Don't force fluoride down people's throats

I am surprised to learn that our state plans to spend $100,000 to fluoridate the water of Lanai. For that much money, the state could supply fluoride tablets to all the children of the state, perhaps through the schools. This would assure that those who need it and want it would get the precise amount they need.

Instead, the state chooses to force fluoride down every throat on Lanai. The result will be that those who drink a lot of water will receive an overdose -- even adults who have no need for fluoride at all -- and those who do not drink tap water will receive none at all, even if they need it.

If fluoride is such a great benefit, then make it available to all of Hawaii's children who want it, with a precise economical system of distribution, and don't force it upon anyone who chooses not to take it.

Jamie Hunter
Piiholo, Maui

Lanai makes smart choice on fluoride

Having done research on Hawaii in the '50s and '60s on decay rates and the use of fluoride, I heartily congratulate Lanai for its decision to protect its children by public fluoridation of the water supply.

Frank L. Tabrah, M.D.
Professor, University of Hawaii School of Medicine

Pet fee is onerous for military families

In an Aug. 12 letter, Loretta Paling Allen asked why military personnel assigned to Hawaii complain so bitterly over the very high pet quarantine fees. She noted that she will be coming home to stay and apparently did not object to the $3,100 fee for her two cats.

There is a big difference. Allen considers the quarantine fee part of the one-time expense of her permanent move. However, $3,100 is several months' take-home pay for mid-grade enlisted soldiers or sailors who did not have any choice in accepting a temporary duty assignment in Hawaii.

Pets play an important role in young families, especially when the sailor, Marine or Coast Guardsman is immediately deployed to the Pacific and has to be away from his or her family for six months.

Our military families make many sacrifices for the rest of us. Accordingly, we kamaainas must find a way to welcome our military families to their duty in Hawaii with something better that a $3,100 quarantine bill.

Alan S. Lloyd
Kailua

Miracle equipment won't stop need to drill

In his Aug. 10 letter, Howard Wiig agrees with you that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge must be opposed. His reason is that the oil is not needed. In Hawaii he says micro-generators can meet the needs of our resorts for electricity and hot water for a fraction of the current oil use and cost. And our hotels, hospitals and apartment buildings can similarly benefit by putting concentrating solar collectors on their roofs.

If this is the case, then why haven't these large electricity users already rushed to install this miracle equipment? The reason, of course, is that this is pure energy dreaming, totally divorced from economic reality. It's about as economically realistic as Wiig's national proposal for "just switching everyone to new refrigerators" to avoid the need for numerous Alaskan refuge oil fields."

While there may be valid reasons to forego oil drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge, these specious arguments are certainly not among them.

Dick O' Connell

[Quotables] "I have fought this battle three legislative sessions. It's a political decision. I find that really frustrating." Virginia Lowell, State librarian, on her request for $1.7 million in emergency appropriations to buy books, furniture, equipment and staff the Kapolei Public Library. Even if the funding is OK'd, the library will sit vacant for two years awaiting the requested funds. Lowell had been against building the library without funding committed to hire staff and buy furnishings. "To be able to walk out on that football field again after all that has happened will be special." June Jones, University of Hawaii head football coach, on his return to fall practice after a nearly fatal car accident in February that left him in critical condition.

Feral pig attack was not imagined

I was outraged to read Richard McMahon's Aug. 7 letter ("Feral pig attack sounds fishy") doubting my experience with the feral pig. It was terrifying and truly real.

I do not believe the pig boldly strolled through Punaluu Town; he probably followed the Punaluu Stream at Green Valley Road and crossed to the beach under the highway bridge. My dog and I were equally startled. Why we were chased and attacked is anyone's guess. However, there was a witness further up the beach who saw the commotion.

Meanwhile, I have been recuperating in pain for almost three weeks, with sutures and staples now removed.

My question is why anyone would think I made this up. There is no gain.

The only reason this made the news is because Kahuku Hospital was required to call the Honolulu Police Department, and it was determined that people in my area should be aware of this incident.

Patsy Caulfield

Bush is wrong about suicide bombers

President Bush's use of the word, "cowardly," to condemn the latest Palestinian suicide bombing betrays an intellectual vacuum and the political corruption of language.

You can reasonably call a suicide bombing many things: fiendish, barbarous, fanatical, diabolical, atrocious, pathological. But to call a man who sacrifices his life for his cause a coward is to strip words of meaning.

Unless you accept Big Brother's newspeak slogans, "War is peace," "Freedom is slavery," "Ignorance is strength," a suicide bomber is courageous, not cowardly.

Recognizing this is uncontrovertible fact, you are forced to ponder this question: Why are young Palestinians willing to sacrifice their lives to perpetrate vengeful atrocities against their Israeli enemies?

Dubya seems incapable of the imaginative effort to ask this question, let alone answer it. He will predictably continue on the easy path, pretending that America is a helpless neutral, despite the overwhelming U.S. aid that finances Israel's retaliatory killings.

Dubya's Alfred-E.-Newman approach simply won't work.

C.W. Griffin

Use zipper lanes morning and night

It is about time we maximize the use of the TheBus and give the evening commuters a huge break by using the zipper lanes in the morning and in the evening rush hours on both sides of the center wall. In San Diego, the zipper lanes are permanent and used both in the morning and afternoon.

The permission to use the zipper lane with two or more people after 7 was a great improvement.

Jimbo Miura
Mililani

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