Zipper Lane is waste of taxpayer money

They say that Ken Starr spent $40 million investigating the president, but I'd like to know how much money (I've heard the figure $25 million) was spent setting up the Prima Donna Lane or, as it is officially know, the Zipper Lane.

How much is it costing taxpayers to set up and maintain a private road for a special group of people who travel together three in a car? Who is the originator of this plan?

Now that we have established this lane for the elite, can we now provide new transportation options for all the people of Hawaii?

Build a rail system from Honolulu to Pearl City; from Pearl City to Waipahu; from Waipahu to Kapolei. Don't stop there. Keep adding to the system, rail by rail, in many phases and by priorities.

We don't need 100,000 more automobiles on this island. But that is what we will have in the near future, if we don't develop new transportation alternatives soon.

James M. Lee
Kapolei

Homosexuality is not beneficial to society

Traditional marriage supporters have been subjected in the media and often in person to verbal abuse. "Vote yes" supporters have been accused of hypocrisy, bigotry, hate, lies, deceit and mindlessness, indictments which lack substance and fairness.

The word "homophobia" -- defined in one popular unabridged dictionary as "unreasoned fear of antipathy toward homosexuals or homosexuality" -- is particularly egregious. Traditional marriage supporters I know don't express fear or feel any antipathy toward homosexuals. Many of us have friends, even close relatives, with homoerotic tendencies. We love and cherish these individuals.

Our primary concern is about homosexuality, particularly its behavioral aspects. Here again, the words "fear" or "antipathy" don't reflect our sentiments about it.

Rather, the feeling is one of disapproval of the behavior and unhappiness for its societal consequences, much the way many of us feel about gambling, euthanasia and illicit drug use.

Since the word "homophobia" is really a pseudo-psychological slur, and a term of attempted intimidation rather than enlightenment, may its use be replaced by an objective and fair appraisal of the consequences, for individuals and society, of homosexual behavior.

Phillip C. Smith

Increased union benefits have lowered productivity

In his Nov. 20 letter, William J. King wrote that we should be working toward the more liberal European standard in union benefits. In Germany, workers can be hired to a position one day; the next day, they can begin five and a half week vacations without employers having any recourse. Also, German workers can take up to six weeks of sick leave a year without monetary penalty or problem obtaining verification of the "illness."

Is it any wonder the productivity of German workers is well below the productivity of American workers? BMWs are now produced in North Carolina, and Mercedes automobiles are also produced outside of Germany.

Would moving already generous U.S. benefits closer to those of Europe be beneficial to our country? More specifically, would more liberal benefits help Hawaii improve its woeful financial climate? I think not.

Hawaii state workers already have benefits which include a yearly vacation of 21 days, 13 paid holidays, 21 days sick leave plus medical, dental, drug, vision, temporary disability and life insurance coverage, workers compensation, sabbatical leaves and excellent retirement benefits.

Charles Scott

Avoiding problems takes lot of effort and money

I loved Diane Chang's Nov. 30 column, "Can we stop avoiding the big problems." All of her examples were great:

The Honor Society barring pregnant teens from becoming members: Yeah, don't you wonder if the fathers of the hapai girls were excluded, too? Or if potential boy members are routinely asked, "Have you fathered any children?"

Crime in public parks: I remember how nice it was at night to be at the Pali Lookout, Kapiolani Park or walking on the sand at Waikiki. Now even when it's allowed, you don't feel safe anymore. The bad guys are winning.

And that Wayman Kaua: When are clowns like that going to start taking responsibility for their actions? Even his poor, sad wife made apologies for him. Shouldn't something be done to stop that kind of behavior instead of building another road? Talk about rewarding bad behavior. The road will probably be named Kaua Way.

Chang is so right in pointing out that we should be spending our resources, energies and taxes on the big problems like domestic violence, instead of worrying about same-sex partnerships that can result in stable relationships.

Tom Foster
Spring Valley, Calif.
(Via the Internet)

HMSA proposals would limit participation

In her Nov. 24 letter about the special HMSA meeting, Theresa E. Bueno wrote that those who opposed the board's agenda were obstructionists consisting of parliamentarians, doctors and lawyers. However, the items that were passed essentially gutted any membership input to the board.

Some of the agenda items were:

Raising the requirement of members needed for a special meeting from 100 to 1,800, thus making it almost impossible to call a special meeting by the membership.

Requiring that anything passed by the membership be approved by the board of directors before going into effect, which severely limits input of the membership.

Any future board candidates must be "pre-approved" by the board. Again, this limits input of the membership.

All of the above gives the board unchecked power to do as its members please. In the future, HMSA could sell out to a mainland for-profit company while giving each member of the board $1 million for their "troubles" (as has happened on the mainland), and the membership virtually would have no say in the deal. That's why some of us were against the proposals.

Walter Young

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