Jones insulted players with postgame remark
Congratulations to the University of Hawaii football team for a hard-fought, come-from-behind overtime win against San Jose State this past Friday. It was great that Hawaii and the rest of the nation got to see this game live on ESPN. It's sad that the nation also saw Coach June Jones at the conclusion of the game say that if it weren't for the muddy field, "we would have scored 60 more points on them."
The statements he made discrediting the San Jose State players were embarrassing to me. This is a team that just took Hawaii to the limit. This is an opposing team that played with everything they had on that same muddy field and lost. I did not hear San Jose Coach Dick Tomey complain. He only gave credit to Hawaii on a great comeback.
Maybe Jones' boasting after what most people thought should have been a walkover game was to try to influence the polls. I will give him the national ranking of No. 1 in the NCAA: No Class At All. Instead of writing a sports book, maybe Jones should try reading one on sportsmanship.
Paul Nishihara
Honolulu
Were Kamehameha's efforts all in vain?
On the makai side of King Street across from Iolani Palace sits a statue. The statue is of a man Kamehameha who some 200 years ago fought to unite the then-disunited islands of Hawaii. The series of battles to accomplish this involved thousand of native troops. It was fought with long and short spears and clubs often studded with sharks teeth. The carnage was so great that decades later the bones of enormous amounts of war dead could be found protruding from beach sands on Maui and slumbering in the rain forest below Nuuanu.
It was at no small cost these islands gained unity and the kingly power the man Kamehameha gathered to himself has been passed essentially down to the present elected government. Those who speak of their island, not our islands, had best remember this fact.
Paul Mossman
Kailua
Special session proves state is a plutocracy
We live in a plutocracy, not a democracy. Look it up if you are unfamiliar with the term. "Plutocracy is a pejorative reference to the disproportionate influence the wealthy have on the political process in contemporary society."
Any better way to describe politics in Hawaii?
I am not surprised by Gov. Linda Lingle's call for a special session, but if I were one of the anti-ferry people, I wouldn't be too worried. This group of elected political sycophants can't even agree on the simplest of things, much less something complex.
The fact that they are asking for people to testify, so that they can ignore them and make a decision that has already been formed is just business as usual.
However, if the question of whether or not the Superferry should stay in Hawaii with rights to sail where it wishes, Maui and Kauai, went to a vote, it would be approved, if the polls are accurate.
But, not to worry. The politicos here are not interested in what the people want but more what they will accept in their apathetic complacency to the status quo.
Brian Hughes
Honolulu
They have theirs, and others can stay away
I am amused by all the talk about how the service to outer islands will result in "all the homeless people" deciding to move there. Why are they homeless? They don't have money to afford the trip!
The most telling issue: "We don't want an influx of people moving to our islands." Interesting point. You have carved out a piece of the islands and don't want anyone to have the same. "I got mine, and to heck with you." Be consistent; anyone who has moved to the outer islands in the last 20 years should be forced out, and the property restored to pre-1980 condition.
Finally, I am quite comfortable on Oahu, but will not be able to afford to day-trip to your islands. Good luck in keeping your islands segregated and living off the hukilau.
I am tired of hypocrisy: you got yours, and no others have the "right" to have it, too. "We're full, unless you promise to leave by nightfall."
Terry Karels
Honolulu
Transit discussion needs public airing
City Transportation Director Melvin Kaku keeps referring to a bus system that does not fit our city's mass transit fixed-guideway system (
"City did consider transit alternatives," Letters, Oct. 9). Let's move forward and let the public know the truth about a fixed-guideway system that will work before spending $5 billion of their tax dollars.
After repeated requests by my office to discuss this option for the fixed-guideway system in a public forum, the director chooses to cast stones from behind a wall, refusing to respond to the public. What is he afraid of? The public needs to be informed of a bus fixed-guideway system that works, and I am asking him once again to come out from behind the wall and discuss the matter in public.
Ann Kobayashi
City Council member