Return hurricane fund to people who paid it

The Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund will close shop at the end of the year with $200 million left over. Fund officials complain that a rebate to the hundreds of thousands of people who paid into the fund is too complicated a problem to make work.

I have a simple solution: Create a flat tax credit of a few hundred dollars to people who can check on their returns that they were a fund policy holder or that they paid the mortgage tax. The money in the fund will be used to pay for the tax credit.

Although a flat tax credit will overcompensate some and undercompensate others a little here and there, it will achieve the basic purpose of getting some of the money in the fund back to the people who paid it. Far better than letting the state use the money for some unknown purpose.

Martin Lau

U.S. treatment of gays repeats flaws of past

The United States is proving to the world that the freedoms that we spout off about are nothing more than an illusion. We talk about equality and justice for all, however discrimination in government, religion and on personal levels thrives. Some of our lawmakers in Washington, D.C., want to amend our Constitution to ban same-sex marriage and its benefits once and for all.

Marriage is a personal -- not governmental or religious -- symbol of ultimate affection between two people and should not be meddled with by self-proclaimed "morally straight" individuals. Today, Germany, which learned from the mistakes of its past, is becoming one of the first countries to grant same-sex partners all the benefits to which every person in that country is entitled.

In contrast, America is stripping its citizens of rights and freedoms in the name of morality, which can only lead us backwards from the place where Germany regrets it has already been.

Braddoc DeCaires

Punahou area is wrong place for project

I cannot think of a worse place for family housing than the Punahou Vista 54-unit project proposed for the Fernhurst site. The Punahou Vista will include 48 two-bedroom apartments, which means that there will be at least 50 -- and potentially 100-plus -- children living in the building.

The intersection of Punahou Street and Wilder Avenue has historically been one of the most dangerous intersections on the island and thus presents a danger to those children who will have very little or no space to play on the grounds. Parks and public schools are not in the immediate area and the closest ones involve crossing busy streets. As a social worker, I feel that family housing at this busy intersection is truly a disservice to parents and children. Are our government officials concerned with just providing low-income housing or providing truly appropriate housing?

Honolulu has recently been named the densest cities in the United States. It just doesn't make sense to add an eight-story, 54-unit family housing project to one of the densest neighborhoods of the densest city.

Kathy Holden

[Quotables] "In reality, they are both equally viable theories of origin." Robert A. Morgan, A creationist, testifying before the Hawaii Board of Education in favor of teaching public school students creationism as a theory on how life evolved on Earth. "As a pastor, I don't want your teachers teaching my kids about religion." The Rev. Mike Young, Pastor of First Unitarian Church, testifying against teaching creationism in Hawaii public schools. The BOE voted unanimously Thursday to drop a proposal to change the science curriculum to include creationist theory.

Thomas ordeal wasn't about free speech

I was amused at the impassioned letters you published attacking the American Civil Liberties Union board's initial failure to invite Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to its 2003 First Amendment Conference. Many of the writers were outraged that his views were being "suppressed" and his First Amendment rights were being "violated."

One writer was magnanimous enough to suggest that if all 12 board members who voted against the recommended invitation resigned, it would made a modest beginning in restoring his (or her) good opinion of the organization.

None of these irate writers seemed familiar with the view that the First Amendment was never a real issue here because it is designed to protect citizens from government suppression of speech.

Rick Loras

Serialized novel is needlessly graphic

I have been following Don Chapman's My Kind of Town "novel" for a while now, and am concerned about the direction it is taking. The Aug. 1 graphic description of the attempted rape at gunpoint accompanied by the thoughts going through the woman's head as she lay pinned on the bed was a little more than I care -- or need -- to see in my daily newspaper.

Freedom of speech and artistic expression are great, but this type of explicit sexual description is simply gratuitous. We read daily about real violence to women; this fictionalized writing serves no other purpose than shock value.

The novel is enjoyable reading; keep it going, but in a style more appropriate for the medium and readers.

Helen Gibson Ahn

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