Most valuable soldiers are teachers, nurses

The recent debate between Sen. Robert Byrd and Tommy Thompson on the readiness of our public health system to cope with a biological attack highlights the demise of the School of Public Health in Hawaii in lieu of the governor's "Beach Blanket" investments over years past.

The billion-dollar proposals of the governor for the emergency legislative session will do nothing to blunt a biological-chemical attack. The governor's low priorities -- public health and public education (K-12) should be the highest priorities now as we face attacks in the biological-chemical area.

It would be useful for students to be prepared to diagnose symptoms and treatments that might face them in the future. New buildings will not give us the information we need across the entire student population. Teachers and public health nurses will be key in the coming war.

Jerry Dowling, M.D.

Let tourist industry bear its own burden

Sept. 11 has shown us yet again how vulnerable our tourism-only economy is. Now our elected officials want to throw another $10 million at the industry.

One of them even said we need to "think out of the box" to save tourism. Well, tourism is the box and we will be buried in it unless we diversify.

State-sponsored tourism has hamstrung both our ability to support diversification and to even consider diversification.

Hawaii has the best advertising in the world in the form of beautiful beaches, a great climate and friendly, diverse people. If the tourist industry thinks there should be more, that's fine, but let it pay for it the way other businesses do.

So what to do with all that state money instead? How about loans for innovative research ideas such as the fuel cells touted in the Star-Bulletin on Sept. 23?

How about developing agriculture that grows food we can actually eat? How about re-training some of those laid-off tourism-industry workers? And finally, how about improving our schools so they produce graduates for innovative fuel-cell companies to scoop up?

If instead we go down the same old road again, I hope that the legislators who vote for it will at least have the decency to not run for re-election.

Scott Rowland

Let's pay tourists to come here

We don't need tax credits or more unemployment compensation. They won't solve Hawaii's economic problem. What we need are tourists.

Let's have the state government and the tourist industry subsidize all airline tickets for three months. Say you can fly round trip to Hawaii from Japan and/or the continental United States for $50 the first week; $75 the second week; $100 the third week; $125 the fourth week. Travel to Hawaii must take place the week the ticket is purchased. After three months, the cost would be up to $300, but things should be getting back to normal and the program could end.

More importantly, we will have succeeded in filling the flights, which in turn will have filled the hotels and restaurants. Money is being spent, jobs are being created and retained and tax revenues are being generated as the money flows through the economy.

This is a short-term solution with immediate results. It will give government and industry a chance for a long-term solution. Tourists can't resist a good deal. Let's make Hawaii the best travel value available.

Peter Savio

[Quotables] "She's not my only option. She's my best option. She's constantly asking for the ball." Margaret Vakasausau University of Hawaii Wahine setter, on hitter Kim Willoughby, who hammered 36 kills and broke her own record for kills in a four-game match in the Wahine win over Texas-El Paso Friday. "This is a challenging time, but it is also a time to show what we are really made of." The Rev. Dan Chun Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, and one of many representatives of local churches and social service agencies that have banded together under the name Hawaii Together to coordinate services for those hurt by the post-Sept. 11 economic crisis.

Sense of confidence can improve economy

The Sept. 11 tragedy in Washington, D.C., New York and Pennsylvania, has triggered numerous grassroots ideas and comments on how to cope with the terrorists and the economic tragedy of the aftermath.

The military experts will (I hope) cautiously resolve the problem of how to get Osama bin Laden and his uncivilized followers.

My concern is the more people fear and worry about the next terrorist attack and attempt to conserve by refusing to travel and to forego spending, the worse the country will be, economically.

The psychology of the human mind is the crux of the problem. Confidence and optimism in the American economy can go a long way in helping us recover.

Toshio Chinen

Peace will come only with change in policy

The column by John Flanagan, "Citizens explore terrain where policy and practice collide," (Star-Bulletin, Sept. 27), is about as close to the truth as I've seen in the media.

If our policy in the Middle East for the past 40 years had been evenhanded, instead of favoring Israel, these terrorist organizations wouldn't have been able to organize and grow.

Ronald Montaperto of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies and Professor Ibrahim Aoude at the University of Hawaii are right in saying that our policy must change if we want peace there.

My thought is that you can't take away someone's home after he's lived there for 400 years and expect him to go away peacefully. Israel is finding out the hard way that its policy isn't right.

The American people better wake up to the fact that we might capture Osama bin Laden and his cohorts, but there will be many more bin Ladens to take his place if our policy in the Middle East doesn't change.

Fred Cavaiuolo

War against terrorism is necessary fight

I live in California, but I grew up in Hawaii. Looking at the Star-Bulletin pictures reminds me of college days when students who did not understand the issues took the first chance to protest against violence thinking, very simply, that if we don't do anything we will be safe. The other side has another agenda and another set of rules and there is a time when you must defend yourself.

Stopping U. S. actions in Afghanistan will not cause the Taliban and Osama bin Laden to stop their long-term plans to destroy any culture that doesn't agree with their extreme fundamentalist views. They even want to destroy other Islamic cultures who are not as extreme as they are.

Don't just jump on the bandwagon and say that all wars are unjust. Some are.

Arthur R. Fu
Rolling Hills Estate, Calif.

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