Recycling is becoming
too much like religion

Recycling, though sometimes beneficial, all too often wastes resources. Recycling programs usually lose money, while landfills offer a safe and cheap alternative to recycling.

Are we seeking atonement from the material excesses of a consumer society when we recycle needlessly? I respect the rights of people to do just that, but should the government dragoon skeptics into the same wasteful ceremonies?

Now the federal government is considering even more ambitious recycling laws and programs.

The First Amendment to our constitution clearly prohibits Congress from "making any law respecting an establishment of religion."

I submit that recycling is becoming a religion and that Congress is wrongfully working toward its establishment.

Quentin M. McKenna
Waimanalo

Media should get kudos
for spotlighting good kids

It is gratifying when the media attends to the positive, reflective aspects of our youth. I liked the Star-Bulletin's Oct. 21 article on the Sacred Heart students sharing their views on gender differences. These forward-thinking young women spoke of their future goals with a sense of empowerment.

And then there was the interview on KCCN of a young man, Justin, who apparently has released a CD. Justin quietly stated that he loves music, that he attends the University of Hawaii and that he is devoted to his family.

Hooray for these young students who respond to life with character.

M.S. Shin

Queen Emma tenants
were forced out by greed

In the early 1990s, I was elected chairman of the Queen Emma Gardens Tenants Association. A clear majority of tenants vehemently opposed the conversion of the reasonably priced rental units to condominiums.

This opposition was based on surveys which left no doubt that a large number of tenants would be unable to afford buying their units.

We lobbied the Legislature several years running. We wrote letters and met with representatives of Bank of Hawaii, parent company of Hawaiian Trust Co., acting as property manager, and the Hawaii Community Foundation, beneficiary of the trust. We even staged protest marches and picketing.

Representatives of the trust company promised us that there were "no plans to sell the property" to allow the conversions to condominiums. Never has the saying "actions speak louder than words" proven more correct.

Rents were dramatically increased to a level where a sizable number of elderly tenants on fixed incomes moved to cheaper, less desirable places and, in a lot of cases, into public housing.

Shame on these management people for the misery they caused. They forced out the elderly and poor, giving them up as sacrificial lambs to that inhumane and worshiped bottom line.

Reinhard Mohr

Hanauma Bay draws
trash like a magnet

In response to the Oct. 13 letter by Christine Bigelow, "Hanauma is becoming a great big ashtray," smoking on the Hanauma beach area has been prohibited since 1993. However, there are always a few persons desperate enough to smoke, although very few based on the monitoring done by the docents of the Hanauma Bay Educational Program.

May I point out, however, a phenomenon that occurs in Hanauma: Two arms of the bay are efficient in picking up trash washing into the ocean from all over Oahu, either from a heavy rain or a stream cleanout.

The city periodically flushes a stream in, say, Kailua and the trash ends up in Hanauma Bay, initially at the ewa end. With the tide changes and high surf in the bay, the trash is distributed along the shoreline at the high tide point.

The trash, which is usually loaded with blue and white paper and plastic from food containers, also contains hundreds of cigarette filters/butts, that float too well.

I can make these statements because it is my personal goal this year to clean up the far ewa end of the bay and to keep it clean. Thus, I normally spend at least an hour every Thursday after my docent time to pick up trash there.

Bigelow and anyone else could be part of the solution if they are willing to spend a few hours on Sunday or Monday to pick up the ewa end trash to balance off my Thursday efforts.

They can also assist the Friends of Hanauma Bay in quarterly clean-ups that cover all parts of the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve up to the highway.

Roy J. Gritter
Hanauma Bay Volunteer

The difference between
Democrat and Republican

Two generations ago, the people of Hawaii threw out the oligarchal Republicans and elected the populist Democrats. They were tired of the tyranny and neglect of the common man in favor of the monied elite.

Today, oddly enough, the roles are reversed: The Democrats are the oligarchy with a strong assist from the unions, and the Republicans respond to the needs of the common person.

The Republicans want to lower taxes on working individuals, reduce government spending, make government more efficient and return power to the people. And the Democrats -- well, all they do is tax more, regulate more, and hope that more people will become reliant on the state for their needs.

Republicans want a thriving, competitive economy in which job growth is strong, consistent and widespread. The Democrats would love nothing more than to have another generation of mouths to feed and lives to control.

We here in Hawaii simply cannot afford to have spineless leadership whose best ideas are dimly lit and that's even if they have any ideas. We certainly can't afford to continue to believe that either party is the same as it was two generations ago.

Lamar Evans
Kaneohe

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Bishop Estate Archive

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