Identifying gun owners might endanger others

In the Dec. 14 Star-Bulletin, Jeffrey Herman suggests that the list of registered gun owners be made public. Such a list would identify not only law-abiding (those having registered their guns) citizens like me who own guns, it would also identify by exclusion those who do not.

How about it, Jeffrey, would you be willing to post a "This is a Gun Free, Weapon Free, Defenseless House" on your front lawn? Recall that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the police do not have a duty to protect you.

Arthur Sprague
Via the Internet

Decision on gay marriage was cowardly

Our Supreme Court members, who made integral decisions on selection of trustees of Bishop Estate, now render a decision on gay marriage against a small segment of our population who seek equal treatment under the law.

Why should we expect more from this court? This decision disgusts me. What cowards. Someday history will reveal this decision in its true light. It's just too bad that we couldn't have been enlightened sooner. But then, great people lead and others are led.

Paul K. Takamatsu
Honokaa, Hawaii
Via the Internet

Gays in the military are not a danger

Services around the world are finding that having open homosexuals in the military does not compromise anything. There seems to be a macho attitude that says homosexuals, during times of crisis, are not capable of carrying out the orders of command. I think that the record would show there have been a large number of homosexual men who have put themselves in the line of risk.

Also there is the age-old argument of homosexual men viewing heterosexual men in the showers. After spending naked shower and pool time for six years in junior and senior high school and eight years of the same in the military, I found there was an equality in who was checking out whom.

I think curiosity spends time equally in all minds. At least resulting bar conversations would prove this out.

It is time we do away with discrimination in all areas of a government that, by its Constitution, is sworn to protect the rights of all. Then in a few years time, we will all wonder what the big deal was.

Bob Zimmer
Via the Internet

Quotables "We generally don't look favorably on tax increases, and we generally vote against them." Rep. Barbara Marumoto House minority leader On Gov. Ben Cayetano's proposal to raise state alcohol and tobacco taxes "How could anyone do this to them? This screwed up Christmas." Dolores Domen Supervisor at the Kokua Mau Work Center on Waimano Home Road On the theft of 35 Christmas present intended for mentally handicapped people at the center

Vieques situation deserves more attention

I am disappointed with the Star- Bulletin's coverage of the situation in Vieques, Puerto Rico. The U.S. Navy's use of the island and the ongoing protests are important issues for the United States and the world. They also have a special relevance for Hawaii residents.

It is the responsibility of your newspaper to provide information about such important issues to your readers. This situation deserves much more coverage than the extremely biased editorial your newspaper has provided. There is a lot of information available, much of which can be found on the Vieques Libre website (www.viequeslibre.org) and the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Dia's website (www.endi.com).

Marissa Harris
Kahaluu
Via the Internet

Kewalo development should have been OK'd

Kewalo development is taking too long. This is not the time and place to reject local Hawaii developers with proven track records whose roots are here, who love the land and who still have hope for economic recovery.

It's sad that Andy Anderson's proposal was rejected (with or without the Ferris wheel) because he appeared to have the answers on economic feasibility necessary to go forward with the Imperial Associates Waterfront Village Plan for farmers, artisans, fish and food market.

There is no excuse not to move on this.

Kekoa D. Kaapu

Rediscovering aloha on the bus

I recently caught TheBus after two hard, stressful exams. In the week prior to my exams, I had a paper due to explain whether Hawaii citizens have equal rights. In this paper I kept referring to Hawaii's loss of the "aloha spirit," concluding that Hawaii should no longer be called the "Aloha State."

On the bus I kept to myself like one does on a bus. I held myself close together to be assured no "weirdoes" would come near me. The bus driver was the first to talk to me. His name was Alan, and we talked about my exams. He told me that if I studied (which I had) I will have nothing to worry about. Alan went on driving, but he still talked to me along the way to my destination.

A man boarded the bus carrying some beautiful flowers in a bag. He passed each flower out to the women on the bus and complemented them. When he got to me, I received a ginger flower and he told me that throughout the bus ride he wanted me to smile because it brightened up the bus.

Further on during my ride, a man with muscular dystrophy arrived. While parking his wheelchair on the bus, he accidentally ran over the ends of my toes. It didn't really hurt, so I didn't say anything. But he knew he had done it and he apologized and introduced himself. He was very nice. He thought I was a college student (major compliment), but I said I was only a freshman in high school.

After my experience on the bus I came to think about how wrong I was believing there was no aloha spirit. In the place where people are afraid of others and cling to their belongings, other people were being nice to me. I forgot about how "scary" the bus is supposed to be.

Soon two groups of tourists boarded the bus at different times. They sat across from me, holding themselves tight as I had done. So it was my turn to show them the aloha of Hawaii, and when I did converse with them and smile, you could see them relax.

Although at first I had trouble with my exams, I was reassured it would be good. I got a wonderful smelling flower, and I talked with a stranger who turned out to be not so strange.

If not for this bus ride, I'd still think of our state as "alohaless." But for those who think that now, I suggest you look for aloha in the places you think you won't find it at all, and you will find it. I found aloha on the city bus.

Danielle Bass
Mililani
Via the Internet

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Hawaii Revised Statutes

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