End of traffic cams will cause more problems

It was cowardly for the state to give in to the speeders and all those who profit from death and dismemberment. Only the really pugnacious speeders who intimidate the rest of us on the road wanted the traffic cameras removed. Those going the speed limit had nothing to fear.

Governor Cayetano's fellow attorneys, those who chase ambulances or hope to gain from accidents, will be jubilant.

The mortuaries have much to gain as well. As the recent shark-bite victim taught us, the loss of just one limb can bring a half million to the hospitals.

Have our politicians perhaps feared loss of insurance dollars coming into the state because of safer roads? The traffic cameras are gone and it will be death business as usual. And for some police in this land, losing the cameras will restore their own bonanza.

Rosemarie H. Tucker

Raising speed limit would be bigger fiasco

The governor and Sen. Cal Kawamoto took credit for slowing down the public for their own good and now they want to increase the speed limit? What kind of fiasco is this? The highway speed limits now are reasonable and safe with the acceptable threshold for passing. Safe, good drivers stay within these thresholds but speeders and the reckless will speed no matter what the posted limits are.

The governor knows that raising the speed limit also will increase the threshold, which would statistically cause more accidents and injuries. Then he could rationalize and justifiably bring back the van cameras or some other money-making, ripoff scheme.

The mere presence of a parked, marked police vehicle along roads and highways deters speeders. More police officers on the roads makes more sense.

Abe Kim
Hawaii Kai

Senators aid policies against environment

Five days before Earth Day our Hawaii senators joined hands with Jesse Helms, Phil Gramm, Strom Thurmond and the oil president to vote to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Although the drilling vote failed in Congress, the House last year passed an energy bill that will give the oil and gas industries billions of dollars in tax credits and subsidies. The Senate also voted by a large margin last month to remove a requirement that automakers increase fuel economy and efficiency in vehicles.

In 2001, the Interior Department opened public lands for oil and gas exploration at an incredible rate. The Bureau of Land Management added 4 million acres, up from 2.6 million in 2000.

To make things even better for the energy industry, the Environmental Protection Agency is considering changing water-pollution rules and allowing coal companies to remove whole mountaintops and dump the entire refuse into streams and rivers.

Everything is moving along quite well in Beltway politics. Our very own senators are greasing the sled for George W. Perhaps they should switch parties and become Republicans.

Jack Magann
Waialua

Humane Society spent unwisely on rescue

I am astounded that the Hawaiian Humane Society spent $50,000 for a single ( and unsuccessful) dog rescue. I am an avid lover of dogs, having three of them -- including one I adopted from the Hawaiian Humane Society five years ago when I was living on Oahu. But I recall all the stray dogs and feral cats on Oahu, and I think that money could have been better spent on local needs.

I was considering making a donation to the Hawaiian Humane Society, but after this fiasco, I will donate locally.

Charles W. Walton
Takoma Park, Md.

Coach's letter to judge showed kindness

When I was a kid in grammar school, it was impressed upon me by my parents, my teachers and my church that "a friend in need is a friend indeed." I think most of us in Hawaii grew up following that dictum.

It seems strange, then, that when University of Hawaii football coach June Jones tried to help his friend Sukamto Sia by writing a nice and sincere letter about Sia to a judge, he was castigated like a common criminal by some know-it-alls.

Jones has the human kindness and warmth we sorely need in this cold, cruel world. As one who traveled to near death and back after a traffic accident, he understands the basic human needs -- friendship and understanding.

Jones can walk proudly among friends in Hawaii because he has a clean, pure heart. His only mistake, if any, was using UH letterhead for his letter. That is minor, and to err is human.

Edgar A. Hamasu
Honolulu

Girls have more ways to take part in sports

I commend all those people in Hawaii who played key roles in uplifting the quality and organizing the opportunities for girls and women to participate in athletics. Compared with the time that we were growing up in the 1940s and 1950s, today's chances for the opposite sex to join in team sports are more numerous and more inviting.

During our years, girls were expected to help out at home with household chores and did not venture too far from it. Today, with the aid of modern gadgets and appliances, there seems to be more involvement outside the home, as we notice from the number of girls' teams in the various sports.

Well and good for you all who lean toward organized sports. Keep going forward.

Roy E. Shigemura
Honolulu

Arafat should return his Nobel Peace Prize

The settlement of disputes by inciting the populace to violence and terror is not the basis for being honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. Would Yasser Arafat be awarded this prize again? I think not.

The Palestinian peoples have many legitimate grievances -- first against the Jordanians who occupied the West Bank in 1948 and did not allow a Palestinian state to be created, and most recently against Israel, which has been distrustful of the Palestinian leadership's desire to live in peace.

After all, it is the same leader who called for all Israelis to be pushed into the sea, until the Oslo Accords created a change of rhetoric. Confidence built during seven years of peace has been flushed away and now Israel remembers its athletes in Munich and Passover massacres. Israel gave up land for peace with Egypt and Jordan.

It can be done, but not by force. The Palestinian state that eventually will be created most likely will have an international police force and a big fence between it and Israel with limited movement of peoples, trade and constant arguments about water rights, electricity and right of return.

Israeli leader Ariel Sharon is not a leader who will come to terms with Palestinians legitimate rights but he is in office only because Arafat's violence put him there. Perhaps it is time for the world to insist Arafat retire, to give somebody else a chance to build a country and return that ill-gotten prize.

Peter Bihari

Open up bike lanes to gas scooters

I own four gas scooters. I use them for transportation and for my kids to get around the neighborhood, and they are not allowed to ride without wearing helmets.

If the city wants to ban us from sidewalks, it should allow us to ride in the bike lane. The city also should make sure that every community has a bike lane; there is none from Wahiawa to Mililani to Waipahu.

I have seen more kids getting hurt on "razor scooters" than on gas or electric scooters.

Sean A. Cortez
Wahiawa

Senator was arrogant in describing lawsuit

I've always believed that America was a nations of laws, not a nation of men (or women, in the case of state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa). The Star-Bulletin's April 24 article ("Cops file suit over pension fund 'raid'") quoted Hanabusa as saying, "We determine how much people will be paid, we determine whether people have collective bargaining rights, we determine the whole gamut."

The senator's haughty remarks are disrespectful to all the hard-working and retired public servants. I will remember in November.

It was a representative democracy established by law that made her a senator, not a queen.

Frank Gomes
Kapolei

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