Iranian president has rights, too
The best thing for the United States to do about the Iran situation is to leave them alone and don't use democracy and terrorism as the excuse to enter their homelands, as the United States did in Hawaii. Iran has rights and I support and respect President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's right to be free based on God's law, Iranian law and international law that's supposed to be keeping the countries together. Clearly, the United States has to clean up its mess throughout the world and to promote diplomacy as the only way to resolve situations in disagreement.
The United States has its own problems to resolve: homelessness, drugs, housing, social problems, military, tourism, diplomacy and justice issues that address morality and principles of a person and country.
In the end, God's law prevails. Aloha keakua.
Rita K. Kanui
Waimanalo
Lawsuits are a sign of these times
Lawsuits all over the newspaper. Lawsuits everywhere I look these days. "Siphons claimed lives of Maui girls" (
Star-Bulletin, Sept. 26). A 19-year-old Maui girl, an MIT student, arrested at Logan Airport, Boston, for wearing an art exhibit made from Play-Doh and a circuit board (
Star-Bulletin, Sept. 22). A homeless man wants to sue Safe Haven (a shelter and meals and services provider in Chinatown for mentally ill homeless people) for unjust denial of services.
Keep on reading the newspapers; more and more outrages will be happening -- it's a sign of the times.
John Arnold
Honolulu
Neighbor islands have declared mutiny
Hawaii is analogous to a ship, with the captain and officers scorning the crew (public) and entitling the quartermaster (business) special privileges. Shipmates Kauai, Molokai and Maui have declared mutiny, the consequence of years of disrespect. Able-bodied sailors are frustrated at being treated like swabbies.
Superferry carried St. Elmo's fire to Hawaiian waters, and the ensuing gale has morphed into a perfect storm. S.S. Hawaii is listing and in distress. Displaying a military tone Captain Lingle says "This is giving us a very bad reputation." Her latitude could sail us aground or off the edge of the Earth. The Supersquall has become national news, and she seems adrift.
Nauticalyptic hyperbole? A good captain might consult the crew before ordering the navigator to chart a course. If we don't change heading, we will be in dire straits, living with permanently rationed water, rolling blackouts, backed up sewers, jammed roadways, inundated by invasive species and eating off container ships.
Now that we are listing, some in command can finally see the barnacles (quality of life issues) that have accumulated on the hull for years. They need to trim this vessel and head for drydock (moratorium). All hands on deck.
Kenny Hultquist
Lahaina, Maui
There's another nail in the economy's coffin
I was amused by the fact that
Kili Namau'u's letter ("Governor shouldn't try to change the law," Sept. 22) fell right below a letter urging residents to "Check the facts before you take a stand." The fact is that those who oppose the Superferry rarely do.
Changing the law would not, in any way, be rejecting the Supreme Court's decision on the Superferry. It is the job of the court to interpret the law; changing the law is not an affront to the court at all.
And the law obviously needs to be changed. It's clear that the law is broken when private businesses can spend more than $230 million on an enterprise and comply with every regulation, only to have the rug pulled from under their feet at the last minute. In favor or against the Superferry, the law needs to be changed. Opposing such changes because one hates the Superferry will only keep Hawaii mired in a withering economy plagued by anti-business bureaucracy.
Matthew Talley
Kaneohe
Congress should bring impeachment to vote
Robert M. Schacht's Gathering Place column was brilliant and timely (
"Follow the Constitution: Initiate impeachment," Star-Bulletin, Sept. 20). The good longtime member of the steering committee of the Progressive Democrats of Hawaii wins my ardent admiration and support.
Our congressional delegation and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, California) should be lobbied in earnest to bring this impeachment motion to a discussion, debate and a vote in the House of Representatives in our nation's capital.
If after nine months of Democratic leadership in the House and the Senate, all the GOP has to do is to sidestep this issue by pointing their fingers to MoveOn and the Howard Deans and urge the Swift Boat Veterans to serve as the infamous "truth squads" against their own party's challengers as well as front-runners in the Democratic Party, then the mass media locally as well as nationally are in control. Totally in control of the puppet masters who replaced the Karl Roves, the late Lee Atwater and the "leave our Earth scorched" strategists every two years.
Arvid Youngquist
Honolulu