The benefits:

RAIL GIVES COMMUTERS CHOICE IN HOW TO TRAVEL

We continue to think that traffic congestion will be reduced by a rail system.

I support a rail system, but it has nothing to do with relieving traffic congestion. Rail is a separate system that gives commuters a choice of how to get where they need to go. I lived in the Tokyo and the Washington, D.C., areas and can assure you the rail systems there did nothing to relieve traffic congestion. They both, however, gave me options regarding how I got around.

One example that I love were my options for getting into the heart of downtown Tokyo. I could drive over an assortment of local, expressway and toll roads requiring about three hours, or I could take the train and arrive in just about an hour. If I drove, I still had the problem of parking in Tokyo. This was a no-brainer.

Without a decent mass-transit system, we take away choice. Most of us love our cars, but democracy is about choice.

RAIL WILL ONLY BANKRUPT TAXPAYERS OF O'AHU

In the spirit of the approaching Thanksgiving holiday, the mayor has presented the City Council and the people of this island with the biggest turkey ever — his proposal for a railroad!

And to go with this bloated bird are his pie-in-the-sky financial estimates of the cost to be paid by the taxpayers. He and the City Council seem to think that whatever federal money is allocated to this project is a handout. The people of this island pay federal taxes, also.

There are so many fallacies, omissions and glossed-over aspects of the mayor's proposal, one is hard put to know just where to begin. He and the City Council members seem to have lost sight of the charge Parsons, Brinkckerhoff was given when it was awarded a contract to develop solutions to traffic congestion in the east-west corridor. By its own admission, a railroad will do nothing to relieve traffic congestion. If anything, it will exacerbate the condition.

If the mayor is hoping a railroad will be his legacy, he may wish to consider bankrupting the people of this island as a more likely alternative.

IRAQ

EXECUTION WILL MAKE SADDAM A MARTYR

Executing Saddam Hussein will only accelerate the fall of the American empire and further fuel the fire of hatred toward western imperialism. Remember, all religions boast of their martyrs.

A very wise kahuna from Nu'uanu once said: "There is no death, only transition."

ELECTION

CAMPAIGNING IS PAU, TAKE DOWN THE SIGNS

Now that the elections are over, I sure hope these candidates and their supporters go around their respective communities and take down their signs that pollute our neighborhoods and our 'aina.

If they truly care about our beautiful 'aina, I hope they find it in their hearts to step up during the next legislative session and amend the current law, and put these signs in the same category as billboards.

Let's get this done before the 2008 elections.

FOOTBALL

PLEASE, UH WARRIORS, SHOW SOME MERCY

Shame on the Warrior football team! Blowing out opposing teams is unbecoming.

Previous teams scored a lot of points, but at least the defense did not simultaneously shut down teams on a regular basis. Defensive coordinator Jerry Glanville's swarming defense makes me quiver, even cringe.

Why not give other teams a fighting chance? Please show some mercy. Whatever happened to aloha?

I fear other teams will refuse to play the Warriors at home because of their dominating style. The outlook for next year appears to be even gloomier, being that they may very well go undefeated.

How sad that the Warriors may lose even more fans next year. What a brutal sport Warrior football has become in Hawai'i, the Aloha State!

P.S. I'm being sarcastic. Go Warriors!

PICKING FOOTBALL TEAM OVER TV NEWSCASTER

June Jones' Warriors: winners!

Joe Moore: whiner

NOT ART

DO NOT GIVE UP BATTLE TO RID ISLAND OF GRAFFITI

This is in response to Cheryl Abellanida's comments on graffiti (Letters, Nov. 4).

If she wants to see "artistic treasures," tell her to visit a museum. If she wants to enjoy a "unique mark," perhaps these so called "artists" could do community service by helping older and disabled people paint their homes.

Barriers, walls of the freeways and sewage tunnels are private property.

Graffiti is making our island look like a third world country, not an island paradise. It is doubtful that any of these "villains" will be designing our clothes, houses and artwork. What they are doing is showing a total lack of respect for our communities.

We will not give up the fight to keep our island graffiti free.

ACT 221

HIGH-TECH TAX CREDIT A HIGH-END BOONDOGGLE

Your recent article by Marcia Sakai and Bruce Bird regarding the Hawai'i high-technology tax credit (Island Voices, Oct. 26) makes some interesting points. The authors indicated that the credit is far more generous than the technology credit offered by any other state, and that 39.3 percent of the high-technology jobs counted under Act 221 in tax year 2003 were "performing arts" jobs.

Since high-technology credits apply to performing arts jobs, the clowns in the Legislature who initiated this billion-dollar boondoggle might be eligible to apply for the credits themselves.

TRIBUTE

ALOHA, JIMMY COCKETT, A VERY SPECIAL HOTELIER

As I was unable to attend the service, I would like to add my aloha for my friend Jimmy Cockett. I wanted to give him my personal award for being the world's most patient hotel manager, having seen his handling of Mr. Frank Sinatra and his entourage. At the time, I represented Capitol Records for Hawai'i.

It started with a phone call from Jimmy at 3 a.m. asking me for help in finding a grand piano to be lifted to the top floor of the Surfrider Hotel as quickly as possible, as Mr. Sinatra had just called him at home with the request. Frank had reserved the whole top floor, and he could not understand why there was no piano in his suite when he wished to sing for his guests. I told Jimmy that I was home in bed at home in Kane'ohe and that the ball was in his court.

The next morning, I went by the hotel just in time to see the grand piano being hoisted up the side of the hotel to the penthouse.

Jimmy was a great guy. I will miss him.

OCEAN

OVERFISHING HARMING HAWAIIAN MONK SEALS

PBS just aired a very informative show on Hawai'i's endangered monk seals in which scientists were investigating what they called mysterious reasons for the seals' starvation.

I was astonished that the show avoided the real reason for the distress — overfishing of the spiny lobster, their primary food source.

Maine has 120 years of effective regulation of their lobster industry, but in Hawai'i greed has won over logic.

Has anyone in Hawai'i looked into creating what are called artificial homes for our spiny lobsters?

The PBS special did not mention lay gill nets, which also kill monk seals. But the most interesting aspect of the show was that seals have resorted to swimming 20 to 30 miles from the reef and diving 1,000 feet deep to feed under rare coral trees for the crabs and fish under them.

I believe these coral trees have been harvested to make coral jewelry. It seems all animals will make a desperate act to survive against human plunder of our world to make a lousy buck!