coming before the full Legislature for a vote. Unless there is a public outcry against this blatant paternalism, all you under-18s had better get used to wearing helmets, and all you parents had better get used to the government parenting for you.

Incidentally, those who think mandatory helmets are a good idea can start wearing them now, and all the time. The major causes of traumatic brain injuries are car crashes, violence and falls. Shouldn't everyone wear helmets then? And if just one life were saved, wouldn't it be worth it?

Warren Woodward
Kihei, Maui


Nakasone a great choice for bandmaster

I support Mayor Mufi Hannemann's appointment of Michael Nakasone as the bandmaster of the Royal Hawaiian Band. I have known Mike for nearly all of my life. We first met in elementary school and were classmates in intermediate and high school.

As a student, Mike was bright and a guy we all respected. As a friend, he was someone you could always count on. And as a musician, it was obvious that he had a very special talent. So I was not surprised when he went to the University of Hawai'i to become a music teacher, a position where he could combine his love for music, his leadership ability and his caring nature.

As we all know, Mike has succeeded as a music educator. He is the only bandmaster to be named the state teacher of the year. Through his musicianship, his administrative and community leadership, and his superb teaching skills, he has elevated a school band in the middle of the Pacific Ocean — the Pearl City High School Marching Band — into one of our nation's most respected and honored bands.

Ron Hirano
Pearl City


HMSA should use riches to help people

Recently there has been much debate on how best to use the millions of dollars that HMSA receives from investing policyholder money. Wouldn't HMSA policyholders be better served by establishing a "legal representation fund" for those whose medical needs are denied? A taxable $100 refund would barely pay for a tank of gas and a trip to Zippy's.

If the courts and Legislature continue allowing HMSA to severely limit a patient's means for appealing a denial of coverage, policyholders will need an attorney to receive many lifesaving treatments. Why not let the policyholders use their own money to defend their own lives?

Dr. Nicholas J. Ochs
LaGrange, Ky. (formerly of Lana'i)


Ramps not broken; what are we doing?

For the past month, men and machines have been demolishing sidewalk ramps built only five years ago along Kalaniana'ole Highway and have been rebuilding them. It is slowing down the traffic moving along this major arterial highway from East Honolulu into town when it periodically closes down one of the lanes to permit this construction, and at these corners being repaired, they create a hazard for the pedestrians and automobiles.

I am informed that although the ramps appear to be perfectly functional, they may not adequately comply with federal standards and our state is forced to repair them under court order.

What is the cost for these repairs and who will be paying for them? More importantly, if the original ramps were functional and useful, why must they be repaired at all?

Donald Char
Honolulu


Editorial should have focused on Syria misdeeds

Your Feb. 16 editorial on Beirut was a disappointment. Syria has been occupying Lebanon for decades with nary a word about it on your editorial pages. In that time:

• Syria has stationed over 16,000 troops in Lebanon, and, more importantly, the country is virtually controlled by Syrian military intelligence.

• Syria allows the world's most dangerous terror groups (e.g., PFLP, Hamas, Hezbollah) to have headquarters in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

• Syria allows Hezbollah, formed in 1982 by Iran and Syria, to directly operate in southern Lebanon where it conducts almost daily shelling attacks on Israeli border communities.

• Syria is allowing Hezbollah to preposition missiles, more than 10,000 already, along Israel's northern border, aimed at Israeli cities.

Besides failing to adequately report these facts, have you ever run an editorial that spoke out against these impediments to peace? No, you haven't.

In the last six months:

• Syria has allowed high-ranking members of the Iraqi Baath Party to set up shop in Syria, where their stolen billions are used to support and remotely control the anti-U.S. insurgency in Iraq.

• Syria has reportedly allowed thousands of armed jihadists to cross into Iraq to battle U.S. forces.

• Syria has refused to comply with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, passed in September 2004, which calls for Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon.

Now, two days after the horrific bombing in Beirut that claimed the life of Lebanon's former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, among others, you finally run an editorial, but instead of informing your readers about all the facts of Syria's misdeeds, you instead simply boil it down to a statement that "the Bush administration has found many reasons to be unfriendly to Syria over the years," thereby effectively hiding Syria's war crimes from your readers, while disingenuously blaming the problems there on an "unfriendly" attitude by President Bush.

You then go on to say that the Bush administration "must not be seen to be using this tragedy as a pretext for actions long contemplated." Given the long history of Syrian support for terror, I am outraged that the main focus of your editorial seems to be to remove Syria from the crosshairs of the U.S. war on terror.

Cliff Halevi
Kailua


Here's how English town handles its trash problems

As visitors to your beautiful islands for the seventh time, we have become accustomed to reading your excellent newspaper.

We are both elected town councilors for Watford, about 20 miles north of London. We have read with interest the debate regarding your current recycling program and thought your readers might be interested in ours. Until recently, landfill sites have been the main recipients of our English rubbish, but as we are a small country, they are rapidly filling up. The mayor of Watford has been rolling out a new recycling program.

Each household is supplied with a large gray bin and a large green bin on wheels (known affectionately as "wheelie bins") and three large plastic containers.

The green wheelie bin is for garden rubbish. One plastic container is for plastics and tins (tops of plastic bottles are not to be put in there), another is for glass, and the third is for paper (with a lid supplied to stop the paper from becoming soggy from all the frequent English rain). Any other household waste plus the bottle tops go into the gray wheelie bin.

The contents of the gray bin (general household rubbish) are collected once a week. The others are collected every two weeks. Elderly and disabled folks are able to make arrangements for refuse collectors to enter their property to collect the items and are thus saved from struggling to take their rubbish to the curbside. The council is hoping shortly to be able to collect cardboard also, which householders would then put into their green garden waste bins.

Collections from apartment blocks are just starting on a trial basis as these are a little more difficult to organize. Families of five or more are able to apply for larger-capacity wheelie bins.

We do in addition, of course, have large local household waste sites, run by local councils, which have all the recycling facilities on a much larger scale and where people can also dispose of items like motor oil, car batteries and tires, fridges, washing machines and any other items of modern-day living.

It is always interesting to read, during our visits here, that so many problems you experience (underage drinking, the crime rate, etc.) are problems that we experience at home, half a world away. It just goes to show that no matter where we live, our everyday problems don't differ much.

Ian and Jan Brown
Watford, Hertfordshire, England