POLITICS

OUTRAGE, DISGUST OVER FILING DAY CONTROVERSY

So a Bainum supporter is challenging Kirk Caldwell's candidacy because she is outraged that he may not have properly withdrawn from his state House campaign by the deadline?

Well, I'm just as outraged that Duke Bainum would rent an apartment on the deadline day so that he could "represent" that district. Do I understand it correctly that he had been living in Arkansas most of this time?

And you wonder why people are disgusted with politics.

READING

PUBLIC LIBRARIES ARE HERE TO NOURISH MINDS

Regarding the letter of July 25 headlined, "Libraries need to meet the needs of the public," please permit a word or two toward balancing the scales of perception.

As a bus-riding reader with no car to park, I find the Hawai'i State Library convenient and more than adequate for my needs. My favorite Hawai'i/Pacific room is seldom bereft of readers. Similarly, the serials section rarely wants for patrons. And the circulation desk is always busy. More than once I have waited in line, taking my turn to borrow a book.

As the July 25 letter suggested, maybe a public library within the Ala Moana Center would be accessible to more people. Yes, and who knows, such a facility so located might inspire shoppers to value knowledge, seek inspiration or even a personal muse.

For now, I will take TheBus, get off at Punchbowl and admire the trees that shade me as I walk the two blocks to the library that has nourished many a mind before mine.

GOVERNOR

PUBLIC EDUCATION BEING USED AS POLITICAL TOOL

Earlier this month, I heard the California superintendent of education, Jack O'Connell, say, "Across-the-board cuts are an abdication of responsibility."

The governor has consistently underfunded education. Now there is talk of cutting junior varsity athletics. Tough decisions need to be made. Yet, there also needs to be support for the programs that have already suffered cuts. Music, fine arts and the practical arts must be restored.

Unfortunately, public education is being used as a political tool. The governor wants random drug testing but doesn't fund it. Windward schools must fix their waste-disposal systems or be fined by the EPA, but the governor doesn't budget it. Money is not used for CIP projects because the governor did not release the funds. Is this an administration that values education and the benefits of extra-curricular activities?

A few years ago, I used to see bumper stickers that read, "Don't blame me, I voted for Lingle." Are those people ready to step up and now accept the blame?

CIVIL LIBERTIES

MANY WERE EXCLUDED FROM EQUITABLE REDRESS

Regarding the July 6 article, "AJAs warn of history repeating with civil liberties erosion": The story correctly noted that "Japanese-Americans won a presidential apology and $20,000 in restitution for each internee in 1988."

What is obvious is that that happened 43 years after the fact. What is not so obvious and not mentioned in the article is that only those living at the time of the restitution's enactment were redressed.

At the very least, the dead should have been recognized with letters of apology to their families.

The other hidden fact about U.S. internment of civilians during World War II is that more than 10,000 Germans and about 2,000 Italians, about 300 Alaskan natives and 2,262 Japanese Latin Americans, plus a number born in captivity were interned, and these groups were excluded from equitable redress.

I still believe mine is a great country when it comes to justice, but I also believe with a great American patriot, Carl Schurz, who said, "My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right, and if wrong, to be set right."

Freedom and justice are not to be taken for granted; every inch of each must be fought for continually, even against the stream.

IMPAIRED DRIVING

DUI CHECKPOINTS DO ACT AS A DETERRENT

MADD Hawai'i would like to respond to Sarah Longwell's July 23 letter stating that roving police patrols are more effective than DUI sobriety checkpoints.

It is important to note that sobriety checkpoints not only serve the purpose of arresting those driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but they are also used as a deterrent for those who are considering driving impaired.

Sobriety checkpoints are held on various parts of each island every week in Hawai'i. They are not easily avoidable, as she states, because the locations of these checkpoints are not released to the public.

According to research from the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, highly publicized, highly visible and frequent sobriety checkpoints reduce alcohol-related crashes and fatalities by an average of 20 percent.

It is also noteworthy to point out that 80 percent of Americans say they would be discouraged from drinking and driving if they knew sobriety checkpoints were being conducted in the state.

MADD Hawai'i fully supports all of the efforts put forth by the Honolulu Police Department to fight impaired driving. Sobriety checkpoints are one more tool to keep impaired drivers off the roads and keep Hawai'i's roadways safe.

SMOKING RULES

DOWNSTAIRS SMOKERS AFFECT OTHER RESIDENTS

Last month I submitted a proposal to our board of directors recommending that they ban smoking on the open lanais in my building.

It included statistics from the American Lung Association proving that secondhand smoke is even more dangerous than firsthand smoke, along with a copy of an Advertiser column by Christine Strobel titled "You smokers are gross" in which she describes her experience with a downstairs neighbor who smokes on his lanai: "the smell wafted from my lanai, a noxious cloud of stink. It crept over the railing and into my apartment, where it settled like ocean sand after a big wave, covering everything."

This describes exactly my situation on my lanai. Two young "nicotine addicts" smoke cigarettes and cigars on the lanai below me.

It is so bad that I have to leave my sliding glass doors closed, preventing me from getting the cool, fresh outdoor air in the late afternoon and evening.

The president of the board (a smoker herself) did not like my proposal. She recommended that I ask the two young military men not to smoke on their lanai. Fat chance. Finally, at the end of the meeting, she said, "just wait and let the Legislature do it."

The Legislature acted very courageously in banning smoking in all public areas. They protected nonsmokers from the harmful effects of carcinogenic tobacco smoke.

On the contrary, in refusing to act, the board is, in effect, protecting the smokers.

MILITARY MANEUVERS

OUR BEACHES, FORESTS SHOULDN'T BE USURPED

The photo of the huge, lumbering "landing craft" churning up the silken sands of Bellows Beach (July 28), and the blockbuster, gee-whiz awe expressed by military personnel observing the Rimpac "maneuvers" (assault is indeed the more appropriate term), were sickening to many.

The scene evoked the great playwright Eugene Ionesco's play "Rhinoceros" — a society where people are seduced by official propaganda into admiring the "beauty" and "singing" of the giant, crude rhinos that had overtaken their government.

The military's rationale for justifying the destruction and usurpation of our fragile beaches and forests — national security — is an unfounded and criminal refusal to abide by legal environmental protections. That they abide by existing "safeguards" does nothing to diminish the urgency for stricter regulations and the return of appropriated lands.

While Native Hawaiians and all Hawai'i citizens are denied access to the glorious Bellows beaches, the tanks, rifles, soldiers and F-18s jets take, as their entitlement, these destructive activities.

RAIL DEBATE

LINGLE WANTS PEOPLE TO DECIDE ON RAIL TRANSIT

You recently published a letter from the chairman of the Hawai'i Democratic Party in which he states, "the chief executive of our state has no official opinion on the largest transportation project in Hawai'i's history."

That just isn't true. The governor has made her current official position very clear. It is to let the people decide. What is so hard to understand about that position?

PRO-RAIL RADIO ADS ANNOYING, MISLEADING

We are currently being subjected to an utterly annoying series of radio ads urging our support for rail transport because the alternative, "an endless line of buses that are never on time," won't solve our traffic problem.

This classic "straw man" argument, claiming victory by defeating an illusion, is intrinsically false and misleading.

Those who oppose rail have never suggested more buses as the sole solution to our traffic mess. Why not discuss the real issues, including the cheaper and better HOT lane alternative?

The most enraging part of these commercials is their tag line: "Paid for by city taxpayers." How stupid does the mayor think we are, spending money confiscated from us to promote his legacy? How dare he. He has just lost all my respect.