Mayor needs to erect a new monument

Well, it looks like Mayor Jeremy "Monument" Harris is still at it. Parts of the city still have the fragrance of a cesspool, but the monuments keep on coming.

Just two weeks ago, Harris unveiled a statue of Queen Kapiolani, with his own name prominently engraved on the base. Last week, he unveiled a statue of Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, again with the mayor's name in prominence on the base.

I've got a couple of ideas for new monuments. How about a Port-A-Johnny with the mayor's name on it? Or a statue of Robert Watada, director of the Campaign Spending Commission? Now, those would really tell the story of the Harris administration.

Robert R. Kessler
Waikiki

Defense of no intent won't work for mayor

Mayor Jeremy Harris claims to have no criminal intent in his methods of getting campaign contributions. Intent? It's not about intent. The law is the law, and if you break it, you must pay. Period.

When Hawaiian activist Bumpy Kanahele was on trial the procecutor and the judge did not care and would not hear about his intent being to defend his rights as a Hawaiian. They convicted him of breaking the law. Now let us see if the application of the law is equally applied.

Steve Tayama

[Quotables] "Do we really have that kind of threat here?" Jim Rath Big Island state representative, on extensive plans for a new state Capitol security system that will include video cameras, metal gates in the underground parking lot and a new building locking system. "They are about to get run over, and they are frozen. They don't have any new ideas, no solutions ..." Fred Hemmings Republican state senator, saying the Democrats are "like deer caught in the headlights" when it comes to stimulating Hawaii's stalled economy.

Bush plan ensures more oil dependence

On Jan. 9 the Bush administration stated it is giving up an eight-year, $1.5 billion program to produce highly fuel-efficient cars in favor of the development of hydrogen fuel-cell powered vehicles. Is this good news? Yes and no. This technology is at least a decade away. The new program, called the "Freedom Car," will not even require automakers to produce a fuel-cell powered vehicle.

What our oil president is really doing is assuring automakers that there will be no tougher federal fuel economy rules. America will continue to hog 25 percent of the world's energy with 5 percent of its population.

Americans want to save gas, but after $1.5 billion in research the car manufacturers still have little to offer. Honda and Toyota have two hydrid gas-electric cars on the market. These cars have ultra-high fuel efficiency and ultra-low emissions. Where is the tax credit for consumers for buying hybrid cars?

With the average SUV getting 10 to 15 mpg, hybrid technology must be incorporated into car manufacturing until we see hydrogen fuel-cell cars on the road and ready for mass production.

Why is there no sense of urgency? America helps fund terrorism with its addiction to Middle East oil.

Tom Sebas

Airport screeners should be professional

I wish to applaud columnist Dan Thomasson for his insights into the plight of air passengers ("Air travel may become too painful to bear," Jan. 14). While no rational person can argue against legitimate measures to insure the safety of the public, incivility and incompetence should not be tolerated in the name of national security.

For years airline employees have complained about dealing with rude and impatient customers. Unfortunately, this sometimes becomes part of the job description when you are in a competitive service business.

No one should have to tolerate crass behavior, personal insults or physical assaults as part of their employment, but could it be that the airline employees see the current situation as a chance for them to turn the tables, knowing that the government will back them as long as they can articulate some behavior that can be considered threatening?

The recent incident at the Honolulu airport illustrates how gullible the public has become. Countless people were cheated out of a day of their holiday vacations, not because of a legitimate security concern but because a baggage screener flunked a simple, routine quality-assurance test.

Yet these people were asked to accept it under the mantle of airline security. Let's advance legitimate safety measures but not tolerate incompetence or rudeness in the name of security.

Al Naclerio

Scratchpad piece lacks credibility

Thanks for the recognition from Burl Burlingame about my making history by making a public decision as state comptroller (Editor's Scratchpad, Jan. 7).

What Burlingame does not realize is that hundreds of state managers make difficult decisions on a regular basis. Not only are these decisions sound, but they are also public, in writing, and can be readily traced back to the maker.

Burlingame says that I interpreted "a state law that determines who can place legal notices in newspapers." The decision was made in the best interest of the public, to legally exercise a contract option and to initiate competitive procurement for timely public notices. No interpretation of law was involved. The decision was made on the basis of fairness and public service.

Burlingame has attributed my transfer to the Public Utilities Commission as going into hiding over this decision. The governor publicly announced my appointment to the PUC on Nov. 16, before the decision on Nov. 27.

Again, thanks for the recognition, but all in all, it's a good thing that Burlingame's remarks were confined to the limitations of the Editor's Scratchpad.

Wayne H. Kimura
Public Utilities Commission

Muslim silence raises questions of tolerance

I concur with the view expressed by columnist Betsy Hart (Star-Bulletin, Jan. 14). While I am an open-minded, spiritual type of person, I am concerned with the same thoughts she expressed.

I have been exposed to many theories on the "higher" realms of humanity, and each has its merits. However, the lack of any significant outcry by the Muslim community about the events of Sept. 11 is deafening.

If Osama Bin Laden's Islamic terrorist mantra is so onerous, and Islam is such a religion of peace and goodwill, why is it that wherever Islam becomes the dominant, state-mandated religion, then the tolerance for any other views has invariably been reduced or actively been eliminated? Actions do speak louder than words.

Bill Lane

American Taliban deserves death penalty

I am a very angry American regarding the government's plan not to seek the death penalty in the case of John Walker Lindh.

Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh was tried, convicted and sentenced to death and he even testified against his accomplice. Plus, there weren't as many deaths in the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City as there were in the Sept 11 attacks.

Yet, John Walker Lindh betrays our government by joining the Taliban, fights against the United States and even confesses to having knowledge of the attacks on Sept. 11 and because he says he has valuable information about the Taliban, his life will be spared? And, of all things, my tax dollars will be used to provide food, shelter and clothing for this traitor.

Robert D. Vernon

Waikiki

Slower traffic results in friendlier roads

Some may object to the new speeding ticket process. And I do applaud those other attorneys -- not me -- who will challenge the system's deficiencies and obtain judicial approval of a proper technology and process. But I must say I enjoy the slower traffic. So maybe it takes a bit of getting used to. So did the new stadium movie-theater seats.

And maybe it took me three to five minutes longer to get from Kailua to Aina Haina. The slower pace is less stressful and makes commuting tolerable, almost pleasant. Just wait until they stop the red light jumpers. It will start being safer again.

How about if everyone would be as pleasant and friendly as the drivers on Molokai are and we in Honolulu used to be. OK OK, that's too much to ask.

Elbridge W. Smith
Kailua

Slowing traffic reduces state's commerce

Only in Hawaii would we think of another way to slow down the speed of commerce or further tax small business to death. Anyone who takes care of business in Honolulu or across our island knows that traveling 45 or 50 mph means that you will not get as much business done here.

It's just another impediment in our faltering economy courtesy of our legislators. Let's get rid of guys like Cal Kawamoto and the other anti-business legislators of his ilk.

Peter Moore

Time is not right for traffic cameras

While there are many reasons drivers are distressed about the new traffic cameras, there are some specific, underlying reasons for the "rage" a majority of people appear to be feeling.

We humans are guided by our perceived reality. How things look to us goes a long way to determining our experience. In this psychological world of perceived reality, we are feeling ambushed and perhaps in an understandable way.

One primary attack to our psyche is the way this program arises. It is presented as if these cameras are an extension of regulatory methods for speeders. This disguises what we intuitively recognize -- that employing methods of social control which effectively regulate, judge and punish us and, by design, do so without human consideration, is a radically, insidiously new form of social control. The imposition of such a radical form of social control in such a disguised manner perhaps should enrage us.

Another primary influence on our rage and assault on our psyche has to do with the present context. Americans take their freedoms quite seriously. Indeed, the real target of the Sept. 11 terrorists appears to have been just that -- our freedom and perception of our freedom.

For the state to impose such cold, exacting regulation of our perceived freedoms during this crisis is itself experienced as an act of terrorism. We are outraged because at some deep level we feel attacked again. Even if this was a good idea, it is not a good time to impose it.

Wayne Giancaterino
Psychologist

Driving is a right with conditions

Whenever the subject is driving or traffic law enforcement, a number of people write letters to editors ignorantly proclaiming that driving is a privilege, not a right. I suppose these same people believe that voting or receiving Social Security is a privilege and not a right. Curiously, this same type can be found loudly proclaiming that receiving free health care, being given a good job, not being subjected to secondhand smoke or some other politically correct concept is a God-given right.

Driving is a right with qualifications and restrictions. If you meet the qualifications and adhere to restrictions -- and not speeding is one of them -- you have an absolute right under the law to drive, just like voting.

These people may have slept through high school civics, but the purpose of government in a free, representative democracy like the United States, of which Hawaii is a part, is to protect rights, not dispense privileges. Privileges are dispensed by parents to their children and by kings and despots to their subjects, not by greedy bureaucrats and politicians to the people whose rights they have sworn to protect and who pay their salaries.

Jack Schmidt
Kailua

Officials out of touch with angered public

Department of Transportation spokeswoman Marilyn Kali expressed surprise at people's attitudes toward the new traffic cameras and did not appear to understand why people are so angry about obeying the law. She misses the point.

These are normal citizens reacting angrily because they feel they are being duped by government. We have an unmarked van sneaking about town trying to catch you exceeding the speed limit, whether you're driving safely or not. In practice, I think the public views speed limits as reasonable guidelines for safe driving. Experienced drivers have noted that driving a few miles above the limit normally does not result in death.

This apparent new tone of government that even at 1 mph over the posted speed limit makes us somehow an unclean law-breaker deserving an immediate fine is what the public finds reprehensible.

We don't normally see this kind of hostility toward police officers in well-marked vehicles. The fact that these new law enforcers will make money from catching you going above the speed limit annoys the public. Oh sure, we could question the ticket, but it will cost us money to do that, too.

The anger is being shown because government has appeared to have lost touch with these taxpaying governed.

Guy P. Ontai
State Representative
Mililani, Mililani Mauka, and Launani Valley (R)

Speed dicta can cause dangerous driving

Driving Ewa on the freeway from Kaimuki, the speed limit is 50 mph and the minimum is 40. (The next phase of enforcement should be fun, when thousands are ticketed for going too slow during rush hour.)

But wait. Just after the Punahou overpass, the speed limit is suddenly 40 because of "limited sight distance." The minimum is suddenly the maximum. Too bad about the seven-car collision behind me when I obediently put on the brakes. Soon the speed limit is back to 50 and the minimum is 40 again.

But wait. Just after the Middle Street exit, the limit is 40 because "lanes narrow." And so forth, all over town. Our Department of Transportation at work.

Larry Meacham

Scam cams don't profit from 'slow' speeders

The Department of Transportation is at it again. Marilyn Kali is once again saying the tolerance on the "scam cams" is zero mph over the posted speed limit. That's BS. The state would lose money on each ticket with that tolerance. The DOT gets 20 percent of each ticket, the state judiciary gets $27 per ticket, the camera operators get $30 per ticket, and the rest is dumped into the general fund to be squandered by our beloved legislative leadership.

Do the math. The break-even point is 9 mph over the speed limit, which means the state loses money if it tickets anybody going slower than that. I was inside one of the camera vans for a DOT presentation.

I watched at which speed the computer automatically cranked out tickets, and saw that cars going 7 or 8 mph over the speed limit were not getting tickets.

Cayetano is the DOT's boss. Do you really think he'll authorize letting the cameras generate tickets that will take money out of the general fund? Which is more reliable: Kali's veracity, or Cayetano's greed?

Jim Henshaw
Kailua

Lack of speed leeway is outrageous

I am writing to express my outrage at the state Department of Transportation's decision to rescind the 10 percent leeway for issuing speeding tickets using the new photo radar.

I have remained quietly stewing over the fact that these non-elected bureaucrats seem to be wielding so much power in this situation. Where are our elected officials? Why isn't someone reining in these people? They obviously have no concern for the will of the people, and it appears that they answer to no one.

I am now called to action. As a leader in my labor union, I discussed this issue with other members this week, and we are all fighting mad. We will be expressing our outrage during the upcoming election, when we intend to vote against any members who support this legalized extortion of the citizens (and tourists) of Hawaii.

The photo radar issue is hitting home for all of us. The arrogance that is being shown by the state is the straw that is breaking the backs of the working people, and it will show in the November election.

I urge Governor Cayetano and our state representatives and senators to put a stop to this idiocy until public hearings can be held, and some common sense is applied to the photo radar system. Our elected officials seem to be letting the DOT run all over us all.

Bob McCulloch
Aiea

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