A reassuring pause on a busy day

As I rushed out of the Spark M. Matsunaga VA Center last Wednesday morning, I felt somewhat uncomfortable for not spending a few extra moments to observe a small Sept. 11 ceremony which these good folks were sponsoring.

Those thoughts were still on my mind as I travelled the H-1, bound for another obligation. It was somewhere past the stadium and before Pearl Harbor that I noticed someone on an overpass waving our national colors. Approaching from below, I made out a sole woman who appeared to be standing alongside a baby carriage and holding wind-fraught American flag with only her two hands securing top and bottom.

I couldn't imagine that this determined person would be able to hold out for long. I don't know how long she lasted and I don't know who she was, but she will be in my memory forever. That single individual, filled with some kind of personal conviction ... including and reassuring me.

Kevin Gagan
Mililani

New Yorkers touched by Ground Zero leis

On Sept. 11, a group of co-workers and I were at the World Trade Center memorial ceremony. (We had decided to attend together because we had been together last year trying to get home.) At the memorial, there were so many families and rescue workers with flower leis. We were so touched to see such a beautiful gesture from the people of Hawaii.

God bless you for your prayers and generosity.

Lynn Harrington
Rockaway Point, New York

Nishiki is needed on Maui council

I have known Wayne Nishiki for 20 years. Yes, Wayne has flaws. Yes, Wayne has problems. But despite those problems, for the last 20 years he has been the strongest voice on the Maui County Council for the environment and for preventing a complete takeover of Maui by out-of-control development. In some years, he has been the only voice on the Council for the environment. He led the push to get voter initiative on November's ballot.

Based on his record, I will vote for Nishiki in the September primary and the November election. He cannot be bought; he is strong and sometimes stubborn, but his heart is always in the right place, protecting ordinary people, plants, animals and the land and ocean that we all love.

Despite his problems, we need him on the Council.

Sally Raisbeck
Wailuku, Maui

Banks keep customers from their own money

I am a resident living and working on Maui. Like a lot of new arrivals, I still use my mainland bank for most of my finances. Upon my arrival, I established a local bank account, and I make a monthly deposit by personal check to handle my local finances.

The local bank places a six-to-10 business-day hold on my deposits, which is allowed by federal regulations, but not mandatory. It is the bank's discretion whether or not to place a hold on a deposit, as I was told by a banking representative.

I can understand the practice for a few months. After that, a person should have access to his money immediately. If we have no access to our money, why should we tie it up in Hawaii banks? Honest individuals should have access to their money. It shouldn't be held by the bank, forcing the person to live without it. All it does is drive money from Hawaii, and honestly, can the businesses of Hawaii afford that?

Michael Gass
Kihei, Maui

With planning, ferry system would succeed

A Navy "well done" to Russ Lynch for his comprehensive article "Ferry Tales" (Star-Bulletin, Sept. 15). He reports that intra- and interisland ferry terminals are moving administratively, but that no ferry systems have emerged.

For intra-island, I recommend a fast catamaran with a flat deck for nine city buses for the route from West Oahu to the Aloha Tower; for interisland, a roll-on, roll-off ferry for passengers and vehicles of all sorts and using Pier 19.

For financing, I suggest the reimbursable revenue bond Act 158, plus a 65-year lease to the Pier 19 area.

For authority to lease a foreign roll-on roll-off bottom, an exception to the Jones Act (similar to that of the American Classic Voyages) would be necessary. When I was in Bergen, Norway, for a meeting of the International Marine Transit Association, we went aboard the ideal design for an interisland ferry in Hawaii.

E. Alvey Wright
Kaneohe

Israeli land conflict at heart of violenc

The Bush administration's strident urgency for invasion of Iraq ("Bush implies war if UN fails to act," Sept. 13), despite all the rational logic for restraint that has been expressed, offers a clue to the primary motivation for war: To prepare the way for an imminent Israeli "final solution" to the Palestinian problem -- completion of the ethnic cleansing begun in 1967 by Ariel Sharon and associates.

Other motivations for war include control of oil reserves and industrial war bucks, but the present urgency derives from Sharon's intent and domestic U.S. political pressure for protection of Israel.

To pre-empt violence from rogue states, "axes of evil" and other militants by damping their popular support, both our Congress and the United Nations should rule on the question of Israel's territorial right, based on a mythical real-estate deal, to West Bank Palestine.

Andrew Jones
Pahoa, Hawaii

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