Aala Park is great, but should stay open later

The reopening festivities Saturday for Aala Park were a sight to behold. The park was reclaimed by the people, young and old, who used the sports fields, playground, or sat and talked story. With drug dealers and users pushed out, residents escaped the confines of their high-rise apartments, children no longer were banished to playing in building hallways, and a great day was had by all -- at least until 7 p.m., when the park was closed by order of the mayor.

Parks are backyards for those who live downtown. The 7 p.m. closing is too early for area residents to use the park after a day of work, school and eating dinner. Because of the mayor's fiat, police are forced to tell families with young children in the playground and teens and adults playing basketball to leave in the early evening hours.

Instead of setting park hours solely based on security, Mayor Harris should ask how we can improve the space and make it safer at the same time. As a neighborhood becomes more inviting and more people come into it, it becomes more secure. He should realize that if residents using the park keep out unwanted activity before 7 p.m. they will do the same after 7 p.m. He should allow us to enjoy the park later.

Lynne Matusow

Resign-to-run vague, unfair to mayors

Ken Armstrong is an old friend of mine, and I was surprised by the bitter tone of his letter about Mayor Harris suspending his race for governor (Letters, March 16).

Ken is wrong when he says the state Constitution is "very clear" on resign-to-run. ConCon delegate and now-state Rep. Helene Hale has testified that it was deliberately left vague. And surely we all know that the amendment was designed for one purpose only: to keep a mayor of Honolulu from making an effective run for governor without first resigning from office.

In fact, the terms of office for mayor and governor originally were staggered to keep an incumbent governor safer from a challenge from Honolulu Hale, where the second-most powerful elected official in the state operates. No wonder the job repeatedly has been easily passed from governor to lieutenant governor.

As far as Armstrong's assertion that the state would be better off without Jeremy Harris, I just have to ask if he visited Chinatown, downtown, Kapolei or Waikiki before he moved to the mainland. These are just a few of the areas where the mayor's impact has been felt by residents, workers and visitors. Every town on Oahu has benefited from Harris's empowering of community vision teams.

I've lived in Hawaii under five governors and five mayors, and it seems to me that Harris has made more of a positive impact than any of the others. Just think what he could do with four -- or eight -- years at the state.

Nick Houtman
Waikane

[Quotables] "I opened my eyes and I could see the shark. It was tossing me all over the place. I heard my leg break. I heard the bone snap." Hoku Aki Seventeen-year-old bodyboarder, describing his encounter with a shark. Aki was waiting for a wave in murky water about 150 feet off Kauai's Brennecke Beach on Monday when the shark attacked him. Aki punched the shark and ripped out one of its eyes in his efforts to escape. He lost his lower left leg in the attack and is recuperating at the Queen's Medical Center. "I love it out here. ... It's hard work, but you get a better peace of mind. You get adjusted back to society." Timothy Holland Inmate of Dixon Correctional Institute in Zachary, La., while working to lay a sidewalk for a museum in the town. Holland works on one of an increasing number of prison crews across the country that can be seen improving communities by cleaning restrooms, renovating municipal buildings, planting gardens, repairing roofs and other tasks.

Saving energy is a sign of patriotism, too

Most Americans approved the recently defeated bill that would have raised the corporate average fuel efficiency of cars and helped to slow America's guzzling of Middle Eastern oil -- mainly by SUVs and light trucks. The conservative measure to increase fuel efficiency during a 13-year period to 36 mpg was no threat to America's wasteful way of life.

But Detroit automakers couldn't care less that the United States is responsible for a quarter of global carbon dioxide output and emissions, which have risen 18 percent in the last decade. Detroit does not even have a hybrid electric car on the market and has no interest in developing fuel-cell technology.

Patriotic Americans must demand action to protect the environment as well as protect us from terrorism. U.S. homes should have solar energy panels with 100 percent tax rebates for the homeowners. City diesel buses can be run on soybean oil. Hybrid gas-electric car technology can be expanded to many models of cars. Amtrak must be improved to match the efficiency of the bullet trains in Japan and Europe.

Help your state and country be the leader of economic self-sufficiency using clean, renewable energy. The United States has 5 percent of the world's population, but uses 25 percent of its energy. We can do better.

Joe Watanabe

Kava ban could lead to Hawaiian protest

The Food and Drug Administration (otherwise known as the Federal Death Administration because it would rather have citizens die than risk "unsafe" drugs or therapies) has issued a warning about kava ("Warning piles more bad news on kava," Star-Bulletin, March 26). Several European countries have banned it or plan to do so after reports of severe liver damage possibly connected with the use of kava.

But if kava is so hepatoxic, where are all the dead Polynesians? If the FDA bans kava, what will it do about the Samoans under federal control -- or, for that matter, the Hawaiians -- who have a tradition of kava use?

I suspect that such a ban would become a rallying point for Hawaiian protest against the feds -- an outcome about which they surely must be cognizant.

George Mason

Waikiki walk signals confuse pedestrians

Recently, a pedestrian was killed in the crosswalk of the intersection of Ala Moana and Hobron Lane. While I'm not familiar with the particulars of this accident, I am familiar with this intersection. I cross it several times a day and notice a glaring defect in the crosswalk signal. The "walk" button is small and difficult to find and is followed by a very short "walk" signal.

I regularly watch as dozens of pedestrians -- often foreign tourists -- stand at these corners waiting for a cross signal, not knowing that a button has to be pushed before they can cross. Often after a long wait, in desperation they will run out between breaks in traffic in an attempt to get across. Several weeks ago, one didn't make it.

Please, let's rid Waikiki of these confusing crosswalk buttons and make the walk signal automatic at every light change.

R.A. Vogtritter
Waikiki

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