Accused killer keeps an impassive exterior
It's quite amazing to see the many images of a man in court, under suspicion of murdering a Japanese female visitor (
"Lankford jury set to visit key sites," March 14), whose body has yet to be discovered by the many state and federal agents in a constant search, for nigh on a year.
A stoic, unmoved if not completely calm posture, not a hair out of place, and well attired. While a plethora of evidence, blood analysis, eye glasses, late-night meetings with several individuals while digging, and videos of his image in stores purchasing a shovel pile up endlessly against him. Aside from any internal disorder, his command performance is worthy of an Oscar -- if not a few hundred years behind bars, if found guilty.
John L. Werrill
Honolulu
Rail can ease problems found 'Under the Sun'
Cynthia Oi is upset Honolulu doesn't measure up as a "Paradise of the Pacific" (
"Under the Sun," Star-Bulletin, March 12). Traffic is bad and getting worse, energy costs are high, the city is noisy and high rises have eradicated the view. Even the future seems bleak, and she imagines only the worst for the city's mass transit project.
Oi seems to have bought the opposition's argument that transit will be a failure if it doesn't dramatically alleviate traffic. The city has never said transit will "solve" our traffic problems, nor can it with anticipated population and housing growth.
Transit's true purpose is to be an alternative to sitting in traffic for those who choose to use it -- the mobility option that doesn't exist today.
Transit will facilitate sensible housing growth by clustering new dwellings near the stations, which should alleviate Oi's concern about urban sprawl.
Her other concerns need perspective, too. A modern steel wheel system won't be anywhere as noisy as systems built generations ago. Yes, the trains will run on electricity, but that's much better than burning gasoline in buses and cars. And with oil costs sky high and going higher, Hawaii eventually will harvest electric power from the stored energy in the ocean around us.
That would be an exceedingly bright future "Under the Sun" -- making the daily commute thanks to an inexhaustible supply of solar energy.
Doug Carlson
Honolulu
We know classrooms are hot, so get going
Our elected officials who spend their day at work at the state Capitol in Honolulu do not need any special test to experience what our Leeward Oahu school students endure on a daily basis. All they would have to do is to turn off their air conditioner for a day.
Since we will already know the outcome, this test does not need to happen. What we need to do is move to the next phase of this project, which is to begin installation of the air conditioners.
Michael Nomura
Kailua
DOE bureaucracy is huge, unmanageable
Pat Hamamoto is another superintendent of the Department of Education who will not address the bureaucratic condition of the state organization that she heads and has no idea as to how the $2.5 billion allotted to the DOE is being managed. What can we do as taxpayers who contribute to this monolithic fund? I am only a single taxpayer and feel like a mosquito in a very vast forest.
Herbert Morioka
Honolulu
Public financing makes electees accountable
There is a bill before the Legislature that would provide a big step toward better governance in Hawaii. House Bill 661 HD1 proposes to publically finance candidates to the County Council for the island of Hawaii.
This bill will be the first providing full publicly funded elections, and as such would lead to a law similar to one now in place in three other states. The outcome in those states has been much stronger public participation and more independent candidates for public office. Legislators elected under public funding are beholden only to their own sense of the best interest for the state. They are not guided by organizations seeking to influence them through campaign contributions. Currently, new candidates and incumbents are heavily dependent on the generous support from "organizations" (businesses, unions, law firms, consultants and trade associations).
I encourage our legislators, and any readers who are so moved, to support passage of the bill. This will be a test case to move our state toward a goal on which most of us agree, and that goal is improved governance for the state of Hawaii.
Chuck Pearson
Manoa
Beware what you vote for, America
A dynasty in the making, perhaps, if Hillary Clinton gets in as president, Chelsea Clinton will just be of age to be the first father, mother, daughter president! Help! This assumes Hillary is in for eight years!
Jim Delmonte
Honolulu
China doesn't deserve our Olympic support
I love China. Been there many times. But the Olympics in Beijing this summer? No way! I took the first U.S. television documentary crew into Xinjiang province for KGMB in 1982 (the station should rebroadcast that now) and I object to China's current smash-down on Muslim Uighur autonomists there. It's not right and we need to say so by saying "no ticket for me for the Olympics."
Bob Jones
Honolulu