Sugar industry is ruining Maui's air

This is a message from an Earthling on Maui to everyone in the universe still breathing clean air: Help! We are choking to death on this tiny, fragile island. The smoke from hundreds of acres of sugar cane being burned some nights and every morning blots out the sky, the sun, the house next door. Every living creature is affected. Thick, black, toxic ash settles on us all.

The sugar industry is like a mafia that rose to power on the backs of low-paid immigrant field workers. It scares all islanders who protest this horrific method of burning.

The industry says people will lose their jobs. Well, guess what -- Many people will lose their jobs when they get too sick from breathing this poisonous, vile smoke.

We must publicly demand that Alexander & Baldwin and HC&S stop this now. Boycott sugar. Build websites with pictures of frightening-looking burn clouds that look like hydrogen bomb blasts. Show the travel and tourist world the truth. Demand government intervention.

Unite and don't stop or back off until it's stopped! Please help before (gasp, gasp) it's too late.

Joy Rappaport
Kihei, Maui

State needs mainland public safety director

We strongly urge Governor Cayetano to look outside the public safety department and the state for his new director of public safety. We seriously question whether there is a truly qualified candidate within the system.

Let's face it, prison management is not in control of our state's prisons:

Discipline is at an all-time low.

Prison staff continually abuse their sick-leave benefits.

Overtime costs are still staggering and costly to taxpayers.

All of this precludes using funds to rehabilitate and train prisoners to fit within society upon their release, which should be the primary purpose of prison.

A high percentage of inmates have substance-abuse problems, with drugs and alcohol freely exchanged behind bars.

We know that there will be strong sentiment in the House and Senate for the confirmation of an effective public safety director recruited from the mainland. We remind the governor that the only effective public safety director we have had recently, George Sumner, came from the mainland.

Sumner Howard
President
Government Efficiency Teams Inc.

Secret Service director tarnished his office

The gross arrogance and elitist attitude displayed by outgoing Secret Service Director Lewis Merletti, in his vain attempt to stonewall agents testifying in the Lewinsky investigation, was embarrassing for all current/past special agents who have upheld the letter of the law.

Merletti's politically motivated "Yes, sir" tap dancing was a disgusting display by a supposed professional, now duly awarded a position in the private sector.

Martin Halsey Grubb
Pearl City

Government shouldn't be the smoking police

Charles Memminger had it right in his Nov. 9 Honolulu Lite. His comments against a ban on smoking in bars were upfront and logical.

I've lived with a smoker for 45 years. I've never touched the weed myself and, through the goodness of the man upstairs, I don't have lung cancer.

Steve Holmes, I know. Like him, too, but I disagree with any suggestion that forces personal choice out of our lives.

People who don't want to work inside a smoker's paradise -- hey, don't ask for a job there. Those who don't like to eat or drink where smokers hang out -- again, stay the hell out.

Please, let private businesses run their own shops! Solution: A neat sign at the entrance of any business that says: "We Permit Smoking."

How much government interference do we need?

Ray Thiele
Kailua

Smokers shouldn't toss butts from cars

A recent altercation on H-1 was precipitated by the careless act of tossing a cigarette butt out of a moving vehicle. A motorcyclist was hit by the butt and shouted, "Watch your trash!"

Later, when traffic slowed from congestion, two of the van occupants left their vehicle to let the motorcyclist know they didn't appreciate being yelled at. They hit him in the face.

What's wrong with this picture? The proper place for cigarette butts is in an ash tray. It's wrong to litter, yet smokers toss butts with impunity.

When reasonable and responsible people are confronted with an infraction, they usually acknowledge accountability, not respond with blind rage.

Needless to say, a motorcyclist traveling in the wake of a moving vehicle is already at risk of injury. The motorcyclist hit with a flying butt, especially a lit one, is likely to experience burns or loss of control.

If smokers believe tossing a cigarette butt from their vehicles is not a problem, they should think again.

Sheri M. Gon
(Via the Internet)

State-funded campaigns are not a good idea

I just received a lengthy newsletter called "HI.CLEAN News" from a group named HI.CLEAN, which advocates campaign finance reform. I commend their efforts to clean up the election process, but not their ideas.

This group advocates taxpayer-funded campaigns and calls government-supplied funding "clean money." Does this mean that money voluntarily contributed to campaigns is dirty money? Not in my dictionary. Money taken by force through taxation and given to candidates that the individual taxpayer opposes is indeed dirty money.

Campaign spending reform is simple: Drastically reduce the power and money of big government and the special-interest funding will subside. Government funding of candidates is a bad idea.

Larry Bartley
Kailua
(Via the Internet)

Change should begin with Honolulu's dailies

Since everyone wants "change," maybe we should start with Honolulu's two daily newspapers. Isn't it about time we change those at the top who are running the papers?

Maybe then we can have a more unbiased, innovative, fresh approach to journalism. Who knows, you might even sell more newspapers!

Jill Au
Waipahu

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