Read our lips: Nobody
had better raise taxes!

In your March 12 article, "Dismal options for lawmakers," Rep. Calvin Say related a possible solution to the budget crisis: another tax increase. He, Speaker Joe Souki and other legislators pondering a tax increase need a reality check.

Lawmakers have taken enough from the pocketbooks of Hawaii's residents and businesses. Residents and businesses are leaving the state because they can't make ends meet. By raising taxes, more will be driven away.

Face the facts: Hawaii is broke and lawmakers are responsible for it. Government is too big. Welfare roles are too big. And there continues to be millions of dollars, as reported constantly by the media, of government waste.

Cut the size of government. Or maybe come November the taxpayers of Hawaii will make some cuts of their own!

Scott Slagle
Kailua
(Via the Internet)

Hawaii is a better place
after the overthrow

I am sure that J.J. Kaufmann (Letters, March 10) will dismiss this as just another piece of drivel written by one of his so-called "haole interlopers," but he should review his facts before launching into more "anti-haole" racist rhetoric. King Kamehameha I ruthlessly conquered and butchered those who opposed him, in his quest to "unify" the islands.

Did the overthrow of the monarchy match the pain and suffering imposed on the sovereign people of Oahu at the hands of Kamehameha on the Pali's cliffs? Did the overthrow match the underhandedness of Kamehameha when, after two failed attempts to invade Kauai, he kidnapped the sovereign king of Kauai and refused to allow him to return to his home until he pledged allegiance?

One thing can be said of the overthrow. It brought forth a system of government in which all residents of these islands are represented, not just the ruling alii.

The U.S. has not always done the right thing, but there is no country in the world today that enjoys more freedom and more opportunity.

William H. Thomas

Clean up Legislature
like the Ala Wai Canal

Three cheers for Diane Chang's March 10 column criticizing our Legislature's reticence to end the high-three feasting trough ("Stop the high fives over the high three"). As our esteemed representatives wish to dodge this hot-button issue for yet another session, I suggest a modest proposal.

At a recent Ala Wai Canal clean-up think-tank, we discussed many options for cleaning the canal. One proposal uses a giant sea-water flushing mechanism, which will purge the stagnant, smelly water out of the canal and keep it fresh with a constant new supply of clean water.

Do you suppose we can install one of these giant flushing mechanisms at the state Legislature?

Khal Spencer
(Via the Internet)

Gays are forcing agenda
on rest of the community

The people of Hawaii must protect the institution of marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman by voting on a constitutional amendment preserving Hawaii's core family unit and values.

The approval of same-sex marriage or any form of domestic partnership sends a strong message to our children that, as a family unit, we endorse the act of homosexuality.

This is not a civil-rights issue. Homosexuality is an individual lifestyle choice. Same-sex marriage is the encroachment of the homosexual agenda on an unsuspecting and compassionate heterosexual community.

James Kuroiwa Jr.

Discrimination is same
no matter who the target

I am struck by the similarity of arguments in letters to the editor against giving gay people the rights of marriage and the arguments put forth against interracial marriage.

I was racially intermarried in Oregon in the early '50s, and if we had wanted to marry a year earlier, the Oregon law would not have allowed it.

If 70 percent of the people in Hawaii are against gay marriage, that's certainly a smaller percentage than was against interracial marriage in the Western states when I was young .

Are we going backward or forward in our quest for civil rights for all?

Joyce Nunokawa
(Via the Internet)

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Same-sex archive