Copper thieves a bad sign of the times
Our society is riddled with thieves and wrongdoers like fleas on an unkempt dog. Thieves continue to rip out copper with wire cutters and impunity. Current penalties are a joke. Our poor Legislature doesn't know how to stop it.
Society has come a long way since I came here in 1938, a long way down. In those days I could drive my car with some friends from the old Nuuanu YMCA to the end of Kalia Road opposite Gray's Beach, park it top down, key in the ignition, leave our clothes with money etc. rolled up on the seats (we had our swimming tights on underneath), stay out on the beach all day long, and come back to the car with everything intact, never a thought that anything would be touched. Auwe no hoie.
Ted Chernin
Punahou
It's up to parents to instill healthful habits
Why such a big issue on exercising ("
Couch potatoes costly to isles," March 19) when everybody knows that even if you exercise and diet, you die anyway. Jim Fixx, who wrote the book on exercising, died while running. Those school lunches with all those vegetables will not go over with the children. Your lunch count will drop and there will be a lot of unemployed cafeteria workers.
Why do you politicians forget that the eating habits of children start at home and not at schools? The husband and wife work, so the easiest way to feed the kids is fast foods. What you elected officials should be doing is trying to solve the problems with the roads, water lines and sewage lines. So a word to the wise, get your priorities straight.
Allen Vierra
Pukalani, Maui
Tax rebate won't be all that stimulating
You know the economic stimulus check I'm gonna receive someday? The one I'm supposed to use to buy a Chinese-made iPod to stimulate the U.S. economy? I'm gonna use it to pay taxes.
Grant Merritt
Honolulu
Study clears air about harm from smoke ban
The just released study from the Hawaii Department of Health shows our smoke-free public places are good not only for our health but also for our business (
Star-Bulletin, March 13).
It was as refreshing as a breath of fresh air to read that our visitor spending before and after the smoke-free law took effect might be affected by market trends, but not by the law.
The red flags raised by smoking advocates during the last two legislative sessions had many afraid that tourists, particularly the Japanese, would stay away in droves.
Not so. In fact, ask any recent visitor to Japan, and you'll discover the social norm is changing there as well, with more and more smoke-free havens.
We should be proud of the Legislature that passed the original law in 2005 and of the governor who resisted pressure and signed it. And we should congratulate the legislators who, faced with challenges to the law in this and last session, did not let the scare tactics beat them into corners.
The data in the Health Department's study is clear, like the air in our public places.
Kari Wheeling
Chairwoman
Tobacco Free Oahu
Spend city funds on sewage treatment
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says Honolulu must upgrade its Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant. But the mayor and his followers say that we don't have to do it. What credentials do they have? What are they thinking?
The EPA, expert in the field of environmental protection, says that "discharge coming from the plant exceeds toxicity, ammonia and pesticide levels as established by the state Department of Health that could harm sea life and those eating seafood," putting Honolulu in violation of the federal Clean Water Act. While all major cities in the country apparently "bit the bullet" and complied, we stand in question because our mayor has other plans for our tax monies.
Open your own eyes, don't follow this mayor blindly. The EPA can indeed prove the secondary treatment is necessary and we should demand compliance for our own health and that of our children.
Larry Connors
Kailua
Blindness is common among our leaders
In light of recent revelations concerning the sexual misconduct of high-ranking government officials, it is only fitting that New York now have a blind governor. Gov. David Paterson's physical inability to see symbolizes the moral blindness that has infected and corrupted our political leaders.
Like the Oedipus Rex of Sophocles, our leaders can physically see but are nonetheless spiritually blind. And like the land of Thebes, America has become polluted. As Easter approaches let us all turn our gaze toward Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who once reminded us how without him we are like "sheep without a shepherd."
Anthony Wilson
Honolulu