It's welfare freeloaders who don't want Kau prison
A lot of the blatant complainers lobbying against the new prison being constructed in Kau are really "ripping off" the system. The majority of these complainers are either on welfare, collecting unemploymment benefits or on some other public assistance program.The Kau prison project would really "cramp" their freeloading lifestyle. They would be forced to go to work and get off the gravy train.
I grew up on the Big Island and am familiar with the area. It would be interesting to check the employment status of all those who opposed this project.
Steven T.K. Burke
Pearl City
(Via the Internet)
Don't charge admission to climb Diamond Head
I was born and raised here in Honolulu. I just finished getting my master's on the mainland. I have waited 8-1/2 years to come home. I am finally back!Ever since my years in high school, I have been climbing Diamond Head every morning to see the sunrise. When I was at school on the mainland, I would go up Diamond Head during my summer months at home. Now what's the idea of charging people to go up Diamond Head?
Hawaii is so special because we have free parks and beaches. We have already started charging for Hanauma Bay. And now the idea for Diamond Head. What's next, our beaches? Come on! I pay my taxes, even throughout my 8-1/2 years on the mainland.
Please! My morning hike up Diamond Head is an extraordinary beginning to my day. It is important to many of us. Don't start charging kamaaina or even the tourists. They need free activities, too.
Put a concession stand in there to make money, but no admission fees! Please don't take our parks and beaches away from us!
Susan McCreary
(Via the Internet)
Ways that Hawaii can become like Singapore
Having lived in Singapore for the past seven years, and in Hawaii for 18 years prior to that, I read with interest A.A. Smyser's June 2 column. Every society operates by balancing tradeoffs. Thus, 3.2 million people living on an Oahu-sized island is possible if:1) The population predominately lives in high-rise communities. It would also help if these flats were government subsidized.
2) The island has no interior mountain ranges. This increases the livable and buildable land area.
3) Private automobiles are considered luxury items and are priced and taxed accordingly.
4) Mass transit (bus, taxi, rail) is available and reasonably priced.
5) There is close cooperation between public and private sectors to optimize the construction of facilities. For example, the Singapore SUNTEC Convention Centre was planned, designed and built in just over two years.
The Singapore model works because it was planned and developed. Compromise and tradeoffs are evident throughout. To put it another way, an Oahu with 3.2 million people may not be as livable as Singapore unless Hawaii adopts other, perhaps less palatable, changes.
Michael Fenton
Science Park, Singapore
(Via the Internet)
Heco is making mistake on Waahila Ridge
The issue of Waahila Ridge preservation is extremely important to everyone. However, those of us counting on a reliable power source oppose the project for another reason.In order for the public to fully support a more diversified economy, including high tech/biotech growth, our leaders and decision-makers must plan a power distribution system that will take us into the 21st century.
Extremely high winds can knock over 100-foot power poles. If we proceed as planned, we may eventually have to deal with replacement cost, down time and possibly injury.
Or, we can choose to make the long-term decisions that will cost more now.
Grant Wise
Hawaii Island Tech
(Via the Internet)
Double standard exists over saving environment
Scott B. Power (Letters, June 15) should visit Leeward Oahu -- especially west of Nuuanu Avenue. Hawaiian Electric Co. wasn't thinking of saving our beautiful vistas when it installed 100-foot-high power poles over our vigorous protests.So why should Heco save the natural beauty of Waahila?
The added expense of going underground will be borne by all Heco customers. Why the preferential treatment?
Ted Farm
Ewa Beach
Harris should have run for governor
By forcing Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris out of the race for governor, Democratic leaders are denying their party the opportunity to offer voters the leadership they desperately need. That's unfortunate, and here's why.A Harris candidacy would have signaled that the Democratic hierarchy understands the serious problems we face and the need for new ideas to solve them.
Instead, the party will offer the same Cayetano-Hirono ticket that has presided over a rapidly deteriorating economy and an educational system that is falling apart at the seams. If they were capable of solving these problems, they would have done so already.
What we need at this critical juncture is new leadership that can restore hope and optimism about the future. We won't get that by re-electing the current administration.
Marie Alvarenga
Hilo, Hawaii
Don't paint all gun owners as irresponsible scofflaws
I take offense at SueAnn Carter's June 18 letter, in which she blames John Latchum Jr.'s death on the gun used in this terrible incident.Agreed, one could argue that Latchum's death might never have occurred had there been stronger gun laws. But the gun is a piece of metal, an inanimate object. The gun does not have a mind of its own.
People have minds, the knowledge of right and wrong. People kill! The gun is merely an instrument of the person who possesses it.
Carter's letter insults the millions of responsible gun owners in this country who would never use their guns in the way the juveniles accused in the Latchum case did.
Jason Redulla
(Via the Internet)
Gun control has made Japan a terrible place
Ken Toyama (Letters, June 20) should be advised that 400 years of oppression in Japan began with a gun ban. Long ago, Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi tricked his peasant veterans into donating their muskets to make an iron statue of the Buddha. James Clavell describes this in "Shogun."Then, in 1558, Toyotomi decreed the confiscation of "any swords, bows, spears, firearms, or other types of arms. The possession of these elements makes difficult the colletion of taxes and dues, and tends to permit uprising."
After that came taxes that were so high daughters were often sold into slavery to pay them. The "Oshin" TV series was about such a little girl.
Should only police and soldiers be armed? Local journalist Arnold Hiura wrote that on, Aug. 1, 1938, Hilo police shot and wounded more than 50 unarmed union protestors at Hilo pier (Hawaii Herald, May 18, 1990). No one could stop the Japanese warlords from attacking America, and President Roosevelt ordered the internment of Japanese in Hawaii, too. So whom can you trust?
Japanese gun control has led to war, civil-rights violations, poverty and famine for centuries. It's a loser.
Gordon Kitsuwa
Rotary sets up fund for the Latchum family
The Waianae Coast Rotary Club had received more than $6,500 in donations to its "Latchum Family Fund" as of June 19. Approximately one-third of the donations are from Waianae Coast businesses and community members, even though the Waianae Coast population is less than 10 percent of our island. We are overwhelmed by the generous response.In July, our local West Coast Chronicle newspaper will run a special request for donations from the Waianae community. An escrow account has been set up at the Bank of Hawaii in Waianae. All money will be forwarded to Wendy Latchum and her family through the appropriate military chain of command on or before Aug. 1.
If you would like to donate, please mail your check to the Waianae Coast Rotary Club Latchum Family Fund, c/o Waianae Coast Rotary Club, P.O. Box 651, Waianae, HI 96792. Chairpersons are Scott Kurosawa and Hans Kok.
Anson Rego
President
Waianae Coast Rotary Club
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