APPALLING EFFECTS OF AGENTS OF OBSTRUCTION

Referencing a March 17 Honolulu Advertiser extract from "Ruling shuts down Superferry:"

"The court ruled that the law that allowed Superferry to operate during an environmental review is improper because it is a special law created just for Superferry."

While I have no personal interest in the Superferry, I am appalled regarding the agents of obstruction (the Sierra Club especially), and their effects on one element of needed transportation in our state. Even a child should understand that the law allowing the Superferry to continue to operate during an ongoing EIS is a law that has already benefited a quarter million local and visiting passengers.

Yet a court does not. Auwe! Has the concept of "reason" died completely, the victim of legalistic and self-serving parasites?

I will request and support whatever governmental efforts might be taken by sensible people to allow the Superferry to continue and expand its operations indefinitely until rationality might suggest otherwise.

WE DESERVE THIS GREAT TRANSPORTATION OPTION

There is no other way to describe the horrible decision of our Supreme Court to declare the law to allow the Hawaii Superferry to sail unconstitutional.

The three trips that my wife, dog and myself have taken to Maui have been the most pleasurable trips I have ever taken! It has allowed me to connect with friends and family on Maui that I would not do without this great mode of transportation.

Using the ocean around us connects us on such a personal basis. Ancient Hawaiians traveled by sea, not air.

The Superferry has done more to educate passengers about our responsibility to the ocean and its inhabitants than any other mode of transportation.

Eliminating this business and its jobs is embarrassing in the tone we are sending the business community in tough times. Local businesses like Love's Bakery and others deliver fresh goods to outer islands. Try to go to Maui with your dog and family on a local airline, rent a car, etc. Then go on the Superferry. There is no comparison. We all need different modes of transportation interisland, to meet our business needs as well as pleasure and deserve the Superferry option.

STATE, COMPANY SHARE BLAME IN POTENTIAL LOSS

Hawai'i's interisland passenger and cargo transit is now doomed to monopolies.

Hawai'i state government and the Hawaii Superferry share in the blame for not doing things by the book, instead attempting an end-around.

The consequence may be the loss of a truly exceptional environmental and economically competitive method of interisland transit. Furthermore, the impact will be at least a couple thousand jobs, many of which blossomed from this form of cargo and passenger transport.

BUNGLING OF PROJECT AT EVERY LEVEL IS AMAZING

It is amazing that, for a state that badly needs the Superferry, the project has been bungled at every level from the start.

The court killed it because they say it was a law specifically for the Superferry. Seems to me that some kind of prohibition was passed specifically to prevent the ship from entering Maui. Was that unconstitutional also?

SIERRA CLUB

PUSH TO FINE NAVY, THUS TAXPAYERS, IS LUDICROUS

I sat amazed while watching the news from O'ahu on Friday the 13th. Has (Sierra Club of Hawai'i) director Robert Harris taken leave of his senses?

The majority will agree that the U.S. Navy should be financially responsible for repair of the damage done by the grounding of the USS Port Royal.

Mr. Harris reportedly advocates that the state of Hawai'i assess a punitive fine against the U.S. Navy. He is further quoted as saying, "we should go after them." Has Mr. Harris forgotten that the U.S. Navy is a branch of the United States government? And the United States government has only one source of income with which to pay such fines — the taxpayer! Does he really believe that the U.S. taxpayers should be fined for the damage to the reef?

It is bad enough that the taxpayers will be required to pay to repair the damage but to advocate adding an additional burden on the taxpayers through a fine is ludicrous! It is clear proof that society continues to suffer from "do gooders" gone wild!

STATE FURLOUGH

WHAT ABOUT GOVERNOR CONTRIBUTING HER SHARE?

I am a state employee and a member of HGEA. I am not wealthy, I don't have a satellite dish or a 52-inch plasma screen TV. I don't drive a brand new SUV with a custom stereo system or chrome rims. I don't even own my own home. What I have is a wife and three daughters who depend on me to provide them with food, clothing and shelter in the form of a house we rent in Waikoloa.

My eldest daughter goes to public school and we can't afford to send our middle child to daycare or preschool. My wife works her butt off every night in a restaurant to help make ends meet. I don't get overtime, and I no longer get mileage covered due to budget cuts. My office does not have a secretary, so I have to do my own paperwork, which cuts into my regular duties as a probation officer.

I don't have any "toys," and I pay the same income and sales tax as everybody else. So I find it hard to take it seriously when I hear Ms. Lingle tell me that I have to do "my share" to help the state's economy by taking a non-paid furlough once a month or take a salary cut when she lives in a mansion provided by my taxes, rides around in a car provided by my taxes, eats food bought with my taxes, takes trips to the Mainland and other countries paid for with my taxes and makes a six-figure income provided with — you guessed it, my taxes!

Tell me, Gov. Lingle, when will you do your part to help the state's economy?