Central Oahu needs public swimming pool

The aquatic center proposed by the city in Central Oahu is needed because there is no 50-meter pool from Salt Lake to Kaneohe. Do you think this is fair to the community in the Central Oahu district?

We also need a great facility to attract big swimming meets like we use to have in the 1940s and '50s. Imagine having Olympic trials for swim

ming on Oahu -- a dream that can come true if we build the best facility. People from all over want an excuse to come here, so help us out. We need the support of our City Council to build this facility.

Ken Suenaga

Park funding will keep families having fun

I'm asking that the Honolulu City Council support the completion of the Central Oahu Regional Park Tennis Complex by not cutting its funding in this budget cycle.

I like the city spending money on something I can use and take my children to for relaxation. I know projects like wastewater treatment plants, police stations, fire equipment and the like capture a huge share of our budget. I also know how important it is to take my kids out and play tennis or fly a kite or play basketball -- so many things we can do at the park. That's what is really important to me. I like feeling that my taxes are providing opportunities for family fun.

Our parks languished for years -- no water, no new trees and poorly maintained rest-rooms. Now we see green grass, flourishing trees for shade and restrooms that don't look like the slums of Calcutta. Hats off to Mayor Harris, Parks Department director Bill Balfour and the City Council for what's been done so far. Just don't stop now.

The support of each City Council member is paramount for continued building and maintenance of recreation facilities on Oahu. In these times of economic and political turmoil, access and usability of our parks can't become a victim to short-sighted thinking. Help us off the car-choked roads and into parks where we can play as families.

Please, Council members, look into your hearts and find the political courage to support the long-term benefits that city parks bring to each of us.

Hub Grosswendt
Kailua

Governor should veto cultural center item

The $8 million in the new state budget allocated to purchase the land under the Japanese Cultural Center in Moiliili is another example of the arrogance of a political party too long in power.

The cultural center, once a nonprofit center, now becomes a for-profit center. Is it now taxable? By what political reasoning does the state Legislature use taxpayer money to bail out a non-taxable organization? Can any other "non-taxable organization" that finds itself in financial difficulty now demand being assisted with taxpayer funds at the bequest of a state lawmaker? This is an area into which state government should not venture.

I ask Governor Cayetano to veto this particular item as being inconsistent with the historical balance between government's requirement of fiscal responsibility on behalf of the citizenry and its separation from nonprofit enterprises due to the specifics of such enterprises.

Richard John Guillory

Words by which to run state government

A dictionary of legislative terminology in Hawaii:

>> Excessive profits -- any money left after paying taxes;

>> Consumer protection -- enacting regulations to prohibit excessive profits;

>> Tax cut -- protecting consumers so effectively that excessive profits vanish, reducing corporate taxes;

>> Business as usual -- protecting consumers so diligently that businesses still in business become unusual (see: vigorous economy);

>> Entitlement -- paying unemployment and other benefits to ex-employees created by the vigorous economy caused by the tax cuts;

>> Spending cut -- increasing state spending more slowly than anticipated last year;

>> Vacant positions -- getting money from the Legislature for state employees you won't hire;

>> Staff cuts -- not hiring as many new state employees as you anticipated last year so you can create vacant positions;

>> Fiscal prudence -- a mixture of staff cuts, spending cuts and tax cuts;

>> Unintended consequences -- the clearly foreseeable outcome of fiscally prudent measures.

Jim Henshaw

Carbon dioxide test endangers Hawaii

I am concerned about a research experiment that is soon to be held off the coast of Kauai.

Sponsors of this experiment, called the "Ocean Sequestration of CO2 Field Experiment," plan to build a 3,600-foot-long tube that will discharge a large plume of carbon dioxide into the seabed to test the effects of this toxic greenhouse gas. It is part of a larger plan to find an ocean dumping ground for this waste.

An inadequate environmental assessment plan was prepared for this experiment when it was originally scheduled for the Big Island, but the public there was able to say no to the experiment.

It has now quietly been relocated to Kauai, but with no plans for another assessment for the new location. The Environmental Protection Agency should require a full environmental impact study done for this location, along with public hearings, before this experiment is allowed to take place.

We must not allow our beautiful state to become a guinea pig for our nation's industrial wastes.

Ivona Xiezopolski

HPD makes excuses in cell-phone debate

I read the May 17 Star-Bulletin editorial, "Police can enforce cell-phone ban," and thought to myself that Hawaii is again behind the times. The Honolulu Police Department's claim that it would be difficult to enforce such a ban is ludicrous. It's not like they're being asked to check for potatoes in tailpipes on the H-1. It seems to me that it's more of an attitude of reluctance than task difficulty.

The City Council and our legislators need to follow other major metropolitan cities and enforce a cell-phone ban to ensure public safety. HPD should advocate such a ban, too. Do we really need to have an epidemic of cell-phone related accidents for everybody to rally around this sensible proposal? I don't want to read about traffic cops, children and pedestrians being run over by irresponsible citizen-idiots with lethal cell phones.

And while I'm on a rant, I propose that if HPD can't handle enforcing cell-phone bans as effectively as it touts its seat-belt campaign, Hawaii should be the first state to implement a van-cam cell-phone ban!

Charles LeRoy

It should be illegal for teens to smoke

Why not make a law that prohibits teenagers from smoking? Although it was nice to read the article on May 17 that reports teenage smoking decreased in recent years, many teenagers -- 28.5 percent in the United States -- still smoke. We all know that it is harmful to our health, especially for teenagers who are in growing processes.

Trying to reduce the number of teenage smokers by raising taxes on cigarettes is a narrow view. The government knows smoking is unhealthy, so the most efficient way is to prohibit teenagers from smoking altogether. For example, in Japan, it's illegal to smoke under age 20. Rather than raising costs, educating students is a much better way to discourage teenagers from smoking. Let's encourage the bad image of smoking in American society.

If the government really cares about health of teenagers rather than making money by taxes, the action should be done.

Toshiaki Kawa

Carter visit may bring change in Cuba policy

Former President Jimmy Carter should be thanked for injecting a dose of reality into the discussion of U.S. policy toward Cuba. Fidel Castro has outlasted 10 U.S. presidents and probably will outlast two or three more in his lifetime. We have recognized mainland China and Vietnam, where more than 53,000 U.S. service personnel were killed. Why not Cuba?

If the United States wants change in Cuba, establishing diplomatic relations is the first step. Change does not occur in isolation. If the United States has relations with Cuba, democratic and economic reform will begin to take place. Now that China is linked to the outside world, look at the changes that have taken place there. It's clearly time to update our anachronistic Cuba policy.

Bill Sharp

Census Bureau wastes tax dollars

The recent release of data from the Census Bureau is yet another example of wasteful government spending. Much of the data wastefully duplicates everyday efforts by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The data on household income are already compiled by the Internal Revenue Service, whose data are much more reliable than responses to a despicably lengthy Census Bureau survey.

The news media should extricate and emphasize data on how many millions of bucks the Census Bureau spends to compile information of questionable value and quality.

One bad change revealed by the recent data -- 2000 vs. 1990 -- is that private-sector employment (percentage of the workforce) has decreased in the last decade while government worker employment, at 21 percent of the workforce, has increased. How can our economy thrive when more than one of every five workers isn't economically productive? Yes, many government workers are hard working, but too many of them do work that has been artificially manufactured by too many looney laws and regulations.

Get rid of those regulations and government workers can do more beneficial work, like nursing and teaching in (private) schools that care about patients, students and their parents foremost, rather than kowtowing to abusive, self-serving union practices.

The Census every 10 years is mandated by the U.S. Constitution to make sure we are properly represented in Congress. The constitutional mandate says nothing about compiling data on marital status or household income, yet our feel-good liberals continue to wastefully spend taxpayers' money.

Our society would improve a great deal if only we get back to the limited government that our founding fathers realized was best. Government that governs least governs best.

Alan T. Matsuda

Sunset on the Beach helps Hawaii tourism

We at Production Hawaii have been able to witness the benefits of the Sunset on the Beach program, which runs weekly in Waikiki and in neighboring communities once a month.

Production Hawaii is responsible for coordinating the vendor tents and boardwalk each week. Our company coordinates set-up and helps to provide the restaurateurs access to this popular event. So far, the response from the vendors has been overwhelming.

Each vendor has expressed having positive experiences on site, and a definite increase in business as a result of the program. From our standpoint and those of the vendors, this program is a definite economic plus for Oahu.

Aside from the direct economic benefit to vendors and companies such as ourselves, vital indirect economic benefits are felt throughout the island. Sunset on the Beach attracts both visitors and residents, creating a more authentic Hawaiian experience for tourists. This in turn contributes to increased tourism dollars to the island. Hotels, tour operators and businesses in the areas can all help boost their tourism programs through Sunset on the Beach.

This program is clearly a unique and vital part of the community. Production Hawaii strongly opposes any decision by the City Council that would hinder the continued successful operation of it and other "Rediscover Oahu" programs.

Michael C. Rossell
President
Production Hawaii

(Editor's note: This letter also was signed by the following staff members of Production Hawaii: Rea Fox, rental and sales consultant; Barbara Lynn Garofano, event manager; Darla Hochhalter, display and graphics consultant; DoraLynn Josefovicz, special event coordinator; Tracy Nicolas, special event coordinator and Jacqulynn Mulyk, summer intern.)

Track photo captured essence of race

I'm probably not the first person to comment about the May 12 photo on the front page of the sports section by Star-Bulletin photographer F.L. Morris. The picture of the girls high-hurdles race is one of the best sports pictures ever taken of any sport in any publication -- a classic picture.

Morris took the picture at the perfect split-second to capture the focus and determination of the runners, while also capturing in the background, the sheer joy and excitement of the race officials and spectators.

The clarity of the picture is also spectacular. He captured the facial expressions, the hands in motion, the grace of the girls in mid-hurdle, even down to the shoelaces flying in the air.

The Star-Bulletin should ensure this picture is entered into national competition.

D. Parham
Hawaii Kai

Picture is proof of Title IX success

What a fabulous, stunning picture of the 100-meter high hurdles in the May 12 paper. It gave a welcome jolt to my heart and a smile to my face. The determined looks on the girls' faces with their legs stretched out was absolutely beautiful. The smiling faces of spectators in the background conveyed the excitement.

I was the Title IX coordinator for the Department of Education in the 1980s, and while in the state Legislature I advocated for gender equity in sports. Sometimes I wonder whether girls are making progress, but your picture and the accompanying article said it all.

Jackie Young
(Former Windward Oahu state representative)

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