Give babies a chance with 'Save Haven'
I urge the governor not to veto the "Safe Haven"
House Bill 1830. The bill is designed to save the lives of helpless newborns who might otherwise be left in unsafe situations leading to death or injury. Medical and genealogical concerns are valid, but they are trumped by the safety and life of a baby. Forty-seven states have Safe Haven laws and more than a thousand babies have been saved, according to national Baby Safe Haven experts.
I personally held an abandoned baby in my arms in 1988 when I was working at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center emergency room. The baby would have died had someone not heard him crying in a van parked near a gas station. The mother had left the baby to die. This Safe Haven bill would prevent abandonment and encourage the mother to bring the baby in to a place so the baby can be properly cared for. Please keep the Safe Haven bill and protect our innocent precious babies.
Beverly Larranaga
Executive director
Hawaii Right to Life
Students learn better in smaller schools
Bravo for the front-page attention to education (
"New schools stretch budget," Star-Bulletin, July 2). Your paper has a clear commitment to the future. Your state's budget shortfall is being repeated across the nation as states try to find funds for small charter schools.
Small schools tend to prepare a higher percent of their students for college than large schools. If you'd like to hear about the Bill Gates initiative to build small (effective) schools, come to my presentation at Halau Lokahi school, 401 Waiakamilo Road, 6-7 p.m. on Friday.
Steve McCrea
Small school advocate
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Take care when riding ferry to Kauai
The Hawaii Superferry is here. Please, all travelers to Kauai, our island is a special place. Kauai has limited resources (opihi limu, maile, near-shore fish). Overpopulation here is already stressing our resources. Parks, beaches and campgrounds are overrun and stressed.
I ask that travelers here please take special care not to further stress our island. Mahalo.
Adam Kaye
Kapaa, Kauai
Bushies as dangerous as Islamic extremists
President Bush's commutation of aide Scooter Libby's prison sentence (and his predictable future pardon) follows Libby's conviction in a trial prosecuted and judged by Bush appointees. Libby had defense counsel far beyond the reach of ordinary Americans. As his excuse for this outrageous flouting of U.S. criminal justice, Bush cites Libby's great record of national service. Its highlights were (a) draft dodging during Vietnam, and (b) helping the administration to lie us into the catastrophic Iraq war.
If the fanatical Muslim jihadists are, as conservatives claim, Islamo-fascists, let's give our conservative ideologues a more accurate name -- Christo-fascists.
C.W. Griffin
Honolulu
Separate transit needed for airport
At first, I was outraged by the thought that our future rail transit would not go through the Honolulu International Airport. "How could they NOT go to the airport? Visitors to our state would need to get to and from the airport, right?"
Then someone wrote a letter stating that people who go to and from the airport would generally have luggage to transport. How would the rail transit accommodate passengers and luggage?
What an astute observation! Most general use mass transit lines do not have accommodations for luggage. Airports that have transit lines serving them are specially routed to a particular destination (a transfer point or central station). The trains are also equipped with luggage racks. Malaysia has an "express train" that moves people to and from KLIA to a central station. At top speed, the train travels at about 80 mph nonstop to its destination.
I now believe if a transit system is desired to and from the airport, the state should look into developing a similar mode of transportation. This would make more sense than to route a general purpose transit line through the airport.
Steven S. Fukunaga
Mililani
Aiona keeps remarks relevant, appropriate
It strikes me as curious that Andrew Thomas would so casually conclude that Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona uses his office as a "religious bully pulpit" ("Politicians should keep Christianity quiet,"
Letters, June 29). He is way off the mark with that claim. When the lieutenant governor speaks at corporate seminars, he talks about business. When he speaks to educators, he talks about education. When he speaks to youth groups, his message is about avoiding illegal drugs.
From my perspective, the lieutenant governor is doing a great job bringing into focus all issues affecting life across our state.
Kyle Karioka
Wahiawa