Pro boxing is barbaric and should be banned

Am I the only one disturbed by the fact that Muhammad Ali is always at or near the top of all these greatest athletes of the century lists? This is a man whose job it was to smash another guy's face so hard that his brain would slam against the back of his skull with such force that he'd lose consciousness.

Notwithstanding today's amazing technological feats, we're not all that far-removed from the days when bloodthirsty Romans would throw a pair of gladiators into the Colisseum to watch them fight to their gory death.

In 50 years, boxing will have been legally banned in this country. Then our children and grandchildren will look back in disgust and embarrassment at how their ancestors reveled in watching one human being bashed by another into disfigurement.

We may be entering the 21st century but, underneath all the spit and polish, we're just as barbaric as we ever were.

Jonathan R. Peterson

City doesn't care about failing businesses

Woe to be a small business in Hawaii. Kailua Beach Center's main thoroughfare, Kailua Road, has been reduced to one lane, heading toward the beach park only, for a city sewer project slated to take four to six months.

This presents a problem. For the past two weeks, no one has been working on the project 95 percent of the time, and no one is directing traffic to allow for access to our businesses from both directions.

Because of this, the shops operating there are failing. The Chinese restaurant served only two lunches one day last week, and is actually closed from lack of business today.

Is this how our government coordinates its services and resources for the benefit of its taxpayers? Should our local family-owned businesses suffer from a lack of strategic planning? How about a flag man to save our companies from bankruptcy?

Joel Cavasso

Judges shouldn't name Bishop Estate trustees

The suggestion by the Attorney General's Office that four appeals court judges appoint future Bishop Estate trustees is outrageous. The suggestion that this appointment process comes closest "in spirit and in fact" to fulfilling the will of Princess Pauahi is shibai.

In recusing themselves from the future appointments of Bishop Estate trustees, the sitting justices said that "continuing to select trustees would further promote a climate of distrust and cynicism that would undermine the public trust in the judiciary."

Why, then, would the appointment of four judges sitting on a lesser court even be suggested by the A.G.?

Randy Roth, one of the "Broken Trust" authors, stated it absolutely correctly when he said, "It is time to depoliticize the estate and get the judiciary out of that situation that has done nothing but damage its credibility."

Thirty-seven percent of Haw-aii's people agree that the Kamehameha ohana should select trustees to the Bishop Estate. Hawaiians should be allowed to control their own destiny.

Rod Ferreira
President, Waimea-Kohala Sub-Region
Kamehameha Schools Alumni Association
Kamuela, Hawaii

Bishop Estate Archive

Quotables "I went barefoot until the seventh grade. But I had to wear shoes to go to Iolani School. I had to buy the widest shoes in the store. Because we went barefoot, all the kids had toes that were spread out." Clarence Lee 64-YEAR-OLD HONOLULU DESIGNER Reminiscing about his childhood days in McCully "They told us the road isn't going to be blocked up except for one or two days, not every day, and not without any construction being done." Wolfgang Hucklenbroich OWNER, FIRST STOP CONVENIENCE STORE IN THE KAILUA BEACH CENTER Complaining about a city sewer project that curtailed patronage of the center's merchants during the Christmas season and which is slated to continue an additional four to six months

Selling of fireworks must be punished

A Mililani woman is arrested with a ton of fireworks in her home -- probably enough explosives to blow up a city block, killing dozens of her neighbors. At the very minimum, the state should confiscate her house and property, as well as the airplane or ship that brought the illegal explosives into our state.

If the airlines and shipping companies find out we mean business, we might effectively enforce our laws and protect our citizenry. To reward this woman with her freedom and to allow the carriers to keep their ships and planes is to encourage more of the same.

Keith Haugen
Via the Internet

Don't blame guns for deeds of hoodlums

The Star-Bulletin needs to learn a new tune. Why pick on inanimate objects imbued with animation? Why just pick on guns?

Why not ban knives that a truck of hoodlums could threaten someone with? Ban VWs because Frank Pauline has shown us they're dangerous? Ban bicycles too, as one of them may have contributed to Dana Ireland's death?

The Star-Bulletin cheapens the value of human life by failing to focus on personal responsibility. Tim McVeigh, the Texas trio and now Byran Uyesugi have demonstrated their collective inability to be human, and remain a danger.

To be safe in our homes, on our streets, at work or in schools doesn't require holding inanimate objects accountable -- but holding accountable those who break the rules.

Raymond Heath
Pearl City
Via the Internet

Molokai residents kissed up to fed reps

Hawaiian organizations and individuals of Hawaiian ancestry were granted the "privilege" of a few minutes to express their concerns at the reconciliation hearings, held by the federal government about the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom.

Meanwhile, an elite group of Molokai residents was given an hour audience before representatives of the U.S. departments of Justice and the Interior, prior to the public reconciliation hearing held on Molokai on Dec. 9.

These special Molokaians presented a dog-and-pony slide show narrated by the island's own native son, Walter Ritte. So what did the presentation have to do with the topic of reconciliation? Absolutely nothing!

By the time the federal reps left this special gathering, they had the cleanest okole on Molokai. This was okole smooching at its best.

Samuel L. Kealoha Jr.
Molokai

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