City fouled up recycling for more than Mililani

Once again, city officials make commitments without first engaging their brains.

Kapolei and other communities had the benefit of a trash recycling program from Horizon Waste at $60 per year until the city announced its test period for recycling in Mililani.

Within two weeks, Horizon Waste notified its customers of its intent to terminate the service since it would be replaced by the city's even though Horizon Waste should have been aware that a comprehensive city program was a long ways away.

Now recyclables from Mililani will go to the already overburdened Waimanalo Gulch landfill.

Gay-marriage foes ought to study divorce

In his July 14 letter, Gary Anderson wrote: "The moral, legal and financial privileges of marriage have always been intended to protect dependent mothers and children." Based on Anderson's statement, marriage rights should not be extended to any childless couple and immediately terminated for any couple with non-dependent children.

The arguments used by traditional marriage supporters are outdated and based on emotion and religious rhetoric that have no place in any state or federal constitution. Among these outdated "traditions" are the right of the husband to be the owner of his wife and her possessions. It also wasn't long ago that interracial marriages were not allowed, people of color and women could not vote, wives were not extended credit on their own merit, and only white males could be property owners. Thankfully, these "traditions" are no longer legal in the United States.

The freedoms accorded to us as citizens must be the same regardless of what state we live in, or whether we are heterosexual. In the United States, all of us are equal, according to our Constitution and laws. The most recent attempt to single out the gay population as a lesser class of people not eligible for the same privileges and rights as heterosexuals was defeated in Congress.

Instead of the traditional marriage supporters working to demean a certain group of our citizens, their energy would be better directed to understanding why so many "traditional marriages" end up in divorce. Gay couples are partners and not labeled by the hierarchical gender-based terminology of husband and wife. Could it be that "traditional marriage" supporters are threatened by the trend of equalization within the marriage relationship?

Bush should 'fess up about military service

President Bush declines to disavow an attack on Kerry's military service even as he refuses to clarify whether he failed to show up for service for an entire year. Perhaps Dubya was too stoned to recall, and to clarify.

Dubya committed, on "Meet the Press," to the release all of his military records. Yet The Associated Press has been forced to sue for unreleased records, making the question relevant: Why is Dubya not honoring that presidential commitment?

According to the AP lawsuit, "A significant, ongoing controversy exists over the president's military service during the Vietnam War, specifically whether he performed his required service between May and October 1972."

C'mon, Dubya: Search the archives; search your brain ... and come clean.

Strykers will damage delicate environment

Everyone in Hawaii should look hard at what 300 Strykers, each weighing 2,000-pounds, training on our islands will do to our fragile islands.

The Strykers will use live ammunition along with necessary troops to practice over and over in existing training areas and in newly proposed areas. The damage done by the Strykers will be irreversible, and past experience has showed us how long and how much money it takes to clean up military training grounds.

The impact to highways, already overcrowded, natural growth, watersheds and wildlife will soon make us feel we are on Guam. Is this what you want for Hawaii?

It's time to say "no -- not in our islands." Write, call, speak, ask who can we vote for who will help stop this plan now. We don't want to explain one more time to our grandchildren how we did nothing to stop this destruction.

We truly are much better off supporting the Strykers and troops being based at another site that is not so small and vulnerable as our islands.