A Christmas past
and present

On Christmas Day in 1972, in a darkened pre-dawn launch, two F-4 Phantoms were catapulted from the deck of an aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Because it was Christmas, hostilities were suspended and little else was airborne in Vietnam that day.

Christmas has that effect on war and peace. The mission was that of a sentry, meant to vigilantly guard the fleet on that peaceful morning.

As we circled east of Haiphong Harbor, 20,000 feet above, I remember looking out and into the sun as it rose over Hainan. I became detached momentarily from what I was doing as the warmth of Christmas morning overtook the indifferent coldness of war.

It was an intense and provocative experience knowing that we were the only combatants airborne, maintaining peace for a day in the middle of a war.

It was a feeling of loneliness that I will never forget. It is also an experience I wish that others would never have to repeat.

The USS Enterprise, the carrier from which we were launched, was originally scheduled to be in Hong Kong for Christmas, but we were hastily ordered back to sea. Why we went back to the Gulf of Tonkin and what we later did altered history.

From the day we arrived back on Yankee Station in mid-December and, in the weeks that followed, the combined armed forces of the United States gave the North Vietnamese a reason to end the Vietnam War.

The USS Enterprise's crew participated in the most intense air war in history. The operation was code-named Linebacker II. A month later hostility ceased in Vietnam and shortly thereafter, the prisoners of war, some of whom I am honored to have as friends, were released.

Today that same ship, the USS Enterprise, which I catapulted from 26 years earlier sits off the coast of Iraq in the Persian Gulf.

On Christmas morning a small number of fighter pilots will take off on a similar mission, to guard their fleets, their bases and their country from potential enemy aggression.

I simply ask that you take a brief moment to give thanks to the members of the armed forces who are on sentry duty around the world sacrificing their Christmas so that you may have peace on yours.

Mele Kalikimaka.

W.R. Lech
Kailua

Don't raise property taxes; cut more city expenses

Mayor Harris faces a deficit in the coming year. It would be prudent to reduce spending, but instead he wants to increase property taxes. Why doesn't Harris reduce services, stop building housing and forget about such silly projects as restoration of the Natatorium?

A big part of the city budget goes for interest payments on the debt that has been incurred mainly through construction projects, many of which were unprofitable or wasteful.

Harris and the City Council should cut expenditures before raising taxes as any prudent businessman would do.

Klaus Wyrtki
(Via the Internet)

UH needs more support beyond football team

As much as I love sports and the sense of community that sports teams often provide their fans, I cannot believe the attention being lavished on the University of Hawaii football team and its new coach. It goes beyond reason.

Several local businesses, including the phone company, will be paying part of June Jones' salary. Businessman Alec Waterhouse says, "No matter how much it costs, we're going to redo the [practice] field...so the boys don't get hurt."

I have taught at the university for eight years. During at least two of those years, the library bought no new books. One of our visiting writers in the English department next year will not be coming because of the budget cuts.

The building I work in desperately needs air conditioning. My students can't get into many of the classes they want (or need) because there aren't enough sections offered. And each day, as I leave the parking structure, I pass the women's softball field with its too-high stands, which someone promised to fix ages ago.

Where are the "local boosters" to fix these problems, no matter how much they cost? Let's use the considerable positive energies generated by the change of a football coach as a model for revitalizing the whole university. There truly could be a lot to cheer about.

Susan M. Webster Schultz
Kaneohe
(Via the Internet)

Hawaii delegation should be ashamed

Hawaii's representatives in Congress, Neil Abercrombie and Patsy Mink, have disgraced themselves and the people of Hawaii. Their "nay" votes on all four articles of impeachment demonstrate a very serious lack of respect for the truth, the rule of law and the most sacred document in the land -- the U.S. Constitution.

Shame on both of them for blindly following other Democrats who continue to protect a president who is also a Democrat -- no matter what his behavior -- no matter what his crimes! This, my friends, is nothing short of cowardice.

What this president really needs is tough love. He must be made accountable for his horrible behavior and his utter disrespect for the truth and the laws of this nation.

Without severe consequences for his actions, the example he has already set will become the one that future leaders, parents, teachers, ministers, generals, business people and children will be measured against.

Do we really deserve a future like that?

C.T. Marshall
Kailua
(Via the Internet)

Republicans may come to regret their zealotry

I registered to vote as a Democrat 30 years ago only because my Dad was a Democrat. My mom was a Republican. There did not seem to be much difference to me between the parties then or later. Throughout the years, I never voted merely for the party line -- until now.

Of course, the Republicans signify the hard-working and conservative while the Democrats seem to be represented by the caring, liberal elements of society. But the moderates in each group always seemed to be in control and seemed to be the same to me, interchangeable, throughout the years.

And this is good. In societies that are polarized by powerful extremist parties there is most often tragic instability.

But today, I am so glad that I am not a Republican. I would be so embarrassed. Don't they realize what their partisan impeachment vote is costing this country? And to gain them what?

I am sure they are going down in the history books as being crybaby morons.

If the incumbent Republicans do not lose in their next primary elections, I'm sure many of them will lose to their Democratic opponents in the next elections just because they were part of this impeachment fiasco.

I am so glad I am a Democrat.

Patrick L. Balvin
(Via the Internet)

Commuters don't know how to merge lanes

I commute from Kahala to downtown Honolulu every weekday morning, and often find myself stopped on a green light at the last signal on Waialae Avenue heading ewa because the traffic is backed up from the freeway on-ramp on Waialae Avenue.

The reason for this is because the majority of drivers do not know how to properly merge into traffic. They stop at the point where the two lanes first meet instead of driving to the very end where the two lanes become one.

I would appreciate it if this information would be made widely available to the general public. Maybe it will help alleviate some of the traffic problems.

Kenneth Kam
(Via the Internet)

Goeggel made valid points about not eating meat

In the Dec. 5 Star-Bulletin there was yet another letter from a "meat eater" attacking Cathy Goeggel's Nov. 25 letter.

For those interested in looking, compare a human's dentition with that of a true carnivore (such as a cat) and a herbivore. Humans have small canine teeth but very well-developed molars. Human teeth look more like herbivore teeth than classic carnivore teeth. Ever figure out why we need steak knives? Go figure.

For those who enjoy meat, see how it is processed. Spend a day in a stockyard, then in a slaughterhouse, and discover how animals are commercially turned into food.

Buy a gun, take hunter safety, and go kill your own food. Read and find out how much water and grain are used up in the food chain when you obtain your protein from animal sources alone. Educate yourself.

If you still want to eat meat, be my guest. It's a free country. But don't dump on Cathy; she simply reported the facts.

Khal Spencer
(Via the Internet)

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