FAT PHONE BOOKS

LET'S GIVE PEOPLE THE OPTION TO GO PAPERLESS

This year's phone book distribution has to be by far the largest and heaviest to date. Between Hawaiian Telcom's four volumes of "official" white and yellow pages and the "Your Islands Pages Telephone Book," I received 5,250 pages weighing some 13.5 pounds. Multiply these directories by the 293,000 households on O'ahu, this amounted to 15,382,500 pages weighing some 1,977 tons distributed in plastic bags on this one island alone.

Add to that the fuel cost and emissions generated in their distribution. I have been trying to go paperless, so the arrival of an unsolicited 13.5-pound bag of directories was not a welcome sight. In fact, the directories went immediately into the recycle bin. In my walks around my neighborhood I could see I was not alone in dumping them.

I would suggest that, in the future, folks be offered a choice of whether or not they receive paper directories or access the directories digitally. A postage-free postcard mailed out by Hawaiian Tel several months in advance of distribution could be used by residents to indicate their preference.

Shouldn't Hawai'i be setting the standard of responsible stewardship of our planet?

AIRPORT BLUES

VISITORS RECEIVE DEPLORABLE WELCOME

I, too, travel frequently to Asia through our Honolulu International Airport. Jonathan Carr (Nov. 21) and John McLeroy (Nov. 27) have it right about the deplorable greeting that our international guests receive at our airport.

I have watched the shocked and dismayed looks on the faces of groups of Japanese tourists as Wiki Wiki Bus drivers and attendant personnel shout at them like unwelcome prisoners to herd them toward and onto the buses. The condition of the buses and road are bad enough but it's really the airport personnel that create the horrible non-welcoming atmosphere. I am ashamed.

FILIPINO VETERANS

OUR PROMISE OF FULL BENEFITS MUST BE KEPT

Gen. MacArthur conscripted some 250,000 Filipinos to act as scouts for the U.S. Army against the Japanese enemy. Many died or were wounded horribly on the battlefields and they are still dying— only about 20,000 are alive today.

In 1941, we made the Filipino scouts a promise: Full veterans' benefits if you survive. In 1945, soon after the end of the war, our Congress passed the Rescission Act — rescinding this promise. Shame!

And "Some Republicans are concerned about the bill's provision granting special pensions of $300 a month to low-income veterans living in the Philippines" because, they say, "the amount would be equal to 129 percent of that country's average household income?" What business of ours is that? We certainly have the super-rich and the super-poor right here. Besides, these veterans earned their "riches" — and were promised those "riches."

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) "is concerned that the Filipino veterans' benefits would come from money that now pays a special monthly pension for elderly and housebound U.S. veterans." So? Where are the trillions spent on the unconstitutional Iraq war coming from?

TRANSIT PLAN

SALT LAKE ROUTE REMAINS MOST SENSIBLE OPTION

In the November 25 Advertiser "Hot Seat" section featuring Mayor Hannemann, a questioner claimed that to have the most impact on traffic, the city's future transit line should be routed to Honolulu Airport rather than along Salt Lake Boulevard.

The fact is that the city's efficiency projection (riders per dollar spent) for the airport transit route is only 1.7 percent higher than for the Salt Lake route, and this assumes four stations on the airport route and only two on the Salt Lake route. Adding a third station to the Salt Lake route could tip the balance the other way. Moreover, transit development history shows that such projections frequently err by margins far greater than 1.7 percent.

The bottom line is that the Salt Lake route has the potential to reduce traffic as much if not more than the airport route, and in this light the City Council's decision to serve taxpaying local commuters now and travelers later is good, reasonable public policy.

LOCAL RESIDENTS SHOULD WEIGH IN ON RIDERSHIP

What's the deal when our elected officials tell us they need to hire a "national expert panel" to help them make local city decisions? If these same elected officials aren't experts in running a city administration, they need to tell us before elections, not after.

Exactly how these "national" experts are going to tell us if two or more people will ride the rail on any given day, more proficiently than the people themselves is beyond me. What is ironically interesting is the fact that the elected officials won't let the people put to a vote if they would actually use rail. It is almost as if the elected officials don't think the voters know what they're doing.

By the way the Kaimuki Neighborhood Board passed a resolution to move forward in asking the Neighborhood Commission, which is watched over by the city administration, if we could just simply put the question of who wants to ride rail to a public vote, and the "grass roots" resolution got buried real deep. It makes one wonder.

PEDESTRIAN SAFETY

DRIVERS: SLOW DOWN AND PAY ATTENTION

Hey, let's spread the aloha spirit, especially to our pedestrians.

While driving from Hawai'i Kai to town recently, I witnessed two pedestrians, in the crosswalk, almost get run down by speeding motorists. The pedestrians were not doing anything wrong, simply walking where they should be, but speeding motorists are not paying attention, and these pedestrians ultimately will pay the price. One day, it could be your family member in that crosswalk.

All drivers need to pay attention to driving. Hang up the phones and drive! If you notice a car next to you suddenly brake, assume there is a pedestrian crossing in front of you, especially if you are approaching a crosswalk.

I am to the point of driving with my windows open and waving my hand to stop the cars driving next to me, in an attempt to get them to stop when I see someone trying to cross the road. I also have been beeping the horn to gain the attention of the pedestrians and other drivers to prevent pedestrian injury.

Simply slow down and look around you. Spread the aloha!

MIDEAST PEACE

STEREOTYPES CREATE INACCURATE PICTURE

Your editorial, "Hope for peace in the Mideast must endure," ( Nov. 29), touched my heart. "Peace is always a possibility. And nowhere is that sense of hope more needed —and more difficult than in the Middle East."

How true! I visited Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories in January 2006, and everywhere I went, Palestinians and Israelis, Christians, Muslims, Jews, echoed those very sentiments. I stayed for 10 days in Bethlehem in the West Bank, and was there during the Palestinian election in which Hamas won the majority of the votes of the Palestinian people. I stayed in a Palestinian Christian home.

I am angered and offended when I read slurring stereotypes that I know to be worse than innacurate. I read these in your editorial: "Hamas, a terrorist group" and "Palestinian terrorists." Using "Gaza to base its attacks against Israelis" is another very inaccurate use of the media to side with one people against another.

Please look at the entire picture in the Middle East, and use fairness and facts in your editorial writing.