Stray cat might be someone's beloved pet

This is in response to the editorial and letters to the editor about killing stray cats. I hope people will remember that there are lost pets interspersed in the population of stray cats; mine might be among them. With some luck and grace, the microchip we got at the humane society when we acquired her will help us be reunited with our beloved cat.

Our neighbor was just reunited with her cat, thanks to the microchip, but it took five years for it to happen. Better late than never to know that your pet survived, but five years is a long time for children whose hearts are broken.

Instead of being annoyed by cats running loose around your home or business, please try reporting their presence to the Hawaiian Humane Society. Their constant crying at night may be more than a nuisance -- it may be their way of asking you to help them find their way home. Please have compassion and show aloha.

Pamela Saepae
Mililani

Airport screeners deserve appreciation

This is in response to "Air Angst" (Insight, Star-Bulletin, June 16). It seems air travelers are not pleased with the delays at airports due to intensive security checks. Yet many of these are the same people who were complaining last year that the security at our airports was inadequate.

Security checking is a time-consuming affair and cannot be rushed just to please those who see it merely as an "inconvenience" or sometimes even a "violation of their freedom." Instead of complaining or making nuisances of themselves, everyone should cooperate with the security officials. This would enable them to do their thankless jobs (when was the last time you praised them for their good work?) smoothly and enable passengers to board their planes quickly.

Raj Kumar Bose

Surfers under attack by vision team

Recreational surfers are under attack from every side ("Surfers fight Diamond Head plan," Star-Bulletin, June 16). Take away parking for Diamond Head surfers? What else can the city vision team come up with against surfers? Make it illegal to surf? Try surfing Waikiki; where are we to park? And surf sites are taken up by professional surfing contests many months of each year.

Give us a break. Let us surf in the ancient spots for which Hawaii is famous. With a bit more vision, I am sure surfers and bicyclists can all be accommodated.

Ted Gugelyk

Other lives worth more than Saddam Hussein

Instead of making references to a possible preemptive strike against Iraq, as he did at West Point recently, President Bush should heed the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told him that a war against Saddam Hussein would be unwise. According to the top military officials, an offensive in Iraq could endanger the lives of at least 200,000 American servicemen in bloody ground combat, and might prompt Saddam to use biological and chemical weapons to strengthen his hand.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff surely realize better than anyone that war is fought not only on a strategic battlefield, but it also takes a human toll. Bush should ask himself whether ousting a weaker, and by some accounts more cooperative, Saddam Hussein is really worth thousands of American and Iraqi lives and regional instability.

Ivona Xiezopolski
Kaneohe

Players score big with tireless bat boy

I'm not one to write to a newspaper too often (the last and first time was more than 10 years ago), but I just had to compliment Brendan Sagara on his story about a bat boy, "Big Luke's big heart makes losing easier to take" (Star-Bulletin, June 16). I was touched by this story.

Sports, whether organized or unorganized, is a great training ground for life. Young ball players learn on and off the field. In Sagara's story, those young men all increased the size of their hearts that summer. As a result of their reaching out to befriend this boyish giant, they all experienced a greater love: the love for their neighbor.

Life is so much more than the final score or wins and losses.

Thanks Brendan, you're a winner.

John Enomoto

Center would mar beauty of palace

Plans are under way to find a site in Nuuanu Valley for a multi-purpose/senior center. No one has a problem with that concept.

However, one of the prime sites under consideration for this structure is Nuuanu Valley Park -- the land immediately adjacent to Queen Emma's Summer Palace. Construction of the Queen Emma site would irreparably alter the beauty of Queen Emma's home, as well as endangering some of the most beautiful trees on Oahu.

As best as I can tell, the number of people supporting a center there is miniscule. The constituency against locating the center is large and includes the Outdoor Circle, the Historic Hawaii Foundation, the Daughters of Hawaii and Neighborhood Board No. 12. Inexplicably and regardless of this resistance, the vision team continues to support this location as one of the prime sites for the proposed center.

The solution to this problem is simple. Eliminate the Nuuanu Valley Park from further consideration as the site for a multipurpose center. Will the City Council take this sensible action? Let's hope so.

Peter F.C. Armstrong

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