Diamond Head park needs soap at hand

I was born and raised in Hawai'i and have lived on O'ahu since 1991. I finally hiked Diamond Head for the first time the other day. The hike and views were lovely and decidedly worth the $5 entrance fee and circling the lot four times to find a parking spot (at 11 a.m. on a Monday).

However, at the end of our hike, my friend and I wanted to wash our hands after touching the necessary railings that hundreds of other hikers also used, only to find no hand soap or hand towels in the women's restroom. We were appalled, but luckily I had hand sanitizer in my car.

Not washing your hands with soap is a great way to spread infection and bacteria, especially when hundreds of other people from all around the world are touching the same things (railings, etc.) as you.

We all have to pay to get in, and none of us wants to share germs, just the views and fun of Diamond Head.

Please, someone, can't some of my $5 be used to properly stock the restroom with basic necessities like soap? It would be appreciated by everyone.

Better way to recycle: Just drink the water

The purpose of recycling useful materials, instead of filling our dump sites with them, is an economic and material-saving concept.

The present problem is that the buyer of the product assumes the burden of returning the empties to recycling sites, convenient or inconvenient as they may be. This process has met with public resistance.

Would it be better to require all the retail outlets to be the redemption centers for what they sell? They could provide receipts to their customers for returning the bottles, or refunds, or credit for new purchases.

Perhaps a way to encourage this system would be to drink water. There would be no cans or bottles to return, and it would be healthier for everyone.

'Aida' performance worthy of applause

Hawai'i should stand, applaud and support the fine performance of "Aida" at Mamiya Theatre. (The last performance takes place this Sunday afternoon.)

I attended, not knowing anyone in the cast, but intrigued that the production had an open call with a cast from a wide number of public and private high schools. They did an outstanding job, from drama to music to choreography — it all came together beautifully.

Kudos to all involved: directors, choreographers, set and costume designers, leads and ensemble, and especially to the parents who nurture the dreams of these children, and the teachers and mentors who work with them.

The cast has been invited to perform the show at a drama festival in Scotland this summer. Please give your contributions to the Saint Louis Center for Arts to help them get there. They will represent arts in Hawai'i very well and make us proud.

Booming housing market is no help for many of us

The article in the March 11 Advertiser about the sale of land on Moloka'i is just the latest example of an economic system that is out of control. I support the residents of Moloka'i who protested this sale and who are rightly concerned about the future of their home and their homeland.

While some people (land developers and speculators) see this inflation in property values as good because of the personal wealth it provides them, those of us who simply need a place to live and raise our families suffer the financial consequences. We fall loosely into several different categories.

Some of us were lucky enough to buy a home 30 or more years ago when the market was reasonable; rising prices are of no benefit to us because there is no intention of ever selling. Some of us managed to buy as the market was rising and face many years of tight budgets because of high mortgage payments and increasing property taxes. Many of us have children who will never be able to afford a home of their own.

It seems as if Hawai'i is either becoming a get-rich-quick opportunity for nonresident (and a few resident) investors or a haven for new resident wealthy retirees. In any case, too many residents are frozen out of the housing market. I suspect the largest group of us (though I don't have the statistics) is comprised of renters who have a unique set of challenges because of rents that increase disproportionately to our personal income.

Finally, there are the more than 7,000 citizens who are houseless; not homeless, but houseless. We have a housing crisis across the nation as well as here in Hawai'i.

I also support Bob Nakata's inspiring letter in the March 11 Advertiser. If we are going to fulfill our vision as the Aloha State and if we ever hope to claim we are people of compassion, we must create better alternatives to the houseless situation than simply sweeping them from our beaches. We need to solve the problems of greed and increasing economic disparity. We need the moral courage to transform our state and nation into a place where the universal core principles upon which our country was founded are shared equally by all our people.

Arctic refuge vote dismaying

Doesn't the ' 'aina' encompass the Earth?

I was outraged, saddened and disappointed that our two senators chose instead to support oil drilling in Alaska.

We have a lumber shortage for local construction. Perhaps we should start cutting down our koa trees and provide jobs?

Does not "'aina" encompass the whole Earth?

Senators should be ashamed of votes

An open letter to Sens. Akaka and Inouye:

I can't begin to say how sad and deeply disappointed I am in both of you for voting against almost all your Democratic colleagues to damage the precious pristine wilderness and wildlife that is the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. You should both be deeply ashamed. Your two votes for drilling the ANWR for oil made this 51-49 vote happen, and your two votes could have prevented it. You will regret this because history will show that it was a tragically wrong decision.

Our senators sold out over the Akaka bill

The U.S. Senate Wednesday voted, 51-49, to approve oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Only three Democrats voted to allow drilling. Two of the defecting Democrats, who cast the deciding votes, were Hawai'i's senators.

The timing of this vote, which immediately follows the passage of the Akaka bill out of committee, and the approval by Sens. Inouye and Akaka is no coincidence. It should be clear to everyone in Hawai'i that our senators sold out the environment to oil interests as a political quid pro quo.

The only question is what other promises did Sens. Inouye and Akaka have to make to buy Republican support for the Akaka bill?

Is the passage of the Akaka bill, which would segregate Hawai'i and which has strong opposition even among Native Hawaiians, worth the expenditure of all of our Hawai'i congressional delegation's political capital?

There's a better way than drilling in Arctic

I am deeply troubled that the U.S. Senate voted to include Arctic drilling revenues to its budget for fiscal year 2006 — a sneaky, backdoor maneuver that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. This cynical ploy would eliminate any chance of a fair and open debate on this important conservation issue.

Drilling in the arctic refuge is not the answer to our country's dependence on foreign oil. Increasing our energy efficiency and developing alternative technologies will make us less dependent on foreign oil while protecting our environment and improving our national security.

Keep in mind that there is only a six-month supply of oil in the refuge, and it would not be available for another 10 years. And oil from the Arctic refuge would never provide more than 2 percent of America's yearly demand for oil.

The arctic refuge is America's last great wilderness, and it should be saved for future generations, not squandered for short-term gains. Some places in America are just too special to drill, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of them.

Inouye's justification of vote doesn't hold up

I watched on CSPAN the Senate debate for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Sen. Inouye claimed 229 tribes support drilling in the refuge except one, the Gwich'in. Sen. Inouye then claimed this is one of the primary reasons he voted contrary to the wishes of most of the people in Hawai'i, the wishes of Hawai'i's Democratic Party, Senate Democrats and, according to various surveys, a clear majority of the people in the United States.

What Sen. Inouye is using to justify his vote is the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN), a corporation-influenced entity that is a partner in oil development in the Arctic. The Alaskan native tribes themselves are not voting members of AFN. There is another tribal organization, the Alaska Inter-tribal Council, which has 187 federally recognized tribes in Alaska and supports preserving the Arctic refuge, and they support the subsistence and cultural rights of the Gwich'in native people.

The refuge is America's premiere wildlife sanctuary and was set aside for that purpose. It was not set aside by Presidents Eisenhower and Carter for its fate to be decided in two hours of Senate debate.

Vote wasn't about self-determination

Auwe to Sens. Akaka and Inouye for voting to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. While I agree with Sen. Akaka's statement that a key issue here was "whether or not the indigenous people who are directly impacted have a voice in the use of their lands," this bill did not give the indigenous peoples this voice.

Unfortunately, this bill — like the Akaka bill — was not about self-determination but about imperious senators deciding what's best for everyone.

When will these senators learn that indigenous self-determination rests in the existence and health of the process by which native people make decisions — not in the fickle whims of Congress?

Explanation is needed

I was shocked to learn that both Hawai'i senators voted in favor of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling for oil, the energy benefits of which are tenuous at best. I believe the citizens of Hawai'i deserve a very candid explanation from the senators.