City plays Scrooge ordering beach evictions

This is a crying shame! These heartless idiots we call city officials -- our servants -- are using Gestapo tactics on these needy individuals ("Homeless ordered to leave Keaau park camps," Star-Bulletin, Nov. 30).

This is Hawaii, where we care for one another. These are human beings, not stray dogs. The media should blow this wide open to expose the plantation mentality of these public servants. After all, we pay them.

I hope these greedy city officials have a very merry Christmas as they sip eggnog while these needy individuals and families suffer in the cold.

I for one will sound the alarm and try and help these needy families to be a little more comfortable during this holiday season when we celebrate the birth of the being who set us free, gave us salvation -- Jesus Christ!

Ashton-Michael
Alexander Ruiz

Brutalizing youngster is serious offense

An incident isn't "minor" if it involves sending a youngster to the hospital with tubes going through his body. Yet that is what is suggested in your Nov. 29 article, "Mother irate that son's attackers are back in school."

When a school principal says the attackers were not "problem students," I'd like to ask, "Then, what are they?"

When four boys approach another kid and end up kicking him and sending him to the hospital, do you mean to say that they don't have a serious problem?

They should be made to pay for their victim's future health-care costs.

Sechyi Laiu
Via the Internet

Tables may turn on Mililani Trask

Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustee Mililani Trask's mean remarks about U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye show what she thinks of the disabled and those of Japanese heritage.

Now, if the U.S. Supreme Court agrees with Freddy Rice that everybody gets to vote in OHA elections, then the handicapped and the AJAs will get a chance to show what they think of her.

John Sender
Via the Internet

Quotables "Men say women want to be in the home and leave work to have babies. But women are telling me they no longer are willing to carry all the load -- taking care of the children, husband and elders." Jean Renshaw SAN DIEGO AUTHOR, MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT AND FORMER UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII TEACHER On interviews of more than 150 Japanese women managers for her book "Kimono in the Boardroom" "I would love Joe Moore to consider being in this project. To me, he's perfect for the part (of) Coach vonAppen." Rosemary Smith MOTHER OF SHANNON SMITH On the possibility that a docu-drama may be made about the late UH football player who drowned after saving the life of former University of Hawaii football Coach Fred vonAppen's son atWaipahee Slippery Slide in March 1997

Studies aren't needed to pick prison site

In his Nov. 26 letter, Roy Thompson questions Governor Cayetano's decision to build a prison on the mainland. Thompson wrote, "I would like to see a written rationale for an out-of-state prison."

The state could run economic studies from now until hell freezes over, and it won't do any good. Hawaii's prisons are overcrowded and we need to build a facility -- soon.

Unfortunately, in order for the money and jobs to benefit Hawaii, it would have to be built in Hawaii. But we need to find a community willing to have a maximum security prison in its midst.

Governor Cayetano had a team search for a site in Hawaii to build the prison, but no community wanted it. As a result, the governor is forced to turn his attention elsewhere. This decision is not spite on his part.

Darrell Mayeda
Via the Interne

Legislative staffers earned their pay raise

I would like to respond to Lori Nakagawa's Nov. 27 letter, because I am a legislative staffer and got the subject raise. To be honest, I was a little surprised to even get the raise because of the political risk to elected legislators.

Legislative staffers usually have to suck it up while other government employees get raises. From talking to my co-workers, it has been many years since their last raise.

The number of employees in the Legislature is tiny compared to the total number of government employees. By my count, the House has about 100 permanent workers.

A legislature needs a competent, professional staff to fight on an equal basis with the executive branch -- usually over taxes and the budget. This is part of the checks and balances system. In my opinion, the Legislature needs a larger and better paid staff, since we have little time to examine the budget or evaluate how state agencies are spending taxpayer money.

I certainly agree with Nakagawa's comments regarding the budget and the economy. Fortunately, I am a Republican working for Republicans, and we offer a vision for Hawaii that will stimulate the economy and reduce the cost of state government.

Brian Durham
House legislative staffer
Makakilo
Via the Internet

Sierra Club picketers have warped priorities

I must have my environmental priorities confused. Thirty tons of sulfuric acid spills at Brewer Environmental Industries at Campbell Industrial Park and the Hawaii Chapter of the Sierra Club pickets Honolulu Ford over the negative environmental impact of SUVs. Did I miss something?

David Rosenbrock
Via the Internet

SUVs are bad for the environment

Regarding your Nov. 27 article about sports utility vehicles (SUVs), it should be pointed out that one of the most egregious aspects of these ridiculous vehicles is that they are basically fancied up trucks. As such, they need only to comply with emission standards for trucks, which are much more lax than for passenger cars. Tougher standards won't be in effect for a couple more years.

Since the article was about the Sierra Club, it would be interesting to observe that the ultimate irony is seeing an SUV with a Sierra Club bumper sticker on it. Of course, the ultimate SUV is made by Mercedes Benz, a photo of which appeared in the New York Times Magazine a few weeks ago, with activist Ralph Nader standing in front of the SUV -- with thumb pointing down!

Ray Chuan
Hanalei, Kauai
Via the Internet

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Hawaii Revised Statutes

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