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Harris has turned Oahu into construction zone

If Mayor Harris thinks he is doing us a favor by having all these roadway construction projects going on at once, he is mistaken.

First of all, as if we don't have enough traffic problems, the construction causes a lot more, making people late for work and important appointments, not to mention the extra burning of gas. It is also causing dangerous road conditions, because drivers have to brake suddenly to avoid the erratic placement of cones.

It's just a matter of time until there's a major accident caused by all this. I just hope the city has enough money to pay for the lawsuit settlements.

Mayor Harris, if you're trying to get votes from the construction workers, maybe you got that. As for me, you'll never get my vote again. You have done nothing for Honolulu but turn it into one big construction zone.

Leighton Ito
Waipahu

Henry Peters on "60 Minutes."

All Hawaiians haven't sunk as low as Peters

I've been reading opinions about Henry Peters' comments on "60 Minutes." Yes, he did use his connections to get his power. However, he does not represent Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate.

Peters' decisions were his and his alone. They do not represent how all of us feel nor who we are. As in J.R. Tolkien's books, he is a worm. However, not all Hawaiians are worms. Not all of us sabotage our race for survival or step on other Hawaiians to live in Waialae Iki or Diamond Head.

It's also a disservice to the products of Kamehameha Schools -- the students, alumni as well as the faculty -- to base the integrity of the estate on one person or a handful of people like the former trustees. We are not all like Henry Peters or his former colleagues.

Some of us have earned respect and an income with honor and integrity. While we cannot overlook Peters' actions, we can keep it in context rather than using it as a tool to destroy the future of Hawaiians.

Lana Robbins
Kamehameha Schools, Class of 1985
New Port Richey, Fla.

Bishop Estate Archive

Tour vans should be allowed on bypass road

Shame on the governor and the state Department of Transportation. Emphasis is always being placed tourism as our No. 1 industry yet, in many ways, we make our visitors suffer.

For example, the Waimea Bay temporary bypass road is closed to tour buses; therefore, a circle-the-island tour cannot be completed. But companies that want to do the circle-the-island tours use mini buses which are the same size and weight as Handi Vans, which are allowed on the bypass road.

Where is the justice for our tour companies and visitors being deprived of seeing the whole island?

Les Lunasco
Tour Driver Waialua

Quotables "I hate that song! It's, like, you hear it over and over again. But Dad always said, 'It's like hating money.'" Hoku Ho DAUGHTER OF HAWAII ICON DON HO AND PROUD OF HER JUST RELEASED FIRST ALBUM, "HOKU" On her father's too-famous signature tune, "Tiny Bubbles" "I am now considered a troublemaker, and I am proud of that." Susan Shinagawa CALIFORNIA BREAST CANCER PATIENT IN THE ISLANDS TO TALK ABOUT THE DISEASE On how she's trying to eliminate the misconception that American women of Asian and Pacific Islander ancestry do not get breast cancer

HPD must simply do its job in controlling guns

Your April 28 editorial on gun control stated that Bryan Uyesugi was allowed to keep his previously owned guns because no background check was conducted. But your front-page story the same day reported that: 1) Uyesugi told HPD he had a history of mental problems and 2) HPD routinely confiscates guns when officers discover owners have become disqualified to own them.

Therefore, had HPD simply run a cross check of its records, someone would have discovered that Uyesugi had 18 registered guns and could have seized them.

Second, you accept as fact that firearm registration is a deterrent to crime. There is no evidence to support this. Hawaii is one of only three states that requires any form of registration; no state requires reregistration. If registration were really effective in deterring crime, it wouldn't be so rare.

Third, you stated HPD's administrative burden created by the bill would not have been significant. Untrue. It would have required HPD to mail out two separate letters to 200,000 gun owners every five years (that's 300 a day, in perpetuity), and then process the responses. They would need five or six new employees for this.

Lastly, the community needs gun laws, but they must be good gun laws. What would make more sense would be to empower police to do as many background checks as often as they need. There are better ways to do that than by reregistration.

Brian Baron
Chairman, Hawaii Citizens' Rights PAC
Kailua

Black market will flourish in 'dumb guns'

Rep. Roy Takumi and his buddies at the gun-control organizations haven't yet realized how much a smart gun will endanger the police and military.

If a smart gun can't be used by a criminal or the owner, who do you think the criminal will steal a "stupid gun" from? The police and military.

After all, only the police and military will have unlocked guns. So all a criminal has to do is lure police officers into an ambush and take their guns.

By restricting firearms, all government will do is add another item on the lists of smugglers. And we all know that the war on drugs is getting nowhere.

Vernon Okamura

Without civil service reform, youth won't stay

Generations ago, a phrase was coined to justify the dominance of a non-government oligarchy to lord it over the rest of the population: "What's good for General Motors is good for the country."

In my opinion, this state's public worker unions absolutely believe what's good for them is good for the rest of Hawaii. This arrogant "them-against-us" mentality has effectively killed our chances to participate in the burgeoning national economy.

Unions call the shots with our failing public schools, and have shot down any real public worker reforms or cost-saving privatization efforts.

Even the most loyal Democrat must see the writing on the wall. Do we want to keep our children from getting a decent education, to continue in low-paying service jobs and leaving the islands for better opportunities elsewhere?

Art Todd
Kaneohe

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