Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Hannemann was right about Mayor Harris

Looking at Mayor Harris' $74 million budget request has validated my belief that Mufi Hannemann was the best candidate to lead our city. Hannemann warned the administration months ago that we were behind in road repaving, and that we needed to catch up.

He also cautioned Harris to slow down the opening of new city parks and other construction projects, and to pay more attention to details so that it wouldn't end up costing taxpayers more in the end. Guess what is part of this $74 million budget request.

Hannemann's former colleagues on the City Council would be wise to heed his philosphy in scrutinizing every item of the latest Harris budget.

He asked, "Do we need it? Can we afford it? And can we maintain it?"

If any of the items cannot pass this litmus test, the Council should do the public a favor and say no.

Wilfred Hayashi
Aiea

Developer assuaged doubts about cemetery

I have lived in Hawaii Kai for 29 years and testified at the recent neighborhood board meeting in support of the proposed East Oahu Memorial Park.

The board was extremely fair and granted each person who wanted to testify about the proposed cemetery a two-minute time period.

I have read recent letters from several residents of Mariner's Cove who are opposed to the cemetery. Their concerns were heard and digested by the board members. That is just one side of the story.

What was not reported to your readers was that testimony and supporting evidence was provided on behalf of the developers that addressed these concerns to the satisfaction of both myself and the majority of the board. Its members voted, 9-2, with one abstention, in favor of supporting the concept of locating a memorial park in Hawaii Kai.

The developer assured the board and crowd present that all geotechnical and traffic studies must be approved by the applicable government engineering and permitting authorities.

Democracy was well served. A memorial park is needed in East Oahu. Henry J. Kaiser, the genius and creator of Hawaii Kai, envisioned this need in the 1960s and selected the specific site proposed for the park in Hawaii Kai.

Remember, a memorial park is beautiful, peaceful and forever.

Michael John Moroney
Hawaii Kai

Quotables "It's always important to examine what others are doing. I can't say who he went with because they have a right to privacy." Jackie Kido DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS FOR THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICE On Cayetano's taxpayer-paid trip to the Bahamas to look at the world's biggest saltwater aquarium. He traveled with two private businessmen whom Kido would not identify. "I'd like to see the price tag on all this litigation." Bill Wells PILOT FOR HAWAIIAN AIRLINES Grumbling about the heady amount of legal filings and court appearances to finally resolve the winner of the presidential election

Kailua shouldn't mind Waimanalo's business

Why is the Kailua Neighborhood Board being asked about widening a road through Waimanalo?

Waimanalo has its own neighborhood board and it has always voted against widening Kalanianaole Highway in Waimanalo.

As a former two-term Waimanalo Neighborhood Board member, I voted against this idea, which would endanger our very lives. We love the fact that people have to slow down to pass through our community.

Steve Tayama
Waimanalo

Many sank their teeth into saving clinic

Heartfelt thanks to first lady Vicky Cayetano, the Queen's Medical Center and state officials, and both Honolulu daily newspapers for their valuable support in helping to continue our dental service at Queen's.

Special kudos to the Hawaii Dental Association and various community organizations for their unselfish assistance on our behalf.

I am proud of our program, and even prouder of our residents and attending staff.

We have stood on our merits for 40 years and hope to continue our commitment to the community for many more.

Samuel Ishimura
Director, Dental Resident Education
The Queen's Medical Center

Burial mounds aren't in keeping with culture

The current solution to the disposition of the ancient Hawaiian na iwi (bones) unearthed in Waikiki -- that of building a memorial mound for their reinternment -- will set a precedent.

In the future, whenever ancient Hawaiian iwi are discovered, will the "designated" descendants of those iwi require a memorial mound for reinternment? Would anyone like to estimate how many burial mounds will be dotting our aina?

The ancient Hawaiians never marked the burial sites of their iwi. No one was to know where they were interned except those responsible for internment.

To Hawaiians, the spiritual part of the body was the most important. They did not erect memorials.

To expect Hawaiians today to have an object like a memorial mound to offer prayers is not in keeping with the practices of their people.

Discovered iwi should be reinterned as close as possible to where they were found, quietly and inconspicuously. In this case, surely there is space underneath the new Kuhio Beach Japanese gardening-type landscaping for our iwi.

Avoid westernizing our Hawaiian ways, with respect and aloha for everyone.

Roy L. Benham

Alliance agrees on preserving coral reef

Last July, I participated in an unusual and inspiring meeting about the fisheries of the fragile coral reef atolls in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands (NWHI), located northwest of Kauai.

Among the participants were environmentalists, biologists and coral reef experts, as well as the fishermen themselves and their family members.

For two days, they all sat together and talked about the ways in which these previously bountiful fisheries have been depleted, as well as investigated what can and should be done to revive them.

Not only do the environmentalists and biologists want these fragile coral atolls and the life around them preserved, but when the facts are laid out, the fishermen also understand the importance of providing some limits -- not to stop all fishing but to provide the necessary protection so these islands are not stripped bare and are preserved for future generations.

These meetings, sponsored by a local environmental group called Kahea, provided so many facts that I now question why anyone would want care of the fisheries of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands to be placed under the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Wespac has already proved that it has failed to protect these fragile atolls and their fisheries, so why put them under any other commercially oriented organization?

Marion Kelly

---

Write a
Letter to the Editor

Want to write a letter to the editor?
Let all Star-Bulletin readers know what you think.
Please keep your letter to about 200 words.
You can send it by e-mail to letters@starbulletin.com
or you can fill in the online form for a faster response.
Or print it and mail it to: Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 3080,
Honolulu, Hawaii 96802. Or fax it to: 523-8509.
Always be sure to include your daytime phone number.