Poor treatment at airport is Hawaii's loss

Hawaii has lost a future returning tourist even though the state has much to offer. My wife and I are very upset with the treatment we received at the hands of a Hawaii-based airline and its security people.

We stayed in Honolulu but took two one-day trips to Kauai and Hilo. On each of the four flights (two round-trips) we were chosen, supposedly at random, for a further search of our carry-on bags and our persons -- you know, shoes, the wand and so on. Obviously these were not random searches. In fact, they were generated by something on our boarding passes, not the usual random count by the boarding attendant. However, airline security insisted it was pure randomness. They were either lying or uninformed. After all, a retired engineer and his wife don't look too threatening.

The action took us out of queue, leading to poorer seating choices on open-seating flights. Frankly, the harassment left us with a bitter taste of your state, one we will not be repeating.

James and Mary Ann McWilliams
Baltimore, Ohio

Don't let single issue guide your vote

The editorial "Survey shows why the ill really choose death with dignity" (Star-Bulletin, Aug. 26) begs for a response.

Your editorial reported a survey taken of hospice nurses and social workers. A survey of advance directives or living wills may have been a more accurate reflection of 397 subjects included in the survey pool from Oregon. What more can be said about the actual final state of mind of the deceased than a self-reporting document?

During the previous session, death with dignity came closest to passing at the Hawaii Legislature. But neither the House nor the Senate bills addressed the deep culpability that physicians and pharmacists will be asked to undertake if Hawaii becomes a "death with dignity" state. I do not mean legal culpability, but personal agony and conflict. Bringing in physicians and pharmacists to assist in the commission of suicide is a burden no one should be expected to shoulder.

This year at least one Senate district might be decided on this one issue of death with dignity. It is a litmus test that special interests will use as a rallying point to demonize the candidate they oppose.

I urge all concerned to stay focused on other issues as well as this one to determine who you want representing you in the Legislature in 2003. Don't let a single issue make you regret your hasty decision for the next session.

Arvid T. Youngquist

School's infrastructure is city's concern, too

Senate District 19 candidate City Councilman John DeSoto says he and his City Council fellows are not to blame for lack of proper school facilities in his new district (Star-Bulletin, Sept. 2), but he must know the city's own General Plan requires developers be held responsible for "all essential community services, including ... schools."

We should all be concerned with who pays for infrastructure, as experience shows the following about the current system where one level of government passes the buck for costs of growth onto another level:

>> Residents of new developments in the Ewa plain and Central Oahu get infrastructure that is inadequate -- substandard roads, parks and public safety and schools with portable classrooms built too small.

>> When government accepts the cost of private development, it shifts the expense from the developers and homeowners who directly benefit from expanded public services onto all taxpayers.

>> Public subsidies for development on open space or agricultural lands is the leading cause of urban sprawl. If development is justified, it should occur under a market economy, without government interference.

Richard Weigel
Aiea

Traffic goes nowhere at 'calming' bus stop

I read that the director of the city Department of Transportation Services was pleased with the changes to the Ewa-bound bus stop on Waialae and 11th Ave (Kokua Line, Star-Bulletin, Aug. 28). Previously the bus pulled out of traffic to load and unload passengers. That pullout area is now bricked over and the bus stops in the traffic lane, which the DTS spokeswoman said calms traffic.

Yesterday, as I approached that intersection, there was a bus in the right traffic lane taking on passengers and a car in the left lane signaling for a left turn. The traffic was perfectly "calm" because nothing at all was moving.

Apparently this is so successful that they are now going to do the same thing for the Koko Head-bound bus stop at 11th and Waialae.

The DTS has got this "traffic calming" bug, but I think that some mature person with common sense ought to take a look at it.

Harold G. Loomis

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