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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, March 27, 2005

Letters to the Editor

Who swayed Akaka, Inouye on Arctic?

I am deeply saddened by the actions of Sens. Akaka and Inouye in voting to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling. Our politicians no longer care about our wishes — they are working for corporate bosses.

I would like to know who met with Sens. Akaka and Inouye in the recent days and months before this vote. Were they meeting with the people they are supposed to be representing or with lobbyists and dirty backroom deal-makers? I am disgusted by these political leaders of today. Shame on them.

Margaret Casey
Honolulu


Develop sources of alternative energy

Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will not solve our problems of oil dependency and could create bigger problems. We have the technologies for alternative energy sources. Let's develop them before it's too late.

A Cree Indian prophecy says it all:

Only after the last tree has been cut down,

Only after the last river has been poisoned,

Only after the last fish has been caught,

Only then will you find that money cannot be eat- en.

Linda Almen
Hawai'i Kai


Residents hostage to Hannemann vendetta

While I applaud Mufi Hannemann's efforts toward fiscal responsibility, this reader must ask: In his quest to systematically discredit and dismantle all of the previous administration's projects, has the mayor taken into account the residents' feelings?

Those of us who happen to live in Waikiki and on Kuhio Avenue have endured countless months of construction in the name of improvement, and completion has slowed to a decrepit crawl as Mr. Hannemann decides what should or should not be done. Sidewalks have plywood on them, signal lights are inactive, street lanes are blocked off, landscaping is not compete, nothing is finished.

While his photo ops with the trees were charming, is he really going to subject us to more months of construction so that he can remonstrate on their ridiculousness to further prove the ineptitude of the Harris administration? Mr. Hannemann, finish the project, please.

There is nothing wrong with the Ala Wai — it's just grass and palm trees, for heaven's sake. At least we got a bike lane out of it.

If the trees on Kuhio Avenue truly are potential problems for the sewer systems, then replace them, but please do it now. Your "no specific timeline" is not acceptable. We should not be held hostage in your campaign against Jeremy Harris. We would like some peace, please.

Greg Wolf
Waikiki


'Guarantee' of Social Security is a laugh

What if I made you a promise with only one proviso? I would be able to modify or even cancel the promise any time I wanted to do so.

In an article in The Honolulu Advertiser on March 20, "Social Security risks greater for women," the current system is referred to as a "guarantee of lifetime benefits." It is nothing of the sort. When passed in the 1930s, the system was (and is) a "guarantee" with enormous meaninglessness. It is a promise subject to unilateral cancellation. It has been tinkered with, re-engineered and tweaked continuously since it came into being.

Anyone who would call that a guarantee is naive, brain dead or manipulative.

Ironically, the idea of making a portion of the mandated personal payments into the system owned on a personal basis does involve a sort of genuine guarantee. The concept is to turn that "privatized" portion into personal property which, once money went in, would be out of reach of government. For those who trust those people running government, whoever they might be, into perpetuity are disposed to very much like the current system. That's a system in which every dollar put in today by a 25-year-old shrinks (not grows) for life, subject to endless manipulation or cancellation along the way.

For those of us who believe that the government that is best is the one that governs the least, the idea of personal account ownership and control is an appealing turn in policy. It removes the proviso mentioned above.

Richard O. Rowland
President, Grassroot Institute of Hawai'i


UH is a bargain, and it's badly underfunded

I am currently a UH-Manoa student from Southern California. I transferred here from a private university in Michigan where I was paying upward of $30,000 a year. If UH is going to provide a competitive education, it needs funding.

UH is far cheaper than schools on the West Coast. Coming from California, I feel that UH is a bargain.

You go to college to get an education, to do better in life. If you get a mediocre education because your school is underfunded, then you have wasted four or now five years of your life. UH's professor payrolls are among the bottom rungs of the nation, yet the cost of living is skyrocketing here.

John Bresnahan
Torrance, Calif.


Congress should keep focus on the real issues

Is it me or does anyone else out there find it infuriating (and ironic) that while our leaders in Congress cannot seem to fix campaign finance reform, tax reform, Social Security, Medicare, massive federal spending abuses, balanced budget — oh, we could go on and on — yet they have the time to get on their soap boxes and tell Major League Baseball what to do about steroid use?

And now they have the time to enter into the very private issue regarding the Schiavo case and the issue of the feeding tube.

It is no wonder that Congress gets so little done on the issues that it should be doing something about. It is too busy telling everyone else what to do or not to do.

I think it is time for term limits in Congress.

Forrest Shoemaker
'Aina Haina


What $28 million in lost tax revenue?

According to the state, tax subsidies for the TV shows "Lost," "North Shore" and "Hawaii" and other entertainment projects cost the state an estimated $28 million in lost tax revenue last year..

I'm not clear on this. Exactly how did the projects "cost the state an estimated $28 million in lost tax revenue last year"? Tax revenue they never had in the first place? Because productions are shooting here rather than somewhere else and diffusing money into the state's economy, isn't the state taking in more money than if the productions were filming elsewhere?

In addition, is there a specific service that the government provides the filming companies in direct exchange for their tax dollars?

Paul Guncheon
Kane'ohe


Affordable housing site misrepresented

Stephanie Aveiro's March 23 letter to the editor misrepresented the affordable housing situation in Wai'anae and has done homeless people a disservice.

Some immediate residents of the area around Uluwehi Apartments want the facility torn down in any way possible and continue to focus on demolition only, without considering any alternatives.

The years of inadequate attention to the deteriorating conditions have led to an unholy alliance between the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawai'i and the chair of the state Housing Committee. HCDCH has not done its part in maintaining the facilities, and the state Legislature in not doing its proper oversight nor setting appropriate state housing policy.

In addition, the Legislature could help us look at real alternatives, like home ownership, rather than allowing the state to throw money at something that could be done another way or at less cost than the pie-in-the-sky $2.4 million it wants to put into demolition and reconstructing. There are far too many low-, very-low and extremely-low-income people on the Leeward Coast to do otherwise.

Douglas Kouka Allen
Vice chair, Residents' Advocacy/ Advisory Board Hawai'i