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Vancouver Skytrain offers transit alternative

We must motivate drivers to get out of their cars and use public transportation like Vancouver's expanding light-rail system, which is widely supported by the communities it serves.

Vancouver's Skytrain runs on its own tracks, separated from roads, which eliminates conflicts that are frequent on a road system. For that reason, it's almost always on time.

Skytrain's engines -- linear induction motors -- have no moving parts and rarely need maintenance, making the system one of the most reliable in the world.

Skytrain uses only one kilowatt-hour of electricity per 5.9 passenger miles -- about the same amount of power it takes to run a color TV for three hours, and far less than other rapid transit systems.

It's quieter than most vehicles. Skytrain's noise emissions are comparable to those of an electric trolley bus.

It produces no air pollution; its fully automatic cars do not have drivers; and it can run as frequently as one-and-a-half minutes apart. Go online to http://www.rapidtransit.bc.ca/frameset.html for more info on Vancouver's Skytrain project.

Wendell Lum
Co-Chairman, Planning Committee
Kaneohe Neighborhood Board

State shouldn't close Ala Wai Golf Course

I believe the best use of the Ala Wai Golf Course land is its current usage.

Don't we have enough golf courses on Oahu already? Do we need to close one and create another one just because the governor wants Honolulu to be like other mainland big cities?

Does the state have such a great surplus that funds can be used on such a non-critical proposal while our public schools are in need of physical repair and fiscal support? The University of Hawaii needs more support, too, if we want our best and brightest young people to stay at home and help Hawaii grow in the 21st century.

Michael F. Tanigawa

Drivers continue to pay for mistakes of others

Dianne Minter's Dec. 26 letter, "There's a better way than pay-at-the-pump," hit the nail on the head. As she points out, there is now and has been for many years an obvious way to enforce the mandatory insurance coverage laws in this state. We can do it by simply taking away the registration and auto licenses of those who cancel that insurance.

The Legislature for years has ignored this obvious solution, giving blatant law breakers a complete break by not putting this solution into effect and costing the remaining 80 percent of us who pay our insurance and abide by the law considerably more money. Yet now, the Legislature would have us pay even more money to subsidize these scofflaws.

At the same time, the state is proposing to put into effect a privately operated, for-profit photographic traffic enforcement system with no safeguards for individual liberty or the rights of those wrongfully accused by this system.

Does anyone think that the state will be successful in collecting fines from those same scofflaws who pay no insurance, have unregistered vehicles and license plates and who are "caught" by this new version of big brother?

The rest of us will again pay the price for those who choose to ignore the law and for whom the state apparently has virtually unlimited sympathy.

Ted Meeker
Kaneohe

Quotables "If we say we want change, let's make it from the top." Linda Dela Cruz OFFICE OF HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS TRUSTEE Explaining her support for new OHA Chairwoman Haunani Apoliona over previous leader Clayton Hee "You would think it would be the income questions, but the one I heard the most flak about was about how many toilets you had in your house." Michael Zdan 2000 CENSUS WORKER FROM WILKES-BARRE, PA. Recalling the pitfalls of collecting census data which the Census Bureau will begin releasing this week

Media mishandled massacre story again

The massacre in Massachusetts brings some of the ugliness of our society to the fore just one more time. I'm not referring to the murders, horrific as they are, but rather to the press coverage of events of this sort.

I've heard way too many reporters mention that the holiday timing makes this even worse, as if grief is subject to superlatives. I seriously doubt that they have found any surviving victims who have said, "My (insert relationship of loved one) is dead and I am sad, but wait, this is Christmas so I'm REALLY sad."

It's as if the media are gloating over the timing of the tragedy and their good fortune in getting to cover a mass murder replete with extra emotional baggage.

They should, instead, leave these people alone with their private grief and turn their attention to the real culprits: the National Rifle Association and its supporters who have fought so hard to guarantee this lunatic's right to own this deadly arsenal.

As always happens, this newspaper will soon be inundated with a plethora of NRA letters claiming that were everyone at that office armed, the body count following the inevitable firefight would have been much lower.

I can't help but wonder how low the body count would have been had there been NO guns. I wonder, too, when the news media will have the courage to cover this aspect of the story instead of wallowing gloriously in the grief of others.

Andrew Thomas

Services for abused kids is appreciated

It is wonderful that people today have a place to go for help at the Hale Ola abuse shelter (Star-Bulletin, Dec. 25).

I was in a very abusive relationship myself before and after I had my first child. I wish that I had someplace like Hale Ola to go to when I was home in Hawaii.

I live in the mainland now and have remarried a man who is a wonderful husband and father.

God bless all who work with adults and children of abusive relationships, and who help to make their lives a little easier.

Wilma P. Liberty
Florissant, Mo.

Being an independent source of news is vital

I've been watching with great interest the possible shutdown and/or sale of the Star-Bulletin. I've been reading the education news (and other items that catch my eye) in your online edition for the past two years.

We include your paper in the Headline News that Eisenhower National Clearinghouse produces daily when you report education news about Hawaii that is of interest to a national readership. Your service to Hawaii and the country as an independent news source is crucial.

I wish all Star-Bulletin workers the best in what must be stressful times, and during the holidays and new year.

Laura K. Brendon
Information Services Coordinator,
Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for
Mathematics and Science Education
Columbus, Ohio

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