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Police need to do more to facilitate traffic flow

The recent traffic nightmare due to a raging fire in Waipio Acres left the H-2 freeway shut down for hours, resulting in major gridlock and outraged drivers. The usual commute of 30 minutes from town to Mililani took an average of two to three hours.

It didn't have to be so bad. The Honolulu Police Department should have had personnel controlling the traffic lights at problem intersections on Kamehameha Highway. This could have eased a lot of tension as well as helped people with overheating problems (both cars and drivers). But where was HPD?

During the Fourth of July fireworks show at Magic Island, heavy traffic leaving Ala Moana Park and the shopping center was strategically handled by police officers. They did an outstanding job by controlling every intersection.

Wouldn't you think the police could do the same in a traffic crisis like the one started by the Waipio fire, too?

Dirk Omine
Mililani

Tourists should pay to enjoy natural resources

It's about time government started charging tourists to enter Diamond Head. Hanauma Bay has been charging tourists for a couple years now, and the practice helps to pay the city workers to keep up the place.

Since local people already pay enough taxes, however, they shouldn't have to pay these entrance fees.

Richard Yano

Quotables "It's tough to be up on a mountainside in a remote area under these conditions for seven hours. It creates a scar in your mind. You never forget working a crash site." Randy Bell MAUI POLICE OFFICER Who rappelled down a rope attached to a helicopter hovering at the 2,700-foot level of Iao Valley to recover the seven bodies from last week's helicopter crash "Be open but stay alert. You don't want to reject anyone outright, but you also don't want to meet the next Ted Bundy." Dee Dee DeSoto HEAD OF KINDRED HEARTS HAWAII On the intricate art of flirting

Department of Labor is pro-insurance company

I'm not surprised that Lorraine Akiba and others at the Department of Labor and DOL appeals board are leaving their jobs. Consider the ongoing investigations of both when it comes to corruption, fraud and failure to give justice to the workers of Hawaii.

People at the DOL have denied worker hearings for years. They've made decisions that benefit only the insurance industry. When you appeal a DOL decision to the appeals board, a worker is again denied every legal protection under the law, even the right to call witnesses and cross-examine witnesses.

I am sure those people at the DOL and its appeals board will get great jobs -- within the insurance industry.

William Barker
Naalehu, Hawaii

One doesn't choose to be homosexual

We were greatly distressed by Jason Scott Jones' July 8 View Point in which he expressed fear that gay activists might be brought into the public schools.

Particularly offensive was his assertion that homosexuality is a choice. This notion appears in none of the peer-reviewed literature of the behavioral sciences. It is an excuse for discrimination, for homophobia.

Virtually all teens, at one time or another during their adolescence, experience erotic thoughts about their friends of the same gender; some of them experiment in the matter. The majority reject these fantasies or unrewarding sexual contacts, then perceive that they have been chosen to be straight.

What has happened, though, is that heterosexual youths have chosen heterosexuality because that is what they are -- not a remarkable event.

Jones wants to force on schools the sad business of teaching children that the feelings of their hearts will make them forever unclean, indecent, and unfit for love or society. Such a message must surely rank as child abuse.

Hawaii -- the rainbow state of diversity, tolerance and aloha --can do better.

Ward Stewart, George Vye

Kanno was not a responsive senator

I want to thank Sen. Brian Kanno for his letter reminding me of his vote against former Attorney General Margery Bronster. That also reminded me of other things I don't like about him.

I tried calling Kanno on numerous occasions and also sent him faxes, asking him to call me. Then I discovered the senator wasn't taking phone calls, and his fax machine was turned off. I went so far as to ask Senate President Norman Mizuguchi to tell Senator Kanno to turn on his fax machine. Only then did I get through to him.

The only legislator who has ever been responsive to me was former Rep. Paul Oshiro, who personally called and returned faxes.

By the way, there is a new candidate for state representative in Ewa Beach, Pam Lee Smith. She has a proven record of community service and was recognized with a nomination for a Kapolei Outstanding Achievement Award this year. I hope she gets elected.

Joan Gumm
Ewa Beach

Bronster had failings as state attorney general

I'm tired of these whiny letters about former state Attorney General Margery Bronster's failure to get reappointed to her former post.

How many of these letter writers actually had to deal with the Attorney General's Office during her tenure? I did.

Letters went unanswered and phone calls went unreturned. I even went so far as to hand-deliver correspondence, which no one would accept except a reluctant mailroom clerk, and only after some browbeating.

Bronster may have earned an "A" regarding the Bishop Estate matter but, as an adminstrator of a large and important governmental department, she earned an "F."As a result, she got an "F" in public relations and civil rights issues.

Martin Rice
Kapaa, Kauai

More information is needed on Ewa Villages

Given the amount of money tied up in Ewa Villages, and the burden on taxpayers in the future, a specific action plan on the Ewa Mill property should be a significant election issue.

Furthermore, isn't it disturbing that someone who had the responsibility for years in the city administration does not seem to have a handle on facts and strategies regarding the Ewa Villages property?

Your writers should provide more investigative type reporting on this matter.

Carolyn Hildebrand

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