For Hirono, it's about voters, not money

Denise Bui (Letters, Aug. 8) thinks Linda Lingle's million-dollar war chest signals the voters' choice. However, dollars don't vote, people vote.

Look out the window, and see hundreds of Mazie Hirono volunteers canvassing neighborhoods. Go to many of Hirono's coffee hours and meet hundreds of her supporters.

Just because Republican Lingle has a lock on corporate coffers does not mean the grassroots and each individual don't count. Hirono knows how to count votes and because she believes that people come first, she's counting them one by one on to victory.

Patrick Stanley

Attacks on Lingle are unwarranted

I am tired of Governor Cayetano and other Democrats finding ways to personally criticize Republican candidate Linda Lingle. It is appalling that the governor used state employees to analyze Lingle's campaign plan.

It is also appalling for him to bring up old attacks, and to indicate he has more personal information that he will bring up later. If he truly has information that is relevant to her suitability as governor, he should bring it out now so that voters can consider it in a timely manner.

Cayetano's actions, as well as the recent and ongoing revelations of corruption among incumbent Democrats, is the reason we need change. I am hopeful that this election will finally bring about that change.

Debra Jordan
Mililani

Is going after Iraq worth the sacrifice?

Attention, mothers! Your sons will soon be "asked" to travel to a land half a world away where they will be asked to kill a big, bad man and quite a few of his soldiers. By then we'll be on a roll, so we might as well ask your sons to go after all other designated bad men, once and for all.

Naturally, we'll consult foreign policy experts to help decide who is good and who is bad. They have a sterling track record in these matters.

Of course, we could simply wait. We usually end up 30 years later doing a booming business with the next generation of bad men in the country of the former bad men. (Have you seen the sparkling resorts of Cam Ranh Bay?)

Nope, better do it now! Unfortunately, a few of your boys will remain in this treeless plain. In time, their loss will be bearable to most. Naturally, there will be that gaping hole in your heart, but let's not think about that.

So, mothers, here is what our democracy asks of you: Love your sons, but surrender them without a fuss; wave lots of flags as they depart; never question your leaders, for they are wise (especially the ones who chased North Vietnamese MIGs over Texas skies). Please don't study history. We value your docility.

Above all, be content when politicians, palms over their black hearts, thank you in speeches dripping with faux patriotism for the irrevocable sacrifice that you will make before they slouch back to their dinners of steak and potatoes.

Dennis Spain
Kamuela, Hawaii

Life's contradictions are varied, numerous

A few weeks ago seven Catholic women, ordained as priests by an Argentinian bishop, were excommunicated. "They have wounded the church," the Pope has said. Countless Catholic priests have sexually abused children over several decades. Rome's response? Silence and, finally: "It is an American problem."

Congress enjoys the most comprehensive health-care plan in the United States, yet the Senate could not see fit to approve a modest drug plan for the poorest of the poor in this country. I trust voters will remember this shameful neglect at the polls.

We know for a fact that North Korea (part of the President Bush's "axis of evil") has weapons of mass destruction. We do not have that same certainty about Iraq, yet President Bush is itching to get rid of Saddam Hussein. Go figure.

Rike Weiss

Don't draw parallels between Arafat, Sharon

Regarding the "beached whales" cartoon on the editorial page Aug. 6: I have watched Corky draw a moral equivalent between Arafat and Sharon in his cartoons before, and I wonder if he really thinks there is no difference between Yasser Arafat sponsoring the kind of terrorism that intentionally targets the women and children on both sides -- both in recruiting self-immolating bombers, and in their intended civilian victims and Israeli leader Ariel Sharon's attempts to defend a nation being insidiously threatened with destruction.

Robert Grayson
Aiea

HCDA shouldn't raid property tax coffers

The attempt by the Hawaii Community Development Authority (HCDA) to take incremental property taxes on its Kakaako development is an extraordinarily bad idea. It would be taking the taxes, but still leaving the city to provide fire protection, police, ambulance, planning and permitting and a host of other services for which it would not be paid.

This would set an extraordinarily bad precedent for state agencies to cut into city and county revenues.

A second bad idea is the attitude, "Gee, if the HCDA doesn't do it, the other nearby retailers will!" Duh! Last time I looked, we live in a capitalistic society, where the free market should meet almost all demands, not the government. We don't have a managed economy, nor should we want one (look at the pathetic example of a managed economy in the Soviet Union, if you doubt this.).

Send the HCDA back to the drawing board to first determine whether it even should be doing the project at all. If it should be done, they need to find financing that doesn't affect the city.

William Georgi
Kalaheo, Hawaii

Budget cuts hurt intelligence services

Although your July 28 editorial regarding the intelligence services needing major restructuring made valid points, the one point that most people overlook, is that Congress itself played an unwitting role in the failure it is now investigating and pointing fingers about.

Since the mid-'80s, all federal agencies have been mandated by Congress to downsize. That mandate has not been changed and as a result, each year all agencies have fewer and fewer employees -- including analysts and linguists to process and report on the ever-increasing amount of raw intelligence.

The '80s and '90s saw hiring freezes and reductions through attrition and retirement to meet the required downsizing. There is now a huge experience gap as aging workers retire, leaving newcomers to do the work.

We saved some money in the short run, but explain that to the victims of 9/11, their families and the citizens of America. We can't do more with less.

Mike Hanson
Mililani

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