Kingly governor and
cowardly Legislature

State legislators passing the buck

The proposed bill that gives the governor emergency powers are nothing more than state legislators pretending to do something when they are, in fact, passing the buck.

It is a way they can blame the governor for bad decisions or they can take credit for giving him added power.

If businesses are suffering under state regulations, let's fix the regulations or draft specific measures to assist them. Legislators need to step up to the plate instead of waiting for the boss to tell them what to do.

Gil Riviere

Governor shouldn't have kingly powers

Citizens who value our system of checks and balances between the legislative and executive branches should be alarmed by the attempts of the governor and the Democratic majority to preempt our representative form of government.

There would not be the least public protection to safeguard against providing tax benefits, relief from lease rent and other rewards to political cronies. Not even President Bush has such power and our country is at war. The public must urge the state Legislature to say "no" to crowning the governor King Ben.

Janice Pechauer

Don't leave decisions to a lame duck

If the Senate votes anything but "no" on the bill to allow Governor Cayetano to have emergency powers, they should just leave office.

This is not a Democrat vs. Republican issue; it's about checks and balances. The president of the United States does not have that power, nor does New York Gov. George Pataki, whose state lost more than 5,000 people and is now under an anthrax attack.

This bill shows that rather than work toward a solution to our problems the state Legislature just gives up and passes the responsibilities to a lame-duck governor.

Larry Williams

Legislators shy away from tough decisions

The bill that would give Governor Cayetano emergency powers is outrageous to Republicans, Libertarians and constitutionalists who are used to checks and balances and who have a hard time trusting that a tax-and-spend Democrat won't use these special powers to boost public sentiment for a greater dependency on government for the answers to economic challenges.

If the public ends up liking this, what's next, a kingdom or a dictatorship?

If state legislators pass this bill as expected, they are admitting that they lack the ability or the resolve to address these issues, which are rightly their kuleana.

Perhaps they don't have the stomach for doing the right things, which are to relieve the tax burden on struggling small businesses and cut government services and spending wherever possible (not across the board) so that the economy and not the government can grow.

David Moncrief

[Quotables] "It was scary to me. I felt the fear that this was going to start all over again." Evelyn Marko Kaimuki resident, 87, who recalled the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor as she watched television coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. "People who I've never met, never seen, come from across the street, wave and come talk to me almost every day." Birendra Huja Honolulu physician who is bearded and wears a turban, on people apologizing to him for the backlash against Muslims from the Mideast, even though he is a Sikh from India.

Torii gate is not a religious threat

Unless the city and state governments are trying to endorse Shintoism and make it the state's primary religion, I see no reason why any individual would feel threatened by the erection of the torii gate in Moiliili.

It is purely a symbol of friendship and unity, not an effort to undermine the U.S. Constitution or our religious beliefs, or to pursue a monotheistic plurality. These individuals that insist that issues such as this should be discouraged need to look at the meaning behind the gift, not try to delve into the most minor possibility that someone is trying to pressure them into something.

This is still America and everyone still has the right to choose their own path and this in no way compels anyone into a belief not of his or her choosing or discriminates against any individual or group.

Christopher Murphy

Bush administration ignored world's needs

A reading of the book of Jeremiah in the Bible tells of a man who spoke an uncomfortable message and was thrown into a cistern to rot rather than having the King relate to the message.

Terrible as Osama bin Laden's methods may be, there is a message that few in government are heeding. We are intent on finding and bringing to justice those who did the terrible deed, but we are not intent on hearing that the United States must stop ignoring the needs of the world.

With the Bush administration best characterized by how it was not going to cooperate with the rest of the world, there is now a singular, old-fashioned focus on getting the bad guys.

Every six hours, more people die of hunger worldwide than died in the World Trade Center. Neither group deserves to die. Where are the prophetic voices urging the United States to look more compassionately at the rest of the world instead of the conspicuous consumption and narcissicism that characterizes American society?

Willis H. A. Moore

Trask plays two sides of the same coin

I have one question for Haunani-Kay Trask: When she cashes her paycheck from the University of Hawaii, does she actually accept and use those bills with the words "United States of America" printed on both sides? You know, the ones with men such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Andrew Jackson pictured on them? My, my, there are two sides to every story, aren't there?

Ellen Huntley

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