Immediate solutions to traffic are needed
The pros andcons of fixed rail are argued endlessly. You would think it's a primary race. Besides costing billions and not solving the traffic congestion, whatever is developed will take years to complete. How about considering more immediate solutions? Such as:
» Opening all lanes to all motorists,
» Allowing bikes on one side of underused sidewalks on some roads,
» Offering tax incentives to companies willing to implement a four-day work week or to coordinate a ride-share program,
» Allowing shuttle/cab companies to offer monthly door-to door-service.
» Experimenting in East Honolulu to make the right lane the express lane so express buses can add stops in Niu Valley, Aina Haina and Kahala.
Margaret Koyama
Honolulu
GOP should make way for Obama-mania
The Hawaii Republican Party is the most anemic political organization in America. It is hilarious to see our lame duck governor asking Hawaii voters to support Sen. John McCain for president
("State Republican Party sets platform, repels insurgents," Star-Bulletin, May 19). Hopefully in 2010 President Barack Obama will come home to Hawaii and campaign against Linda Lingle in support of her Democratic opponent for U.S. Senate.
So far more than 4,040 soldiers have needlessly died in the Bush/McCain/Lingle Iraq war. Many were from Hawaii. Obama will end the war and bring the troops home. McCain promises 100 more years in Iraq and "Bomb, bomb Iran."
Lingle repeated George Bush's innuendo "appeasement" smear against Obama. Like many Republicans, she must have failed high school history class, because there is no comparison between Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of giving Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany in World War II and Obama's policy plan to engage in diplomatic talks with other countries.
Come to the Hawaii Democratic Party Convention May 23-25 in Honolulu to experience Obama-mania and see who really represents the people of Hawaii.
John Lundin
Lahaina, Maui
Patrols needed to stem daytime robberies
It seems that bold daytime robberies are now becoming rampant on several St. Louis Heights properties. I hope that the St. Louis Heights Neighborhood Association will pressure the Honolulu Police Department to conduct regular patrols of the St. Louis Heights area (and other communities around Oahu), so that this type of crime can be mitigated.
In addition, I sincerely hope that Lt. Gov. "Duke" Aiona will abide by his promise to control the ice situation on the islands, which certainly is the cause of much of the crime (bank, car, hotel, residence, muggings, etc.), especially in recent times.
I look forward to a much safer Hawaii, like it was years ago. When we first arrived in Hawaii almost 50 years ago, houses and cars were never locked up for fear of robbery, and now it is a totally different situation.
Tom Haar
Honolulu and Yokohama, Japan
Rabbi's thoughts are anything but liberal
As as occasional participant in events organized by Friends ofSabeel, I am offended by Rabbi David Forman's suggestion that criticism of Israel is anti-semitic
("An Israeli liberal's lament," Star-Bulletin, May 18). Despite his use of that word, the rabbi is anything but liberal. A liberal would not shrink from using the words "ethnic cleansing" to describe what Zionist European settlers continue to do to Palestinians. A liberal would support majority rule in Palestine: the right of ethnically cleansed Palestinians to return to their homes and to participate in free elections.
And a liberal would deal in some intellectually honest way with the prophetic warnings of Albert Einstein and 27 other prominent Jews after the massacre at Deir Yassin: "The public avowals of Begin's party are no guide whatever to its actual character. Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future." (New York Times, Dec. 2, 1948).
Isn't it time that, as American taxpayers and financial backers of this ongoing crime against humanity, we all ask ourselves how it came to be that a brown-skinned, non-European people ended up as the scapegoat for the sins of Europeans?
Jan Becket
Honolulu
Pageant revealed need for diet changes
May Day at the local elementary school was wonderful -- the girls in their leis and skirts and the shirtless boys. But in so many cases, the children were fat! There is no need for this.
Parents wake up. Change your children's eating habits. It is a life-long thing. Letting children eat the wrong foods is a plague on today's society and reflects on your parenting skills. I hope next year when I seethe annual May Day pageant the children will have slimmed down. Remember no pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs. Carbs, fried foodand sugars are out. Veggies and fruit are in.
Jim Delmonte
Honolulu