Don't leave your pet to suffer in the car
In these hot summer months, it is essential to remember never to leave your dog in a parked car. Dogs can suffer and die when left inside parked cars, even on mildly warm days. On a 78-degree day, the temperature inside a shaded car is 90 degrees, while the inside of a car parked in the sun can reach 160 degrees in minutes. Animals can succumb to heatstroke in just 15 minutes.
Even if your windows are cracked open an inch or two, it won't be enough to keep little Fido cool enough. If you cannot take your dog in with you, please leave it at home.
If you see a dog left alone in a car, take down the car's color, model, make and license plate number and have the owner paged inside the store, or call local humane authorities or police. Do whatever is necessary to get the dog out of the car -- his or her life could depend on it.
Alvin Park
Mililani
Tadd should inspire new thinking in D.C.
What an inspiration 16-year-old Tadd Fujikawa is with his great golf games. Good luck to him as he turns pro. Born at 22 weeks gestation, he and his parents are definitely encouraging to all parents with "preemies."
Premature babies like Tadd deserve every chance to grow up. Unfortunately, in the eyes of our congressional delegation, other babies at 22 weeks, not yet born, are considered nonentities. Our male delegation opposed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (the Laci Peterson law) and opposed the ban on "partial-birth" abortions.
In the House, Rep. Neil Abercrombie and former Rep. Ed Case voted against the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2006, despite testimony of neonatal neurologists that infants born as early as 23 or 24 weeks react negatively to painful stimuli. They refused the opportunity for women undergoing abortions to be offered pain relief for the unborn baby. The addition of Mazie Hirono to Congress promises more of the same.
As they watch Tadd's progress, may they reconsider their opposition to protection of other late-term babies.
Carol R. White
Honolulu
Writers tried too hard to make their points
George Will's and Dick Feagler's columns on Sunday amazed me with how far both men had to go to serve up cautionary examples of "liberal extremism." Will finds for criticism a liberal arts college, Antioch, which has 300 students. What lesson does this deliver to the other 300 million of us? Don't join a cult?
Feagler travels back 40 years to criticize the Bay Area's "summer of love," which brought America, gasp, rock music. Yet the reason the personal computer revolution got started in the Bay Area rather than Cleveland (where Feagler writes from) had little to do with an attachment to norms of etiquette. As for the devil's music, would someone with an iPod loan Feagler some live concert recordings from Concert for Bangladesh, UNICEF Concert, Concert for Cambodia, Farm Aid, Live Aid, Tribute for 9/11 heroes, SARS benefit concert, Live 8 for Africa or Live Earth? The man needs a chill pill, and that might do it. Though, I'm not sure the iPod revolution has made it to Cleveland.
Philip Brewbaker
Kailua
Don't stand up for every performance
Believe it or not, not every performance undertaken in a community theater is worthy of a standing ovation. Too many of them cheapens the honor for the truly extraordinary productions.
Respect and appreciation for the performers requires that audience members stay for the entire curtain call and applaud constantly if not loudly; leaving early is profoundly gauche.
But automatically rising at the end (or sheepishly following others' lead) is bad, too, for theater in the long run. And it suggests the unsophistication of the audience, as though they think every show at Manoa Valley Theatre and Diamond Head Theater (and I'm not picking on Hawaii -- this happens everywhere) just happens to be among the world's uncommonly brilliant artistic turns.
Nicholas Weil
Honolulu
Korean Festival full of excitement
On behalf of the Hawaii Korean Chamber of Commerce, "kahm sah hahm ni da" to all who made the
Sixth Annual Korean Festival this past Saturday at Kapiolani Park in Waikiki a huge success.
This year's festival was the biggest and most exciting Korean Festival ever held in Honolulu, and it was all because of the participation of our vendors and community groups, the support of our sponsors and the dedication of our volunteers. As Koreans we express our gratitude to such commitment as "soo goh mahni hehsm ni da."
We especially wish to thank Mayor Mufi Hannemann, the City Council, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Honolulu Police Department and the Mayor's Office of Economic Development for their tremendous support. This year's festival would not have been the success that it was but for their deep and broad support.
Thank you all again for celebrating the Korean culture in Hawaii at our Sixth Annual Korean Festival. See you again, bigger and better, next year!
Rex K.C. Kim
President, Hawaii Korean Chamber of Commerce