Taxing mail order items
would be the last straw

I have had my fill of highly paid politicians trying to justify their pay and upcoming retirement perks. I see no reason for paying taxes on mail-order items when they are not produced here and local retailers do not have to warehouse them.

It would be understandable if there was some strain put on the local environment or some state resources were used in the delivery of these mail-order items. But just because a few other states are doing and getting away with it is no reason Hawaii state government should get onto the "gravy train."

As a fixed-income family, we are having a difficult time as it is without the extra unwarranted load imposed upon us by politicians.

With all of the state cost overruns and incompetent management in government, a real source of income would be for politicians to do some real soul searching, work smarter and pay attention to their departmental objectives.

A. Park
(Via the Internet)

It's not true that kids
are easily influenced

Keith Haugen (Letters, Nov. 6) needs to take a break from his computer and get out to see the real world where children make their own decision.

As a child, I knew I would never be the bigot my father and grandfathers were, nor would I beat my wife and children (which was the accepted practice).

Although my wife and I smoked and drank, our children were pre-schoolers when they decided that they would never smoke nor drink. They never have.

However, while neither my wife nor I used profanity to punctuate our sentences, our children thought it was "cool" and, like their peers, are unable to speak without it.

My children were always bright enough to know that an individual who smoked, drank or cursed, or was a different color, size, or religion, was still to be judged on individual merit.

I can't imagine a single "role model" I would want my children (now adults) to emulate. I am absolutely delighted my children are exactly who they are!

Rico Leffanta

Is one bureacracy
better than another?

Linda Lingle, the mayor of Maui and potential Republican candidate for governor, says the state could operate more efficiently if it stopped usurping city functions. Her proposition raises several questions.

Is one bureaucracy more efficient than another? For example, could and would the City and County of Honolulu operate Aloha Stadium cheaper and more efficiently than the s tate of Hawaii? Are quests for power and campaign contributions less prevalent at one political level than at another? Will taxes be lowered based on functional realignment?

I doubt if Lingle's proposals, if implemented, would affect the ordinary people of Hawaii. Homes will not become affordable, food and medical care will not become reasonably priced, and Oahu's commuters will continue to languish in massive traffic jams every day.

Yet, with Hawaii in a state of political and economic disarray, the Republicans have a golden opportunity to become a catalyst for change. Only time will tell whether they let their chance go by.

Bob Biggs

Meatless Fridays is
a humane concept

The Catholic Church is discussing the idea of going back to meatless Fridays as a way to encourage the worship of Christ's death and heighten awareness of a "culture of death" among humans. If we consider a culture of death from an animal's as well as a human's perspective, the church's proposal is right on target.

A "food" animal's life and death has become detached from the family farm and from most people's thinking. Kept in tightly regimented and often miserable conditions that maximize profits and growth rates, most "food" animals are denied any semblance of a normal, wholesome life.

They are then shipped off to slaughter. Most of us see only the sanitized, shrink-wrapped final product, not the appalling lives and violent deaths of the animals we eat.

One can ask why we should frivolously eat meat when it is a highly inefficient method of protein nutrition and when nutritious alternatives to meat meals abound, especially here in Hawaii.

Animal agriculture uses increasingly scarce water, grain crops, farmland and other natural resources at a time when human population continues to grow and our environment is facing increasingly severe stresses. Many fisheries are overfished and in severe decline. In some parts of the world, violent human conflicts arise when scarce natural resources are fought over by competing groups.

I would encourage Catholics (and others) to observe nonviolent, vegetarian meals and, while doing so, consider these points from a spiritual perspective.

Khal Spencer
(Via the Internet)

Symphony is worth it,
especially in tough times

October marked the beginning of the Honolulu Symphony concert season. From the first classical concert to the "Spooktacular" Halloween program, we reveled in the music of one of the best symphony orchestras and conductor west of the Mississippi.

Once again we could enjoy Elizabeth Crean's reviews in the Star-Bulletin. She not only recognizes the orchestra's quality but her reviews often give the non-musician interesting bits of music history.

We "regulars" invite others to pick up one of the 100 $5 tickets available on the day of each concert.

Join us and find out why, even in these tight economic times, tickets to the Honolulu Symphony remain a priority purchase.

Carol R. White
(Via the Internet)

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Bishop Estate Archive

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