Watch out, guys, women are taking over
Syndicated columnist David Brooks, wrote and interesting and informative article about how it's time for equality for boys ("On The Right Side," Star-Bulletin, Oct. 17), relating how women are beginning to catch up and surpass men in all subjects and finding it hard to find marriageable men who are their equal in education levels. The column reminded me of a science fiction story I read back in 1928, in either Amazing Stories or Wonder Stories magazines.
The story is about a distant futuristic society in which women run everything and do everything.
A limited number of men was kept in houses for recreational purposes (now that's a switch!), and for procreation of the race.
Yes, men, now 75 years later I can see the handwriting on the wall.
Ted Chernin
Honolulu
Farm animals also victims of Katrina
Millions perished in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina -- millions of chickens, pigs and cows that were trapped in factory farms. Although Farm Sanctuary workers were able to rescue hundreds of chickens (some found alive in a mass grave at Tyson), millions more were abandoned by agribusiness to drown, starve to death in overheated sheds or be bulldozed into mountains of trash during the cleanup (whether alive or dead).
Most people aren't aware that farm animals represent the largest loss of life from Katrina. Nor are they aware of the deplorable conditions that exist on factory farms and in slaughterhouses, and the desperate need for reforms. The misery of factory farming is an ongoing national tragedy that has developed behind a mega-corporate curtain -- shielded from public scrutiny, with industry lobbyists who fight against humane legislation. Without intervention, agribusiness will keep intensively confining and killing animals at rate of more than a million an hour (and the number only increases as people switch from red meat to chicken).
The time has come to put farm animals on the public agenda. We can do so as voting citizens by demanding humane farming legislation and as conscientious consumers who choose to buy healthy vegetarian foods instead of flesh, eggs and milk produced by tortured animals. More information is available at www.factoryfarming.org.
Laurelee Blanchard
Haiku, Maui
Fallen tree proved value of biking
Regarding Star-Bulletin photographer Richard Walker's photo and the caption
in the Oct. 18 edition reading, "A branch from a shower tree fell yesterday afternoon at the corner of Beretania and Maunakea streets, hitting a car and snarling rush hour traffic for miles":
In the photo showing a fallen limb on a car is a lone bicyclist pedaling by. There is a bit of irony here, as I'm sure this bike rider made it to his destination unencumbered by the snarled traffic -- yet another reason why riding a bicycle is a great alternative to driving a car in Honolulu.
Eleanor Thurber
Honolulu
Aiwohi responsible for her choices
The rationale that so many organizations are advocating for the overturning of Tayshea Aiwoh's sentence, as well as the arguments of her defense attorney, are ridiculous (
Star-Bulletin, Oct. 20). This woman made a conscious choice to endanger her impending newborn by choosing to do drugs. She had five other children at the time! By doing drugs, she endangered them also. The appropriate response to this situation is education and awareness, getting to our children early and often with warnings about drug and alcohol abuse. However, once they make that decision to do drugs and commit crimes, they must realize they will be held accountable for their actions.
Drug dependency may be a disease, but it does not excuse the actions of an individual. The medical community has defined alcoholism as a disease, but an alcoholic who drives drunk and kills an entire family when he runs into them head-on is not excused from his actions because of that definition. The overturning of this sentence would open the floodgate to allow everyone, not just pregnant women, who has a drug dependency and who commits crimes, to be eligible for treatment instead of punishment.
Allowing irresponsible people to dodge accountability for their actions and not accept the resulting consequences is sending a wrong message to our youth, and our legal system. I pray the Hawaii Supreme Court can see that overturning this sentence would be a tragic watershed event in the protection of unborn children, and would be precedent-setting in allowing a loophole for drug-dependent criminals to circumvent the punishment that they deserve when they commit a crime that endangers or even takes another human's life.
James Roller
Mililani
Racist letters should not be published
I am surprised that, on the one hand, your paper states that it will not publish letters that make personal attacks, yet on the other it publishes a racist letter from Eric Poohina suggesting that all haoles (itself a racist name) and Asians be blocked from entering Hawaii (
Star-Bulletin, Oct. 11). He then goes on to say that he wished it had been ever so.
Apparently the Star-Bulletin doesn't see this as personal, but impersonal racism? Well, at least it exposes the hypocrisy of the culture of diversity. Diversity, it seems, only applies to white people, but non-whites are free not only to ignore it but to wish for the exact opposite. So much for the Land of Aloha.
Richard Stanaro
London, England
Former Hawaii resident
Credits would create energy incentive
Good Idea by City Councilman Charles Djou, proposing a one-year tax holiday on sales of new hybrid-energy vehicles. However, I would increase the tax credit for hybrid vehicles to match the federal tax credit of $3,400 instead of wasting city funds to give back $90.
And since we are on the subject of tax credits, I also would encourage the state to look at increasing the tax credit for photovoltaic cells from 35 percent to 60 percent as a bridge to help Hawaiian Electric Co. with its power generation problems. The new power plant is at least four years away and HPOWER another two years. We don't want a repeat of last years power outage.
Richard Mori
Waipahu
Unions shouldn't block recycling efforts
As a former resident of Hawaii, I read with disbelief that homes on Oahu have recycling bins but can't recycle because of some union squabble (
Star-Bulletin, Oct. 19).
Hasn't Honolulu been trying to implement recycling for years? I'm a big supporter of labor unions, but isn't the well-being of Hawaii's environment more important than fighting over who gets the contract? Does it always have to be so difficult to make things happen in Hawaii?
Robert Osbun
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Recycling centers need Improvements
Thursday's article about the
$15 million surplus in bottle deposits came as no surprise to me. The recycling centers in Hawaii are understaffed and rarely operational. I have gone to the recycling bins twice a month for the last four months, and only once have the bins been able to collect my glass. The bins are always full. That may account for part of the $15 million surplus. In all fairness, I am only referring to the Aikahi Safeway recycling center.
The article hinted at state plans to build more centers and improve the already-existing recycling centers. The state should place improvement of the existing centers as a higher priority than building new ones. If the state made sure that the bins could accept glass during all of the listed hours of operation, I'm confident the results would improve.
Every center in operation should have the ability to accept glass promptly and during all hours listed. Failure to do so results in people failing to recycle. Why try to get my money back when the bins rarely have the capacity to accept my recyclables? We need better centers before we get more centers.
Kee Campbell
Kailua
Keep religion out of government
A recent Associated Press report revealed that Harriet Miers, President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, pledged support in 1989 for a constitutional amendment banning abortions, according to material given to the Senate.
Well, well, there is no big surprise there. In these dark times, when religious zeal is poised to destroy modern civilization forever with its unbridled violence and murder perpetrated in the name of "God," do we really want our own government to be run by religious freaks? These delusional power mongers have no intention of upholding our constitutional rights by removing their religion from our government.
When will believers in Jesus realize that not everyone in the United States is a Christian? Please, get your religion out of my government.
Michael Lauck
Honolulu
Why all the editorials about Akaka Bill?
Another Star-Bulletin editorial (
Oct. 8) supporting the Akaka Bill? How many such editorials have there been?
You again tout a twisted small Office of Hawaiian Affairs survey allegedly showing a huge majority favor the Akaka Bill. You slam the Grassroot Institute survey that phoned 10,000 residents and found 67 percent of respondents saying "No."
The most accurate, unbiased survey would be a yes/no vote at the ballot box. You should support taking such a vote -- just think of all the advertising revenue you'd get from OHA! Why should we have to read the tea leaves and listen to statistical soothsayers when we can easily get the exact percentage?
If the Star-Bulletin is so sure the OHA surveys are accurate, then why must you constantly beat the drum with more and more editorials supporting the bill? You're worried.
Take a vote to see whether Hawaii wants the Akaka Bill. Then let senators and representatives decide whether it's good for America to let Hawaii practice apartheid, and consistent with their oath to support and defend the Constitution. Then the courts will decide Hawaii and Congress were wrong.
Ken Conklin
Kaneohe
Proof of insurance for children unnecessary
Hawaii Covering Kids conducts extensive outreach and enrollment initiatives throughout the state for children's health insurance. We have more than 200 federal, state and community partners, and the Department of Education has been our project's strongest proponent.
Our Identification and Outreach Task Force does not believe mandated documentation of health insurance status, suggested in your Oct. 18 editorial, is necessary. We already have effective public health insurance outreach strategies in all public, private and independent schools, which includes self-declaration of health insurance on emergency cards.
Rather than more paperwork for parents, guardians and school personnel, wouldn't it be better to explore a positive incentive policy like that in Peru, where children and youth who attend public schools receive free health care? Their initiative was designed to motivate parents to keep their kids in school, and apparently it's working by not only improving educational skills, but also health status.
Barbara Luksch
Project director
Hawaii Covering Kids