Kauai police strive to serve public

I am writing this letter to reassure the community that despite all of the bad publicity the Kauai Police Department has received these past few months, the officers and civilian employees strive to serve the public as best as possible.

We also want to make it known that, working with Acting Chief Wilfred Ihu and his staff, we have opened up tremendous lines of communication and developed one of the best working relationships between management and labor.

Once again, to the citizens of Kauai, we will continue to provide you the best possible services and commitment to do our jobs as best as we can.

Stanton Koizumi
Kauai Chapter Board of Directors
State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers

Modest proposal would solve smoking problem

A smoking ban in restaurants and public places is not only unconstitutional but a waste of time. There is absolutely no need to trod on the rights and the disgusting habits of smokers. For years, I have proposed a more attractive two-point alternative to ensure smokers their unalienable right to poison themselves.

>> First, all smokers will be required to enclose their heads in a plastic bag where they can enjoy 100 percent of the smoke their cigarettes produce. Besides eliminating secondhand smoke, this will reduce the nauseous odor that smokers are totally unaware of, that emanate from their hair, clothes and breath.

>> Second, they will be required to wear a gallon can around their necks to dispose of their cigarette butts. The most obvious benefit from this will be no cigarettes on sidewalks, streets and our beautiful beaches.

The issue of how to accomplish all this without opening the plastic bag to light up, much less breathe, is their problem; but they will be allowed to light up whenever and wherever they please. Penalty for any breach of these rules would be a lifetime vacation with the Taliban in the picturesque mountains of Afghanistan.

Royle Kaneshige

[Quotables] "She's been there through all my marriages, and her favorite words were always, 'I told you so.'" Melveen Leed One of the Local Divas, speaking at the memorial about singing partner Loyal Garner, who died Nov. 15. "It's a gift for us ... We have memories of our son that will live within us for a long time." Tatsuyoshi Mizuguchi Father of Ehime Maru victim Takeshi Mizuguchi, on the recovery of his son's digital camera from the sunken vessel. Images were successfully downloaded from the camera, even though it had been underwater for eight months.

Unnecessary SUVs harm U.S. interests

Owners and drivers of SUV's and 4-wheel drive trucks, did you know:

>> The current average automobile gas mileage is at 1963 levels, back when we all drove big Detroit iron with huge V-8 engines that got 15 mpg on a good day.

>> Half the vehicles on the road these days are SUVs, legally classified as trucks, and thus exempt from the federal rules about mileage economy.

>> Given the current situation, this helps keep us dependent on Middle Eastern oil and firmly attached to the Saudi Arabian tit. This severely limits our geopolitical options.

>> If we were not so dependent on their oil, we might be able to allow and encourage the political and social change needed to make the fanatic Islamics less attractive to their poor populations.

>> Instead, our government currently supports some real bad actors in order to ensure our supply of cheap oil.

If you don't go off-road frequently or carry loads appropriate to a truck, driving an SUV harms our efforts to deal with terrorism and is a crime against the planet as well.

Please, let's all do our part to be more responsible Americans -- sell your SUV, or better yet, scrap it and get a moped!

Hunt Johnsen

Dem or GOP, Anderson is the better candidate

As a former Republican, I applaud Andy Anderson's decision to run for governor as a Democrat.

The mind-set of the current Republican Party in Hawaii has been clearly demonstrated by having Linda Lingle as its leader. The conservative and liberal agendas that were the basis for the two-party system have been set aside in favor of special interests.

When she was the mayor of Maui, Lingle turned her back on several true Republicans who did not support the Christian Coalition and its anti-abortion agenda.

The question is, do we want a politician or a statesman to run our state. I look at Lingle and other candidates as being politicians. They put their finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing and make their decisions accordingly. Getting the vote is the most important thing to them, whereas a statesman looks at a situation and does what's best for the state without considering the fact that he or she may lose a few votes.

Of all the candidates running for governor, I think Anderson is the only one that has the potential of being a statesman. I congratulate him on running as a Democrat instead of remaining a Lingle Republican.

Foster Hull

Insured homeowners benefit state

The governor's plan to pillage the Hurricane Relief Fund has homeowners stirred up like hornets for obvious reasons.

Let's hope Mother Nature does not stir up a catastrophic hurricane in the islands in the coming years. Besides, we had major strikes in '82 and '92. And with climate models suggesting a mild El Nino next year, our odds of a serious storm are increasing, not to mention global warming perhaps causing an increase in frequency and strength of El Nino episodes, which are closely related to hurricane hits in Hawaii.

If the governor does not flat out return the money to those who paid into the fund, then he should at least allow one's fair share of contributions to be rolled over into a private insurance fund.

It would be to the state's benefit to have home owners well-insured when (not if) a hurricane strikes.

Patrick Caldwell
Kailua

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