Chinatown
NEIGHBORS SHOULD COOPERATE WITH HPD
To respond quickly to emergencies, a responding officer should not be delayed by jaywalkers, vehicles double-parked, blocked intersection or other violations that cause traffic tie-ups.
The people of Chinatown must understand and cooperate rather than complain about more enforcement.
If a police officer is present and a violation occurs he needs to respond. If not, others will either question their effectiveness or possibly commit a similar violation.
The people of Chinatown should avoid violations since each ticket takes an officer away from his other duties. Their increased presence means that officers in other districts or assignments may be asked to work overtime during this period of violence in Chinatown. Let us show our appreciation by cooperating.
Police officers are neighbors, relatives and friends, so why not cooperate and respect their badge by being in compliance with the law?
I appreciate their presence and the safe environment that they create in Chinatown after the recent incidents of violence.
Leonard Leong | Honolulu
COFFEE BREAK PAGE
NEW CROSSWORD PUZZLES BETTER
Please do not go back to the old crosswords — they were too easy at the beginning of the week. I wouldn't even bother with Mondays and Tuesdays, there was no challenge. The new ones are at least somewhat interesting and fun. There is already one easy crossword up top.
The object of these games is to work our brains, and there is a positive side to not finishing a difficult puzzle.
Simply do all you can, and wait for tomorrow's answers. Then you get that "aha!" moment and you may actually learn something in the process. I enjoy challenging myself with these new puzzles. They prevent cobwebs from forming in our heads! Thank you.
Jody Green | Waimanalo
CIVIL UNIONS
HISTORY WILL SHOW 'VICTORY' FLEETING
Despite our Senate's inability to pass a civil unions bill this session, there were a few senators who exhibited true courage and leadership in their efforts to bring equality to all Hawai'i residents.
Though the "Red Shirts" may be ecstatic at the moment, history and current trends will show the victory to be fleeting. Forgive the mixing of metaphors but the genie can't be put back into the closet. Take a look around and you'll see that courts and legislative bodies (and yes, even congregations) across our nation are now conceding that withholding equality from gays and lesbians is, indeed, tantamount to discrimination.
Fair-minded people in our Aloha State will not allow the continued delay of justice for its residents.
Years from now, children of the "Red Shirts" will be asking their parents how in the world they could have supported a cause that would marginalize loving, committed couples and deny them equal treatment under the law, regardless of their orientation.
Dean Calistro | Honolulu
'TOLERANCE' SEEKERS' SMEARS REVEAL GAP
Honolulu contributors DeWilton George and Andrew Thomas (Letters, May 10) offer instructive insights into the kind of people who seek to promote homosexual marriage under the euphemism "civil union." One contemptuously dismisses our state government's extended consideration of civil unions with a curt "the mob rules." The other summarizes the situation with equally revealing phrases:
Those seeking to fundamentally redefine marriage to include homosexuals remind me of a person with one foot in an untethered canoe, the other on the dock as the gap between the two widens. They seem to have convinced themselves that hate speech is the best way to achieve what they think of as "tolerance."
As the gap between the piety of their claims and the viciousness of their smear tactics widens, more and more ordinary folks who value traditional marriage recognize the humbug and are not likely to be intimidated by more of these childish, vituperative temper tantrums.
Thomas E. Stuart | Kapa'au, Hawai'i
BIKE-FRIENDLINESS
NEW KAPOLEI SITES DIDN'T SHOW ALOHA
Recently it being April, and Earth Day just being past, I decided to start riding my bike places. I live and work in Kapolei and that was the plan of the master planners, that Kapolei be bike friendly. So I rode my bike over to the new mall area with Target, Petco, Sports Authority whose parking lot stretches for about a mile, with the intention to go shopping.
I was basically escorted off the premises by fellow bikers in guard uniforms who said unless I was willing to walk my bike everywhere, I was not allowed on the premises as only they could ride their bikes in the parking lot. I was decidedly angry and told them I would no longer shop there unless they changed their attitudes.
I notice many of the mini malls springing up in Kapolei do not have bike racks. So I am not sure who monitors that, but I really think some changes need to be made, so in the meantime I will only shop at bike-friendly sites. We all should, and maybe one day those big-box stores will get the message about "Malama the Earth."
D. M. Westcot | Kapolei
MAN, LAND & SEA
MORE EMPHASIS ON REEF DEPTH, FISHING
In The Advertiser's latest feature on coral reefs, Rob Perez does a good job of reporting data but his analysis strains the statistics. Of course, some of Hawai'i's coral reefs are strained especially at sub-optimal shallow depths less than 10 feet deep.
Reef corals in Hawai'i grow best much deeper in offshore waters more like 30 to 60 feet deep. Yet, 12 out of 25 sites reported on in the Perez article are less than 10 feet deep! Even then, if all the data is averaged on a per-year basis, the yearly decline in coral reef cover is less than 1 percent per year, a number probably less than the error of measurement.
But, yes, Hawaiian coral reefs do have a huge problem, but that is decimated fish population due to over-fishing. Pollution and land runoff is only a problem in confined waters.
But, yes again, the state DLNR should be our coral reef stewards. They talk the talk, but lack the political will. Yes, let's create more permanent marine life conservation districts, and, yes, the state should ban gill nets outright and buy them back, and, yes, the state should enforce their fish and game laws. Yes, they should act, not just talk.
Richard (Rick) Grigg | Emeritus professor of oceanography, University of Hawai'i
