CONCEPT DEMEANS OUR DEFENDERS

In response to Ms. Kidani's commentary (June 2) on Islam Day, her arguments are hogwash. It smacks of intimidation referring to detractors as small-minded and lacking aloha spirit.

I have spent a lifetime fighting for and defending women's rights and women's place as first-class citizens. Islam has explicitly given men rights that are denied women. If the day was limited to Hawai'i Muslims, that's one thing, but to extend it to the whole gamut of Islamism as practiced worldwide is demeaning to all who fight for our way of life.

Has Ms. Kidani seen the videos of Muslims demonstrating in downtown Fort Lauderdale, Fla.? Their hate-filled voices and faces called for death to infidels. It was a threatening and fearful march.

Comparing the day to nonreligious days such as Kupuna Recognition Day is stretching one's imagination. How can she think having a Patriot Day, memorializing thousands of innocent victims, balances Islam Day? I ask you, is it an equal counterpoint?

Through all of this debate, I wonder what is really behind this push for Islam Day and why the big defense. Is this some kind of political brownie points?

Ron and Jean Morrison | Honolulu

BELLOWS

3 WAYS TO IMPROVE CAMPING, SECURITY

Three things would improve camping and security at Bellows.

1. No parking makai of the road. Campers should be able to drive to their sites to unload and then park away from the beach. Today, the experience is like camping in a parking lot. Vehicles everywhere make unpleasant activities easier.

2. Spread public camping toward Kailua. While campers are jammed into the Waimanalo end of the beach, there are long stretches (still outside the secure military area) relatively unused.

3. No entry or exit (except emergencies) to the public beach area from one hour before sunset to sunrise. Those with military IDs would be allowed. The tone would be better if trouble-makers knew they could not come and go as they please.

Bellows is used and loved by thousands of local people, mostly there for fun. Let's make the experience more pleasant and "rustic" than today. Security would improve.

Peter Rosegg | Nu'uanu

UH PRESIDENT

SEARCH COMMITTEE JUST DOESN'T GET IT

Thank you to Mark Platte (May 24) for articulating the anger, incredulity and resignation of Hawai'i citizens over the abysmal mess the search committee for a new UH president has left us in.

The two choices they have presented us with are tame, uninspiring specimens — completely devoid of any understanding of Hawai'i Nei and the unique obligations and responsibilities of the state's flagship academic institution. Has the committee no sense of history? Have they completely failed to read the local rising consciousness of sustainability — intellectually as well as environmentally? Have we fared well with imported ingenues who require educating, sensitizing and tutoring? Has the committee a methodology to explain the social contract that obliges the university president to interface with our diverse entities: the Legislature, students, faculty and staff of a multiracial, complex academic system scattered across these Islands?

Only a savvy and tough local talent can begin to tackle these challenges. The cryptic cover story the committee offered the public, "one local finalist opted out," lacks transparency and honesty.

The committee doesn't get it that the University of Hawai'i needs creative, talented local leadership to guide it successfully through a difficult future.

Nancie Caraway | Manoa