Don't use hurricane fund to boost economy

The Hurricane Relief Fund was established to insure homeowners should any hurricane strike.

The money should be used for its intended purpose or returned to the homeowners. Any other use would amount to bait and switch.

Governor Cayetano should be criticized for suggesting the depletion of the fund to meet the current economic crisis.

Drew E. Kosora

Aloha Stadium rules are nonsense

I've been a season ticket-holder for University of Hawaii football games since the days of Hank Vasconcellos and Skippy Dyer, but you can count me out after this if the Aloha Stadium staff is going to take fiendish delight in making visits to the place as disagreeable as possible.

I revere "The General" (stadium general manager Les Keiter) -- he and I have been friends and colleagues for 40 years -- but I fear his minions are staying up nights thinking of new ways to make patrons miserable.

No one objects to a bag search. In fact, we welcome it. But a football game is an eight-hour, door-to-door experience and that requires certain equipment. Last weekend, stadium officials decreed no bags, no umbrellas, no rain gear, no purses, no heavy breathing and no joy. Can anyone tell me how to get from my car to the stadium in a goodish rain with no umbrella without getting soaked?

My wife and I had to make our soggy way up the steps (we are in row 45) carrying in our arms two binoculars, two radio headsets, two sweaters (probably illegal), two ponchos, which they gave us after we got drenched, one pair of bifocals in a case, a small purse, the media guide, the Star-Bulletin and a bag of Okinawan donuts. (At $l, a good buy.) As we had no bag to put this stuff in, we stuck it under the seats where somebody kicked a container of beer over it.

At halftime I went to the men's room and the usher wouldn't let me back to my seat because my ticket stub was upstairs. Somebody finally vouched for me. And because I was forced to park in an area strange to me, it took 20 minutes to find my car. Things look different in the dark, especially through beer-stained glasses.

This morning I woke up with the first cold I've had in years. Who needs this?

Jim Becker

Red, white and blue scarce in Hawaii

I returned recently from three-week trip to California and Ohio. While on the mainland, I noticed the tremendous display of patriotic paraphernalia. I left the mainland with a good feeling.

The first morning after my return, I took my usual two-mile walk through my neighborhood in Mililani Mauka. I noticed a dearth of red, white and blue. I thought that this lack could have been caused by the fact that most of the buildings that I passed were condominium townhouses and entry ways were not visible.

On another day, I took a different route through a single-family home area. What I saw was better than the previous day, but still insignificant in comparison to the mainland. Other areas might be better or worse. However, in my opinion, it is a pathetic showing as compared to the rest of the country. Does anybody know why?

William G. Burlingame Sr.

[Quotables] "My heart is still hurting. We had a peaceful family life. Ever since the incident occurred, it was shattered." Masumi Terata Mother of a student aboard the Ehime Maru when it was struck Feb. 9 by the USS Greeneville. Divers will begin searching the sunken vessel this week for the remains of the nine people whose bodies were never recovered. "Sooner or later, it will get wetter ... Winter is coming; rain is coming. Now is the time to do the right thing." Paul Effler State epidemiologist, on the spread of dengue fever and the need to maintain efforts to eradicate mosquito breeding places, such as standing water, on Oahu and other islands where the fever has been detected.

Five years is long enough on welfare

Five years on entitlements should be long enough for anybody to get back on their feet and off of welfare. In five years you can go back to college and get a bachelor's degree in anything. In 90 days you can get into a company and pass a standard probationary test. Yes the Sept. 11 attacks did set our economy back, however welfare recipients have had an opportunity to get back on their feet well before the attacks.

When people demand entitlements longer than five years, I get completely disgusted because five years should be long enough for someone to find a job and work for a living. Their kid was born, and should be in public school already, no excuse for staying at home unless they're cranking out babies, then it's a moral issue.

When my times got tough, I worked harder, I didn't resort to welfare. If I die with a wrench in my hands at least I can say I worked hard for my family and died with dignity and not clutching a welfare check. That's something my parents taught me and that's what I teach my children: work hard and live respectfully.

Craig Watanabe

Land for public facilities is scarce

Why are some doctors urging the reclassification of prime agricultural land to urban use? Doctors at Wahiawa hospital have testified that a new facility is urgently needed. They want to build Castle & Cooke's Koa Ridge project, which is now before the Land Use Commission. It will be years, if ever, before all the approvals are in place to allow building.

Castle & Cooke already had 104 acres zoned for public facilities in Mililani Mauka on which building could start much sooner. However, the developer requested this land to be rezone to residential, which the city Planning Commission recently approved. The land would hold about 800 homes.

Land zoned for public facilities is not easy to come by. Right now Castle & Cooke's Koa Ridge project envisions rezoning over 1,250 acres of prime agricultural land to build houses and has designated 210 of those acres for public facilities, a portion of which would go to Wahiawa Hospital.

Are we willing to simply let go of 100 public facilities acres in view of the price we must pay in open space for such land? It will be up to the City Council to decide.

Pearl Johnson
President
League of Women Voters of Honolulu

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