Anderson strays far from Republican roots

Democrat gubernatorial candidate Andy Anderson has certainly diverged from his Republican Party roots.

Anderson would borrow from the Hurricane Relief Fund to pay for the current operations of state government. This is like borrowing money on your credit card to buy groceries and pay your rent and then financing it over four or five years.

When your finances are in such terrible shape that you have to resort to borrowing to support your day-to-day living, something has gone terribly wrong. Rather than assuming the difficult task of adjusting the size of government and its expenses, the state continues to live paycheck to paycheck, only one paycheck away from declaring bank-ruptcy.

At least now we know how Anderson intends to balance the state budget should he become our next governor. Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul only makes Peter mad when he doesn't get his money back.

Garry P. Smith

Harris wastes money on unneeded projects

There's no doubt where the fat is in the city's budget -- unnecessary construction projects, especially in the parks; excessive roadwork, especially in "traffic calming"; and over-lighting of parks. Did you know that you also pay for Mayor Harris's television production facility with two employees? They take pictures of the mayor cutting ribbons and you pay for it.

"Sunset on the Beach" and other taxpayer-sponsored events at Kapiolani Park need to stop. The park is overrun and people who've used it for years are being displaced.

Many people, including Duke Bainum and Steve Holmes, have publicly questioned why the city pays so much for the lights it puts up so enthusiastically. People are beginning to notice the excessive design and planning fees on projects, such as the reworking of Punahou Square. The reason for this is graft and corruption.

City Council, stand up to the mayor. Get the corruption out of the budget. Stop the construction. Stop the carnival at Kapiolani Park.

Thank you to Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi for standing for what's right. There will never be a better time than now to tell the truth about what is going on at City Hall.

Amy Arkoff

Senators rightly reject doctor-assisted suicide

Thank you to Sen. David Matsuura and the members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee for their decision to stop legislation that would have legalized physician-assisted suicide in Hawaii.

Suicide can never be part of a good medical practice, a point Hawaii's medical community has voiced throughout this debate. The Hawaii Medical Association, the Hawaii Nurses Association, Hospice Hawaii, the Health Care Association of Hawaii and the Hawaii chapter of the American Cancer Society all testified against the bill.

Adding suicide to the list of acceptable medical practices does not educate more doctors on advanced pain-control techniques, it does not expand access to basic health care and it does not defend the doctor-patient relationship for the myriad attacks of the managed-care structure. It simply gets rid of the patient.

I am grateful to the senators for their reasoned rejection of physician-assisted suicide. It is a decision that protects both doctors and patients.

Mary Lou Brogan

Every human life should be cherished

When did an animal's life become more important than a human life? We have all these laws that protect the life of animals. Then we start killing our unborn babies. Now people want the right to die.

With the death-with-dignity bill giving doctors permission to kill, it seems that nobody really cherishes a human life anymore. I would like to remind people about Charlie Wedemeyer, who has Lou Gehrig's Disease. Doctors told him he had a short time to live, but many years later he is still alive and sharing his story around the world. A story like Charlie's serves as a reminder that we should cherish life in any form.

Just because someone has a terminal illness does not make that person less valuable. There is a saying, "If you have to choose between life or death, always choose life." This is wisdom for today.

Alan Kim

Hawaii continues to pull at heartstrings

As one of those locals who live on the mainland and come back every two years or so, I agree with Star-Bulletin columnist Cynthia Oi ("Homegrown values bring out the best in Hawaii," Under the Sun, April 3).

I left Hawaii right after high school to seek my fame and fortune. After attending college in California for a couple of years, I joined the Air Force (this was when they still had the draft and Vietnam was building up), intending to stay only for the required four years.

Well, I retired from the Air Force in 1983, after 20 years of active duty. I traveled around the world and saw places and experienced life in many countries and in just about every one of the 50 states. But my heart was still in Hawaii. Experiences and new friends have given me a lot of life memories, but there are always the moments when Hawaii pulls at the heartstrings.

Every time I came back home it was an adventure to see what was still there and what was new. There was a lot of disappointment when old places were replaced by new buildings and businesses that reminded me of big cities around the world. In some places, the Hawaiian flavor was gone, and it didn't seem like home.

I pray that we never lose that Hawaiian flavor completely and become just another city. I will retire from my present civil service job in about two years. Guess what? I'm going home to where my heart is -- Hawaii.

Lee Laquihon
Bellevue, Neb.

Judge alters meaning of resign-to-run law

Can an ordinary citizen be a "friend of the court?" Briefly, my amicus curiae is this: The Supreme Court should not permit an arbitrary and cap- ricious reinterpretation of the resign-to- run law.

This law was an arbitrary exercise itself, designed to "get" Mayor Fasi, but whose meaning has become well established and understood over time: A person becomes a candidate when candidacy papers are filed.

Judge Sabrina McKenna's ruling, cynically changing this meaning at former Judge Russell Blair's instigation in order to "get" Mayor Harris, should be reversed.

Michael G. Palcic

Slom is misinformed about library fines

State Sen. Sam Slom recently stated that the Hawaii State Public Library System wouldn't need to close libraries if it just went out and collected the outstanding fines and fees, amounting to $4.3 million.

As Paul Harvey always said, "And now, the rest of the story."

The $4.3 million the senator cited was reported in a 1997 auditor's report. This report resulted in the library system contracting with a highly regarded, locally based, collection agency. In the ensuing years, MEDCAH has collected $2,664,730 on our behalf and it continues to do so. MEDCAH is recovering between 30 and 35 percent of outstanding fines and fees and advises us when it determines that accounts are uncollectable.

With this advice, we sought permission to write the uncollectable amounts off. However, the Attorney General's Office has advised us that it is illegal to do so; therefore, these amounts remain on the books.

Although uncollectable, these amounts are reported to the credit bureaus, and remain on the patron's credit record.

The library system works diligently to collect its fines and fees. Our success rate is well within standards. We are following accepted practices and we meet the accountability requirements for publicly funded institutions.

For the senator to cast aspersions on the library system in 2002, based on data lifted out of context from a 1997 report, is shortsighted, to say the least, and we take offense at the gratuitous aspersions cast on our reputation in our communities and with our public.

Virginia Lowell
Hawaii state librarian

Our values and hearts should be with Israel

I enjoyed reading George Will's March 29 column. As he points out, Yasser Arafat has had one goal for his entire life: the destruction of Israel. Will has correctly noted the source of the many suicide bombings: hatred of Israel and the Jews.

Of course, this is nothing new. During World War II, many Arab leaders supported Hitler and the Nazis.

In the past, Will has written about the moral blindness of so many American liberals (a matter of great shame for me as a liberal), who seem to be overly critical of Israel. The government of Israel is responding to acts of terrorism just as America has responded so vigorously to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, to the credit of President Bush and his great leadership.

Now is the time for all of us, especially my fellow Christians who owe so much of our heritage to Judaism and the values of freedom and justice taught by the Jewish prophets, to stand by Israel.

Israel is a democracy where women are given dignity and equal rights. The enemies of Israel are despotic regimes. Let us never forget the sight of the Palestinians in the street cheering and smiling as they heard about the death of thousands of Americans at the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

I will never forget.

Bob W. St. Sure

Fundamentalism is enemy of democracy

To see inside the mind of the fundamentalist -- the absolutist, the true believer -- can be a remarkable guide to understanding many of the problems of injustice, warfare and oppression that plague our era, like they did every one before it. For that reason I recommend as required reading for all adults, the March 28 column, "Too many church leaders choose weakness when faced with secular disapproval," by fundamentalist Cal Thomas.

I do not ordinarily read Thomas' rants against secularism and "liberalism," but in this case his thinking opens a window into which we should all peek. Perhaps Thomas admitted more of his true beliefs than he wished to when he wrote, "Too many American Catholics, along with Protestant and Jewish liberals, have cared more about democracy than about orthodoxy."

With these words Thomas lets loose the great secret about fundamentalism: that without a bureaucratic and, in the case of the nation-state, armed system to prevent dissent, the authority of the true believers cannot be maintained. This is the reason why the general flow of history is toward more freedom and its ultimate protector -- democracy -- and away from reliance on dogmatic ideology.

If readers think I am targeting Thomas alone as a Christian fundamentalist, the lesson applies just as clearly to those who espouse adherence to the "unerring" Quran, Torah, "Das Kapital," or even a single sentence from "The Wealth of Nations." For when it becomes a state-sponsored ideology, orthodoxy becomes oppression.

Ikaika Valdez
Pearl City

Native Alaskans are pawns in U.S. energy policy

Several months ago, full-page ads appeared in Hawaii's newspapers thanking U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Akaka for his support of the Native Alaskan Inupiat, their right to self-determination and their desire to drill for oil within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Every vote in the Senate is critical to defeat oil drilling in the refuge. Hawaii's senators seem to be placed in a difficult position. Both are champions for the right to self-determination for Hawaiians and other indigenous groups and both are continuing the legacy of the late U.S. Sen. Spark Matsunaga's vision for hydrogen and related clean-energy issues. Now these laudable causes have converged to create a conflict where our senators seem to be caught in the middle. But the decision is difficult only if one wants to craft the issue of self-determination as exclusive to the Inupiat.

While I respect the right to self-determination of the Inupiat, it should not be at the expense of other native peoples or based on a flawed energy policy. The Bush energy policy will signal the death of many other indigenous peoples of the world, especially Pacific Islanders suffering the effects of global warming and rising sea levels. Oil drilling in the refuge represents the continuation of over-consumption by the United States of finite resources without regard to the impacts on other areas or people of the world.

The moral issues and consequences of the Bush energy policy is too great to use Native Alaskans as pawns in this debate, pitting the interests of one indigenous peoples against another or to use Hawaii's own sovereignty issues as bargaining chips for the future.

In the larger global picture, the United States must lead the world in seeking solutions to climate change issues or we will be directly responsible for the genocide of indigenous cultures as the land base, the root and foundation of self-determination of these island cultures, ceases to exist. Hawaii, being an island state, may face the same perils in the near future.

The United States has the technology and resources to move toward a clean energy future. Our congressional leaders' role is vital at this critical time. They can and must separate the red herrings from the national energy policy debate. The refuge is a red herring that will not enhance the U.S. position to build energy security.

The right of Native Alaskans to offer their ancestral lands for oil development should be debated at another time. The larger issue is the United States' ability to lead the world with a clean and sustainable energy policy that offers real energy security and prosperity as its benefits and reflects our moral obligations to other inhabitants of this Earth.

These mandates should be the essence of a national energy policy and the test of true vision and leadership.

Rep. Hermina M. Morita
Chairwoman, State House Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection

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