RIDERSHIP

FORGET MASS TRANSIT, CONCENTRATE ON BUSES

Regarding the proposed mass transit system: I wonder what the cost is per ride and what the parking will cost at the terminals.

How many riders could and would it handle? Will the increase in all the taxes and hiring a private company to collect these taxes put more of a burden on already financially stressed residents?

Will the building of this system be cost effective, and if the ridership isn't there, what will happen then? Will they cut the service as they already did the city bus service?

I think now is not the time for this service to be built. Enhance the bus service by making it more desirable to ride. People must participate in public transportation or just suffer in the long traffic jams on H-1, H-2, H-3, etc.

BURSTING POINT

HOMELESS SITUATION IS AN ONGOING PROBLEM

Homelessness is a symptom of a community under constant stress and near exhaustion. The pain, anger, confusion and divisiveness expressed at the recent meeting are clear signs that our "social levees" are at a bursting point.

As a Wai'anae resident and legal services provider with Legal Aid Society of Hawai'i, I see and assist many needy individuals and families, including out-of-state or off-island individuals who make it to the Wai'anae Coast. Many times we must do the same things for the same people because they're on the move, their belongings are lost or stolen, their benefits are cut.

I am proud to say that the social service communities work well together, all trying to provide what we can with what we have; sometimes we're successful at getting a family to the next level. Sometimes we're not.

We serve clients in our office, at the beaches, at the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Center and the homeless shelters. We educate the community on ever-changing laws, programs and policies. Having so many social services available is perhaps one ironic reason people come to the Leeward Coast.

Our clients have suffered a multitude of traumas and have numerous issues that must be addressed; many have physical and/or mental disabilities. As mentioned by Stanlyn Placencia, we see many families who travel from couch to couch, eventually wear out families and friends and then head to the beaches or coastal caves.

Our community also absorbs discharged patients from the State Hospital and paroled or released offenders. We have to face the fact that some individuals and families will never be "self-sufficient."

TIME WASTED

TIMING OF STOPLIGHTS IN TOWN FRUSTRATING

With all this pie in the sky stuff about alleviating traffic congestion with multibillion-dollar trains and the like, will somebody please try to fix the timing of stoplights in Honolulu?

I simply dread driving into town and usually will add at least a half-hour to my drive time simply because of the frustrating badly timed lights.

How many times have you sat at a red light and watched the light a block away turn green and then red just before you approach it? You have to stop and then get to watch the next light do the same thing.

AKAKA

RESPECT FOR ELDERS IS NO REASON TO BASE VOTE

There exists in certain circles the quaint notion that the voters should vote for Sen. Daniel Akaka on grounds that we should respect our elders. This assertion is based on a false premise that's not supported by history.

In 1932, Herbert Hoover, age 58, should have been re-elected. Franklin D. Roosevelt was 50. In 1992, George H. Bush, age 68, should have been re-elected. Bill Clinton was 46.

Apparently, certain individuals in the Democratic Party have spun this web of deception from reluctance or fear of passing power to a new generation. I have nothing but respect for those in the Democratic Party in the 1950s who were in the forefront of change, responsible for dramatic improvements in the political and economic fortunes of those who had been excluded for far too long. The issues today are not those of the 1950s.

The suggestion that Ed Case does not respect his elders is nonsensical and meritless. Rather than confrontation, I urge that we abide by the biblical injunction, "Come now, and let us reason together." Let us look at the issues and reject frivolous matters.

Ed Case has demonstrated his effectiveness and leadership representing the Second Congressional District of Hawai'i. As senator, he will continue to serve all of the people of Hawai'i in an intelligent and effective manner.

RECYCLE

MEDITATIONS SITTING ATOP A DUMPSTER

I've been saving glass and paper and stockpiled quite a stash. I'd rather just recycle it, not throw it in the trash. I've got lots of plastic bottles and empty tin cans, too. And all sorts of other stuff that's almost good as new.

Our landfills are quickly filing with junk that's really not. Is conserving not important, or have we just forgot? This can't go on forever; soon there will come a day when things are used and used again and not just thrown away.

But why wait until later? Too much will have been lost. Reduce, reuse, recycle. It's too good to be tossed.

ECONOMICAL

O'AHU NEEDS REQUIRE NEW ELECTRIC PLANT

Hawaiian Electric needs additional fully controllable electric generating capacity to serve the growing electric energy requirements of its new and existing customers on O'ahu.

It takes one-fifth of a kilowatt-hour of electric energy to produce one dollar of our gross state product. That ratio, in current value dollars, was the same in the 1980s as it is today.

In order to reduce our dependence on imported oil, HECO is proposing an economically sized 100 megawatt combustion turbine designed to burn either ethanol or naphtha, a clean-burning fuel that is readily available from O'ahu's two refineries.

As noted in a June 20 editorial, O'ahu residents do in fact need additional electric generation capacity to ensure continued reliable electric utility service. This new generation equipment must be designed to provide power when the customers need it.

The O'ahu electric load peak occurs 45 minutes after sunset on quiet light-wind days. Where wind turbines and solar photo-voltaic systems save oil, they are not capable of providing useful electric power during the O'ahu system peak load.

"Distributed generation" that can provide power when needed during the evening peak and emergencies, such as the June 1 power outage, will almost certainly remain dependent on imported diesel oil and would transfer the combustion of fossil fuel away from an industrial area to neighborhoods where people live and work.

HECO stands ready to build the type of generation unit that is needed to provide reliable electric utility service for our isolated growing island's economy. Only the tortuous permitting process stands in the way.

CREATIVE CARNEY

'DAS PARADIES' WAS SUPERB PERFORMANCE

Bravo to Timothy Carney, music director of the Hawai'i Vocal Arts Ensemble and artistic performance genius. Carney knows how to challenge both his performers and the public to reach beyond the ordinary for the possibility of creating true, musical, aesthetic experiences.

At the June 25 concert at the Hawai'i Theatre, of the rarely heard and even more rarely performed "Das Paradies und Die Peri" by Robert Schumann, Carney conducted, coached, coerced and exhorted a ragtag group of musicians, the local volunteer chorus and an insightfully selected group of soloists to a level of performance that is rare in concert halls anywhere in the world today.

This was no clinical revival of detached music-making — often conveyed by even major symphony orchestras when tackling "difficult" works such as this. The performance had a sense of creation and occasion about it, with all performers intensely involved in making something special happen. It did.