New medians reduce speeding, add beauty

Mayor Harris and the City Council have done a great job in providing Hawaii Kai with a beautiful sign.

To extend this upgrade, I support the landscape median to be placed on Lunalilo Home Road. Besides the benefit of beautifying the area, the median will help mitigate the speeding that sometimes occurs in the area.

The median recently added on Punchbowl Street near Vineyard Boulevard is a perfect example of how Lunalilo Home Road will look in a year.

Lynne Endo

U.S. and Israel are beacons in dark world

I was amused to read the March 23 letter by Larry Jones and his criticism of Israel. Jones has his facts wrong. Israel is a democracy in the midst of totalitarian societies. I fully endorse the support of the United States for the nation of Israel. If the United States had not intervened in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel would have been destroyed by the Arab enemies, and we would have had a second Holocaust. The United States intervened and saved modern Israel.

Israel is a society based on democratic values. Recently, Saddam Hussein, realizing his tyranny is on the verge of collapse, has included Israel in his tirades against America. Much of the anti-war tirade of the political left is directed against not only the United States, but also Israel. As New York Times writer Thomas Friedman has reported, a strong element of anti-Semitism is involved. America and Israel are hated because of the commitment to democratic values by both nations. The political left, of which I used to be a part, is now morally bankrupt. In its rage against Israel, it now looks more and more like the KKK.

America and Israel are not perfect societies, but we are bulwarks of freedom arrayed against tyrannical thugs.

Bob W. St. Sure

Stop denigrating valor, courage of the French

The failure of France to support the United States in the war against Iraq has resulted in vitriolic comments and jokes among TV commentators and columnists. It is understandable that many Americans are miffed that their oldest ally has refused to support our war against Saddam, but it is unfortunate that this feeling has resulted in remarks disparaging French valor and fighting performance during World War II.

France lost 213,324 military personnel in only 15 months of warfare during World War II. Great Britain, after six years of war, lost 264,443, and the United States lost 292,131 after almost four years. These figures certainly suggest that the French military fought fiercely.

One of the unfair jokes making the rounds is: "Question: How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris? Answer: No one knows. It's never been done." Sorry, but it has been done. In World War I, the Second Battle of the Somme had Paris as its objective. Despite heavy French and British losses, the city was not taken.

So if we want to complain about the French not supporting us in Iraq, fine. But let's not do so by deriding the courage of a nation with a military heritage as proud as our own. We can stop eating French cheese and drinking French wine, but let's not send back the Statue of Liberty.

Richard McMahon
Kahuku

UH logo moves further from its essence

Holy Moholy-Nagy, have you seen what the clever designers at our esteemed University of Hawaii are attempting to foist upon us to become the brand that will represent the UH forevermore?

The latest logo proposed to replace the cherished rainbow is devoid of the heart, warmth, spirit and essence of our university and all that it stands for. The best that can be said for the proposed logo is that it looks like an unrealized fusion of the yin and the yang. Second best, it looks like two tadpoles agog.

Return the rainbow symbol of UH. All else is artificial, contrived and meaningless.

Richard Y. Will

Recycling helps save resources, isle beauty

It's really wonderful (again!) to see Mayor Harris' commitment to protecting our island environment with his new curbside recycling program. This new project has made me stop and think a bit more seriously about our island's sustainability and limited resources. I encourage everyone to take that extra 10 or 15 minutes each week to recycle and help keep our island home pristine.

Please call your council member right away and encourage him/her to support this wonderful program.

Judy S. Murata

Saint Louis wrestlers are men to admire

I was extremely happy to hear that Travis Lee, a 2001 Saint Louis School graduate, won the NCAA Division I, 125-pound wrestling championship. This comes right after Saint Louis senior Jonathan Spiker became the second four-time state wrestling champion.

What is even more remarkable about these two great athletes is that Lee attends Cornell University, and Spiker, an honors graduate, will attend Harvard University in the fall. If any youngsters out there are looking for role models, I would say Lee and Spiker should definitely be on the top of your list.

Wesley K. Yamamoto
Aiea
Saint Louis School Class of 1972