Vegas numbers don't prove cause of ills

A Dec. 16 letter to the editor by Jerome Manis on the issue of gambling was unconvincing. According to Manis, because of legalized gambling Nevada has high rates of abortion, rape, out-of-wedlock birth and crime and low rates of voter participation. Yet Manis didn't explain how legalized gambling has contributed to abortions, rape and low voter participation.

It seems like some people want to throw around numbers to scare people from supporting legalized gambling. This might be enough to scare some people, but it won't convince those who spend the time to analyze what they read.

Pablo Wegesend
Kalihi

Redo Honolulu airport to make wait enjoyable

I've traveled a number of times since September and must commend state officials for adopting new measures to address safety and security concerns. The airport experience has changed significantly, but travelers and employees alike seem to have adapted well. Here's an idea to make visits to the airport more enjoyable:

New procedures require passengers to arrive at the airport earlier and prohibit people without tickets to pass the security checkpoints.

The airport should be reconfigured to move checkpoints closer to gates, so travelers and their friends and families can patronize the shops and restaurants now available only to ticketed passengers. Vendors should enhance their products to encourage early check-in, resulting in people spending more time at the airport.

It works in Japan, where Osaka's Kansai Airport offers a wide selection of restaurants and shops. A three-hour wait at Kansai is actually an enjoyable experience.

In Honolulu, it may require an investment of planning time and construction dollars but it would be money well spent. Our state profits from airport concession revenue. New security procedures have reduced the number of potential customers.

Developing a mini "entertainment center" at Honolulu International Airport would be good for travelers and would fortify an important source of revenue for the State.

Jon Yoshimura
(Editor's note: The letter writer is not the city councilman with the same name.)

[Quotables] "We'll be seeing things for the first time that you've never seen. This is really big stuff to a scientist." Tom McCord University of Hawaii astronomer, who will participate in the Dawn Mission to study Ceres and Vesta, the largest asteroids in the solar system. McCord, who will be the only Hawaii participant in the project led by the University of California-Los Angeles, says the asteroids are actually the two smallest planets in the system, and scientists hope to study them to learn about how planets evolve.> "I have often wondered if people could indeed die by fright and, if so, how this could be investigated quantitatively." David Phillips University of California-San Diego sociologist, who has studied the links between stress and death, commenting on research that found deaths caused by heart atacks among U.S. residents of Chinese and Japanese descent tend to spike on the fourth of the month. A Chinese superstition links the number four to death.

Teacher bonuses are for work already done

It would appear that the suggestions to "cut perks" to ease the impact on Department of Education budget cuts ("Who will suffer from DOE budget cuts?" Star-Bulletin, Dec. 17) is based, in part, on misunderstanding. The subject bonuses are intended for teachers who were teaching during the period when there was no contract, for some three to four years.

I cannot totally disagree with the author's proposal as it pertains to certified teachers with advance degrees who were not classroom teachers during that time. I do believe, however, that it would be unfair to withhold the one-time bonus (paid over one or two years) from teachers who taught during that time and have recently moved on to non-classroom jobs within the DOE. We must remember that the bonus is not an ongoing type of premium pay. It is for services already rendered.

Bernard Judson
Kapolei

TRAFFIC CAMERAS EXPOSE DRIVERS' FURY
Citizens should defy the state on cameras

It is obvious that our state's leaders do not care about our rights or how we feel about the traffic cameras, only about how the cameras will benefit them.

My solution is for citizens to fight back and throw away the citations they receive, claiming they never got them, thereby forcing certified mail and the costs that will bring. Without a police officer handing us a ticket after viewing our licenses and establishing our identity, how can the state prove it was a particular citizen at the wheel? I could say I loaned my car to someone and that person could deny it, leaving the state to prove somehow who was really behind the wheel.

If we challenge all citations and raise a big enough stink we can force our leaders to do what we put them in power to do. That is what we want, not what they think is best for us.

Joseph Bussen

Police are winners in traffic camera dispute

The real winners of the traffic camera fiasco will be the Honolulu Police Department.

After disgruntled voters boot out the legislators who voted for the "Robocobs" and kill the program, we'll be grateful to have officers parked by the roadways using good judgment about which drivers threaten public safety.

Heck, we might even be nice to them if they pull us over.

Jim Henshaw

Ticket slow drivers as well as speeders

I hope that the traffic camera ticketing goes both ways. Those who drive under the posted speed limit also are breaking the law.

Jon Fujiwara

Police, not cameras, should catch speeders

What is this with all the cameras around town taking photos of speeders and traffic violaters? What we don't need is Big Brother watching us and making money at the same time.

The problem is the police officers. Many times I see police officers driving along in their vehicles and when speeders go by they don't do anything.

The problem is that police officers are not doing their job. I realize that the police can't catch every violator, but they should at least issue tickets in the incidents that happen right in front of them.

To make Hawaii a safer place, everyone must obey the laws and the police officers should enforce them.

Alan Kim

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