Gambling will add jobs -- in damage control

I agree that gambling in Hawaii will provide more jobs. We will need more substance abuse counselors, marriage counselors, credit counselors and gambling addiction counselors, not to mention more police, social workers, foster parents, clergy and coroners.

This issue is emotional to the children whose families have been destroyed by gambling. Gambling is the Big Bad Wolf. It will promise you good times, but in the end it will "huff" and "puff" and "blow" our very sensitive, caring, family-oriented communities away.

Read the studies on the effects of gambling in communities throughout the United States. Add them to the equation before misleading the people of Hawaii.

John Ornellas
Lanai City, Lanai

Felix has guts to tell truth about budget

Councilman John Henry Felix's article, "Smoke and mirrors of city budget," (Star-Bulletin, June 8) was very insightful for those of us in the silent-majority who trust elected officials. He carefully explained the complex budget debt burden problem and noted that $1.12 billion dollars in city total indebtedness must be paid over the next 25 years.

My question is this: Is Felix the only councilman to get it? Are the other elected officials content to bring home the pork, knowing they will not be around as the city's debt payment explodes?

And where is the media in this? It appears that they have missed the boat.

Wake up taxpayers!

Steve Arashiro

[Quotables] "She's Miss Honolulu. Together we're Miss Honolulu Hawaii." Denby Dung, Newly crowned Miss Hawaii, at right, about competing with her sister Dana-Li for the state title. "Rats apparently find it quite tasty." Katie Swift, Biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, discussing a proposal to make aerial drops of rat-poison pellets into Hawaii forests to help protect rare and endangered native Hawaiian plants and birds.

It's time to pull back military forces

The time is right for the U.S. military and political diplomacy to move in the direction of "bringing the boys home." Europe has gotten stronger with the unification of Germany and the dissolution of the Soviet Empire. The time is right to decrease our military presence in NATO.

We cannot use our troops for policing other regions (e.g. the Balkans). We need to be able to resort to overwhelming force, if appropriate, as we did in the Persian Gulf War. But we also need to let other regions police themselves -- stabilization needs to be "home grown." We need to troops home from South Korea and Okinawa. Other Pacific regional locations can be pursued. We made arrangements with Singapore when we left Clark and Subic in the Philippines.

More importantly, we need to shed prejudices: "Are they like us? Do they look like us? Do they believe what we believe?"

Respecting other nations is not inconsistent with developing our own defense systems. While I have some reservations as to how other nations will view the recently announced terrorist response system, our strategic need in this area is clear. President Bush has put together a thoughtful group of political diplomats and military strategists. This team can lead us to a safer world and allow us to weather the squalls of other regions as they stabilize and develop their own brands of democracy and free-markets.

Daniel M. Finley
Volcano, Hawaii

Where's the aloha in gouging tourists?

I've been coming out to your beautiful islands for the past nine years now and will again in 2002. Lately I've been searching the net for golfing fees at various courses and found several rates, and I have a problem with paying three times the rate a local pays. Could you explain this system to me? If you were to come to my country you would pay the very same fee as I would. I understand that you rely on tourist dollars to support your economy, but don't you think that's a bit much? Mahalo, for letting me vent my frustration.

William Kovacs

Niagara on the Lake

Ontario, Canada

Pitbull was dangerous in unfamiliar place

Not much thought was given to the situation with that pitbull who killed a child and mauled his mother on the Big Island.

The dog thinks his master has given him a new territory to guard. The friends become intruders in this territory. His job is to attack and kill intruders. He tries mightily to carry this out, finally slips his collar and completes his assignment.

His master obviously had no idea what he was doing. The incident was classified as a home accident, as when someone is shot and the friend who did it "didn't know the gun was loaded." People own dogs and know hardly anything about them. Dog owners need training like responsible gun owners.

Dogs can be trained to simply chase off intruders without attacking unless the intruder turns on them. They can be trained never to bark unless an intruder actually enters the property (think how quiet things will become), making them a really valuable guard dog. A guard dog who barks like crazy at passersby or when other dogs bark is useless. The owner never investigates the barking.

Ted Chernin
Pearl City

Lingle should follow Bush' example

The state Republican Party's decision to welcome an openly gay speaker at its annual convention was wrong and narrow-minded. For example, while I do not oppose President George. W. Bush's appointment of an open homosexual as the new director of the National AIDS Policy Office, I do applaud the president's decision to discontinue former President Clinton's practice of observing "Gay and Lesbian Pride Month" in June.

It appears Hawaii Republican Chairperson Linda Lingle is a bit confused over the gay issue as it relates to her own party. Lingle should remain loyal to the values of her own president who recently stated that every person should be treated with dignity and respect but does not believe in politicizing people's sexual orientation.

Andre LeMond

Christians aren't at fault for attack on gays

As I was reading the Star-Bulletin's June 1 article, "Mom claims mistaken ID in gay attacks," I couldn't believe that gay activist Martin Rice was blaming the assault of the gay campers on fundamentalist Christians.

If we look at the facts of the case, it is obvious that fundamentalist Christians had nothing to do with this attack. One of the mothers of the accused stated that neither of the boys accused of the attack practice any religion and that they didn't hold any prejudice against homosexuals.

It seems probable that alcohol and drug abuse contributed more than anything to this senseless attack.

Vanessa Birang

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