Navy is conscientious about nearby whales

Your March 3 editorial suggests the Navy uses sonar without concern for marine mammals, but the facts show otherwise.

The Navy is the foremost sponsor of marine mammal research in the world, funding approximately 70 percent of U.S. studies on the effects of human-generated noise on marine mammals and 50 percent of such research worldwide. The Navy dedicates approximately $10 million per year to marine mammal research.

When conducting training exercises using sonar, Navy standard procedure is to check for marine mammals by means that include use of surface and aerial visual checks, and passive listening to detect vocalizing animals. If mammals are detected, training operations are either ceased or moved to another location.

Today's submarines are increasingly advanced and quiet, operating in narrow straits and critical coastal regions for long periods of time. They are not likely to surface prior to attacking. Once they leave port, there is progressively less information over time about where the sub might be located. There is clearly a need for sonar to detect submarines that surveillance and intelligence can't address alone.

The anti-submarine warfare skills practiced by Navy sailors are perishable and must be maintained through frequent training and exercises at sea. The Navy has no intention of operating without regard for our surroundings, including marine mammals. However, sonar training is essential, and the lives of our U.S. Navy sailors at sea depend on our ability to use sonar to counter enemy submarines.

City policy sensible

Mayor Hannemann's move to cut "nice to have" projects, like $82,000 for landscaping at the Palolo Valley baseball field, finally makes sense. The city can't even maintain the existing park facilities. Why spend money on "nice to have" things when there are so many broken facilities?

The Palolo Valley Recreation Center tennis courts, for example, have been unusable for over five years. I hope more "nice to have" projects are cut so our "we already have but can't use" facilities get fixed.

Motorsports facility users are responsible

As a car enthusiast and user of the existing motorsports facility, I was disturbed by the reporting of the Presidents' Day motorsports demonstration at the state Capitol. The only impression I got from the article is that car enthusiasts and auto racers are irresponsible delinquents.

When the current motorsports facility closes, most of us facility users will demonstrate our self-responsibilities and not race on the public roadways. Yet the facility does allow us to explore the sporting aspect of racing in a controlled, safer environment.

So why have a motorsports facility? I found that being a car enthusiast has made me acquire practical knowledge. The social aspect is great, for I have met people from all aspects of life who are indeed decent humans. Doctors, lawyers, public safety officers, engineers, small-business people — just to name a few — are involved with motorsports.

Motorsports support the food, apparel, clothing, construction and maintenance, shipping and advertising industries.

I resent the negative picture of our choice of sports. And with that, I would hope my fellow car enthusiasts practice self-responsibility and thoughtfulness for others.

We all paid for roads on the other islands

As an Island-born resident and environmental scientist, I am constantly bemused by the use of the environmental protection regulations to further the corporate and personal agendas of a few naysayers. Here's why I support the Superferry:

In every other state, families can get into their car and visit family members living in another city within that state. This is a pleasure still denied Hawai'i residents. Why? Fear of competition and fear of a loss of monopolistic transportation control.

Island mayors express concern regarding overstressing their island's infrastructure. Realistically, the roads were, for the most part, paid for with state and federal money. We all own them; they are not built nor maintained only from "local" funds but rather they are supported by every citizen of the state. The same is true for all state parks. Comments such as, "Honolulu residents will overwhelm our infrastructure" are examples of divisive localism at its worst. And a word to the Kaua'i mayor: O'ahu fishing spots are just as productive as Kaua'i fishing spots.

The Superferry would be an economic boost to all the islands, allowing non-Honolulu residents to enjoy the "Honolulu prices" while allowing Honolulu families to economically visit friends and family on all islands, uniting 'ohana and renewing ties.

Most Island residents support the Superferry. If you don't believe me, why don't you let us vote on it?

Cameras would have been great tools

Responding to complaints of red-light running, the Honolulu Police Department conducted a five-hour patrol at the corner of Beretania and Nu'uanu on Feb. 7. The patrol found 11 illegal turns on red arrow, nine no insurance, one permitting unlicensed driver to drive, two driving without a license, three arrested for contempt and traffic charges, 14 no seat belt, 10 expired safety check, four delinquent tax (license plate), one blocking intersection.

I was outraged to learn how lawless our streets have become. Driving is an earned privilege, not a right. All of us, on the road or the sidewalk, have every right to be protected from lawless drivers. The police need to be given the right tools. Red-light cameras will help do that job. It appears that some red-light runners are not just irresponsibly running a red light or two, they are lawless — often uninsured and unlicensed.

Thanks to Sens. Sam Slom, Bob Hogue and the Republicans, the red-light cameras appear to be a dead issue and these lawless drivers (as well as the just plain irresponsible ones) who would have been caught will continue to endanger all of us. As lawmakers, these legislators are encouraging lawlessness.

Park position amusing

I find it quite amusing that, in your March 5 article "Reality of 'no-frills' budget hits home," Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi is complaining that a landscaping project in a park in her district is being cut from the city budget. Isn't this the same individual who, because maintenance fees in parks are so high, introduced a bill recently to sell alcohol in some of the parks in order to reduce these costs?

Costume party decadence dooms aboriginal culture

Hawai'i is a great place to live, but it may become permanently disgusting.

We would be forced to live with endless repetitions of a fake Hawaiian culture pushed in our faces if the Akaka bill becomes the law of the land: the phony, nauseatingly stupid, missionary hula; the castrati-falsetto hymn praising colonialist princes and princesses; senseless rewrites in Christian versions of Hawaiian myths as fairytales.

It's a kind of modern-day racist minstrel show with Hawai'i's numerous ethnic minorities costumed as Native Hawaiians and putting on demeaning skits. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Hawai'i has been overwhelmingly bored by such fake foolishness since the missionaries started it, but it has become politically incorrect to say so. This made-up fantasy rubbish is now mostly propagated by Kamehameha Schools, which has a cult following, to market its schools as so elite.

Everybody is a wannabe Hawaiian, and this bill renders this crazy delusion into law, converting 400,000 Asian Americans into Hawai'i's new Native Americans while killing off for good Hawai'i's actual Native Hawaiians of the blood. Ours is a disposable society, and this is another gross example of the real replaced by adept forgeries.

Imagine, a fake being rendered into the real thing by an act of Congress? What's next?

A lie repeated often enough ends up becoming a kind of hyper-reality. Existing law long ignored versus the lie made into new law by politicians serving the same special interests that have for too long held Hawai'i's economy in a monopoly death grip. This is identity theft, with actual Native Hawaiians being replaced by a whole new breed of hustler. Oh, unvigilant journalists, what have you done to us?

Is there an outer, outer island to escape to from the madness?

Like one of those charity schemes wherein they pretend to raise money for a good cause but give only a couple of pennies on the dollar to them, the Akaka bill is one of the most outrageous political con games ever — with newly minted fake Native Hawaiians serving as dumb shills to leverage increased government funds for yet more deadhead bureaucrats.

The lesson learned: Use federal courts in Washington, D.C., to sue these bums since their political reach extends into the federal courts here and in San Francisco.

Hounding of homeless must stop

The issue of homelessness has made cowards of us all.

Many individuals and groups are commendably doing great work in feeding the homeless, trying to find them employment, employment training, housing, housing services, substance abuse and mental health services.

But as communities — government, social service agencies, the faith-based communities — we must all admit to an inadequate response. The problem is growing. This inadequate response has led communities, which legitimately feel their health and safety treatment threatened, to demand the removal of the homeless wherever they congregate.

Recently, such removals or evictions happened in Mokule'ia and at the Wahiawa Bridge. More sweeps were scheduled for the Hau Bush in 'Ewa Beach, Poka'i Bay and Kaeau Beach Park. Even those conducting and calling for the sweeps know that they are not the answer and feel terrible about doing them, especially with no place for the homeless to stay. Many say it is immoral to sweep them from place to place, knowing that on an island, they will be back again.

Many initiatives to address longer-term solutions have been proposed and are moving in this legislative session. Proposals such as repairing hundreds and maybe thousands of public housing units, building more homes on Hawaiian homelands, employment and employment training programs, substance abuse treatment, education and prevention services, housing subsidies and housing services and feeding and food distribution efforts must continue. These are good and necessary things to do.

But they do not address a place for the homeless to sleep.

Ideas are circulating about how to address this problem of a safe place to sleep. Churches are starting to get together in their geographical areas to consider taking on a few homeless families at a time. Others are talking about designating areas of large parks, city or state, where the homeless can stay at night under supervision.

Possibly agencies and churches with camp facilities can do the same; old but functional buses could be used as sleeping quarters. They are not the best sleeping accommodations, but they are better than being hounded from here to everywhere.

Maybe the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps could be revived, providing jobs and campsites while reviving the protection and restoration of our environment.

Let us challenge each other across all walks of life to consider more solutions and implement some of them. Some of us are dedicating ourselves to such an effort and we need more to join us.

With trepidation, we would ask that while these solutions are developed and implemented, a moratorium on these sweeps should be implemented. But regardless of such a moratorium, we need to open our hearts to the needs of these children of God who are crying out for our help, who are children of God who need our aloha.