National anthrax scare is overblown

Would someone please check my math? Every year more than 250,000 Americans die from smoking-related diseases, a voluntary activity. More than a few hundred American motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists die each year in accidents that might have been prevented with better safety design of roads.

So far authorities have confirmed that only one person has died from anthrax. Am I missing something or maybe I just can't count? Where are our collective priorities?

Tom Smyth

[Quotables] "We've received threatening mail we've turned over to the AG's (attorney general's) office and the police. We don't make people happy." Leslie Ann Hayashi District judge, on the dangers of opening her own mail, as other judges do "I know there's no hope, but I have to confirm it with my own eyes. I'm looking forward to the day when I can hold him and his belongings and his ring." Mika Makizawa Widow of missing Ehime Maru crewman Hiyoshi Maikizawa, whose wedding band was discovered aboard ship by Navy divers

Giving money to tourism is a waste

Let me see if I got this right. We are going to spend millions to encourage tourists to come to Hawaii in spite of the following:

>> No one in his right mind would fly these days unless there was an emergency.

>> People can't afford a vacation under economic conditions that exist today. They don't know if they will have a job tomorrow.

>> We are in a war. The best place to be is home.

>> There is a worldwide anthrax scare.

>> And if the above isn't enough, Hawaii has a dengue epidemic.

Don't flush money down the toilet by giving it to the visitors bureau. Spend it on the unemployed, food assistance and helping small businesses stay afloat until times change.

Donald Allen

Hawaii needs passenger ships

Our sinking economy needs the return of boat days. The problem is that people cannot get here from the mainland without flying.

The airlines have cut passenger service. Our hotels are losing millions a day. Interisland cruise ships are being mothballed. Jobs are being lost.

I ask our senior U.S. senator to obtain a suspension of the Jones Act that would permit cruise ships to provide passenger service between the mainland and Hawaii. To be sure, the effort has been made several times to overcome the onerous impact of the Jones Act, but never under such national emergency conditions and with an uptight public. Daniel Inouye is the only one who can accomplish this now.

When ships again provide passenger service between the mainland and Hawaii, people can get to Hawaii without airplanes. Oahu will again have boat day, perhaps without young boys diving for coins, but with music, dancing, lei greetings and new friends.

E. Alvey Wright

Critics don't dispute Trask's argument

It is very revealing that the detractors of Haunani-Kay Trask's opinion had nothing to say that disproved her remarks. I have to wonder why your paper would print these remarks from people who obviously have no logic or evidence to back up their opinions.

Would they be willing to debate Ms. Trask in public? Go fact-to-fact and issue-to-issue with her?

Let's get real and have real debate. Let's see who's political and historical analysis is correct. Print that!

Steven Tayama
Waimanalo

In Afghanistan, Trask would be silenced

Haunani-Kay Trask doesn't seem to realize that the United States has given her many opportunities to make a career for herself. Please don't misunderstand me; Trask must have worked hard to get where she is, but I'm sure if she was in Afghanistan, she would be beaten senseless for her opinions and suffer horrible brutalities because of the fact that she is a woman.

The United States may have intervened on issues that have caused us, as Americans, certain backlashes. However, we have weathered each one and come out stronger both as a nation and a state.

Face it, whether Trask likes it or not, she's as American as I am: Deal with it. The U.S. Constitution that protects educators like Trask also gives me the freedom to exercise mine as I am doing right now. Trask should remember that.

By the way, I am Hawaiian, born and raised on 2nd Road of Nanakuli Avenue and Keaulana Avenue next to Zablan beach. I moved to Florida 10 years ago, and I've never been more proud to be not only Hawaiian, but also American.

Five thousand, five hundred people didn't have to die for you to feel this way. What exactly did they do to you?

Jolette Kauinohea Bowman
Orlando, Fla.

ACLU uses fees to provide free service

Tom Peters misdirects his concern about court-awarded attorneys' fees to the American Civil Liberties Union (Letters, Oct. 17).

Negotiation is always our first course of action. The ACLU files lawsuits only as a last resort when the government refuses to correct an uncon- stitutional practice.

Federal law provides attorneys fees as a check and balance on bad governance. If government has to pay for its abuses, public officials might act more responsibly in the future.

Attorneys' fees underwrite the ACLU's costs of providing free legal services to the community statewide. The ACLU takes no government funds in order to independently fulfill its mission to defend the Bill of Rights and relies primarily on individual contributions.

We do not like to see taxpayer money spent needlessly. Direct your ire at government officials, for if they fulfilled their oath of office to uphold the Constitution, there would be no need for lawsuits and attorneys' fees.

Vanessa Chong
Executive Director
American Civil Liberties Union-Hawaii

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