Aloha needs another great risk taker
There are not very many men or women who would take the risk that a man like Howard Hughes or Juan Trippe from the days of old Pan Am or TWA, but there is one who risk taker who comes to mind: Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines is one who could benefit by a takeover of Aloha Airlines.
This would give him the route structure he would need to complete around-the-world service, and he is a risk taker. He is not that hard of a man to find! He is in London.
Just might be someone who would pick up the telephone and call him.
Bill Littell
Waikiki
Government should bail out Aloha, too
How much sense does it make that the federal government is willing to bail out Bear Stearns, yet no one is willing
to rescue Aloha and its 1,900 employees of Hawaii's flagship airline after 60 years of service? The Hawaii government has been sleeping at the wheel while a mainland carrier was allowed into their backyard to engage in predatory pricing and drive a locally based company out of business. Although the jobs offered by go! Airlines are welcome, it is still a mainland-based carrier and will never offer the same quality or quantity of job opportunities that Aloha offered to the people of Hawaii.
This is not only a tragic loss to Aloha employees but a serious setback to the Honolulu economy. The only question that remains now is: who will stand up for the employees of Aloha as management and the bankruptcy courts dismantle their retirements, their paychecks and their lives?
Tamara Risch
Collierville, Tenn.
Aloha's poor service helped bring it down
Don't cry for me, Aloha! You offer the public small seats going to the West Coast, junk food meals and you force many of us who want to fly to make a forced stopover on a neighbor island. This is not consumer friendly!
I have seriously considered buying your airline. If I did, I would give all passengers adequate leg room. I would serve real food. I would make most flights into Honolulu and then shuttle people to outer islands. I would offer fares that are competitive with Los Angeles and San Francisco fares. Not some ridiculous $425 one way when other airlines charge as little as $299 round trip.
I have the capacity to buy your airline but I will not. In business some must fail and your lack of understanding of what the public wants and greed have caused your problems. Don't cry for me, Aloha. You have brought your own problems on. You do have great first class, but other than that the mainland flights have no class!
Jim Delmonte
Honolulu
Bullfighting, cliff diving and ... bicycling?
I'm generally known as a careless risk taker with no fear. I'll climb walls and trees to retrieve things and then jump off. I'll dive for volleyballs on concrete courts. I'll launch bottle rockets with my hand. I'll ride a moped over the Pali.
However, bicycling scares the heck out of me.
A few years ago, I bought a bicycle with the intention of commuting to work because the bus fare rose above $1. I had all the safety gear, all the lights and reflective tape needed. I never feared so much for my life. I thought maybe if I got used to it and eventually got into better shape it would get better; it never did. After one month I called it quits, and ended up buying an electric scooter instead.
Some riders might claim that bicycling is safe, but for us normal people, it is definitely not. And to think I would ever consider myself normal.
We need the bike lanes.
Fletcher Young
Honolulu
Meth treatment more helpful in long term
Regarding your March 28 editorial "
Keep up good work fighting crystal meth": How should Hawaii respond to illicit crystal methamphetamine use? During the crack epidemic of the eighties, New York City chose the "zero tolerance" approach, opting to arrest and incarcerate as many offenders as possible. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry was smoking crack and America's capital had the highest per capita murder rate in the country. Yet crack use declined in both cities simultaneously.
Simply put, the younger generation saw firsthand what crack was doing to their older brothers and sisters and decided for themselves that crack was bad news (see www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles1/nij/187490.txt). This is not to say nothing can be done about meth. Access to drug treatment is critical for the current generation of meth users. Diverting resources away from prisons and into cost-effective treatment would save both tax dollars and lives.
Robert Sharpe
Policy analyst
Common Sense for Drug Policy
Washington, D.C.
Stimulus money should reach homeless
I hear so much about the homeless nowadays. They are being pushed all over the place.
Most of them don't file income tax because they have no income and don't know where to go for help. Yet this year if they don't file a tax form they won't get any of the economic stimulus money.
These people are at the very bottom and need money more than anyone, so it's very important that they receive the word so they can file this year.
It's up to everyone to make sure the word gets out to them.
Von Dent
Aiea