Christmas angel cares for prisoners' children
My volunteer work at the Maui prison brought me into contact with the children of the inmates. When parents are taken to prison, the children are often left under the care of family members. Grandparents often are living on a fixed income, and relatives are struggling to feed their own families. Adding children of incarcerated inmates to the family adds to the financial burden.
I called Leslie Wilcox at the Lokahi Project (Channel 2 News), and she clearly understood the problem. She sent food cards for Safeway, Star Market, Wal-Mart and Foodland to help feed the children. What a perfect way to solve the problem! Many blessings to our Christmas angel, Leslie Wilcox.
Eve Clute
Lahaina, Maui
Chanukah blessings celebrated in lights
Happy Chanukah to all those of the Jewish faith who are celebrating the
Festival of Lights.
Chanukah is the time of year when we remember events of more than 2,000 years ago when the Jewish people led a revolt against their Syrian oppressors who controlled Israel. Led by Judah Maccabee, the Jewish followers defeated the Greek army and reclaimed the Temple in Jerusalem. When they cleaned and rededicated it, there was only one day of holy oil left for the sacred lamp. The lamp, which should only have burned for one day, lasted for eight. Chanukah, which means dedication, is the celebration of this miracle.
Beginning at sundown on Dec. 25, Jews from around the world honor this miracle by lighting one candle of the eight-branched menorah, and continue to do so for eight nights as a symbol of hope. As each candle is lit, Jewish people thank God for his many blessings and enlightenment.
As Hawaii's Jewish community prepares for Chanukah, let us keep our ohana, near and far, in our hearts and prayers. We have much to be thankful for, especially the return of our National Guard troops who will be returning home by mid-January.
Best wishes for a joyous, peaceful and Happy Chanukah!
Linda Lingle
Governor
James R. "Duke" Aiona Jr.
Lieutenant Governor
Grinches stole gifts left for trash crew
As I write this on Christmas Eve day in the Aloha State, I am feeling disgusted with a certain sector of our society -- namely, the thieves who have driven around my neighborhood (Kamiloiki) and taken all the gifts we left out for our
opala crews. My husband and I had to go out, and so we left our gift, as we have done every year, on top of our trash can, to be collected by the vehicle that usually accompanies the trash truck to collect these Christmas gifts.
When we got home our gift was gone, as were our neighbors' gifts (usually juice and sodas). However, the trash had not yet been collected, so we thought that the "gift pickup crew" had been around a bit earlier. When our trash collector arrived I asked him to confirm this, and he said everyone had been telling him the same story -- and no, they had not picked up anything earlier. Thus we are to assume that some Grinches and Scrooges and downright thieves have collected a nice booty of drinks. As my opala guy told me, "What goes around comes around."
I write this as a warning to everyone for next year and to let those who did this know one thing: I hope when you swallow the drinks, they go up your noses!
Janet Clark
Honolulu
Cell-phone law must be clearly written
Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland (D, Kalihi-Liliha) has good intentions on banning people from using their cell phones while driving (
"Letters," Dec. 19). Will this become another one of the hundreds of ordinances that are not being enforced due to a frivolous point of view from the public or a true lack of staffing of Hawaii's finest police? We need to hammer out this ordinance to the last word for safer travel on our roadways.
Michael Nomura
Kailua
Stop wasting money, taxes are high enough
The recent increase in property taxes is the last straw (
Star-Bulletin, Dec. 21). The city tries to create the illusion that it's not the tax rate (which they control) that has increased; it's the value of our properties (which their assessor estimates) that has increased. Huh?
Remember, this is the same City Council and mayor that raised our gross excise tax to pay for a rail transit system that their own consultant admitted at the Kapolei traffic meeting (and also reported in the follow-up story in the Star-Bulletin) "would not reduce traffic congestion at all" -- then why are we even thinking of this stupid project?
Cancel the increase and let's get back to solving the real problem with traffic -- and it's not too many cars, it's too many bad roads. And that's because both the city and the state have ignored the road maintenance problem of years and, in some cases, used the money for other things. Enough!
It might be time for a Proposition 13 like California has.
Dave Reed
Honolulu