It's absurd to think of raising lawmakers' pay

We need to get rid of the state Salary Commission. How can its members propose increasing the legislators' salary when our state finances are in such dire straits that education funds and needed social service agencies' funds are under attack?

The legislators are in session for only a short time and their pay, when compared to mainland standards, is already high. And letting them vote on the proposal is even more ridiculous. It will be interesting to see how these "public servants" vote. No wonder people lose faith in government.

Anneliese Chun
Kailua

Diversification even more vital during war

I was dismayed to find from your recent "Roundtable" (Star-Bulletin, Feb. 23) that the state's top economists are still looking for ways to salvage our monoculture of tourism, on which we currently spend $60 million annually and which is suffering even more now that we are at war. Despite the lip service given to diversification, no plan was put forward on how we should urge our policy-makers to focus on the information technology sector and to channel our resources for building a software industry, computer programming, telemedicine, Web-based education and e-commerce.

This year the Japanese satellite sector will launch very small satellites from Barking Sands in Kauai to avail of that island's proximity to the equator. We also have adequate resources in Kapolei and in Maui's High Tech Park and Pacific Disaster Center to boost investment in IT industries that will not pollute our environment. Being at war offers greater scope for activities such as network security, safeguards for servers and telecom backbone safety.

Such enterprises would complement the defense industry and create employment for members of our tech-savvy work force, who now find jobs outside the state.

Meheroo Jussawalla
East West Center

Voters should know who backs quarantine

Names of legislators who fail to see that animal quarantine is an unnecessary infringement on citizens' rights to bring certified healthy pets to Hawaii should be prominently posted in the media so voters may recognize those who show greater devotion to the bureaucracy than to the needs of the people they serve.

Win Bennett
Kailua

Cutting vets' benefits doesn't support troops

I just love reading all these letters about "supporting our troops." I just wonder what this means. Hours after Congress passed a resolution of support for our troops in Iraq, the House of Representatives voted to cut benefits to veterans by nearly $25 billion over 10 years. This included an immediate cut of $844 million from veterans' health care, with a total of $9.7 billion in cuts over the next 10 years. These cuts were included in the fiscal year 2004 budget resolution, which was passed by a vote of 215 to 212.

I wonder if those "patriots" who are so disgusted with the protesters of the war really appreciate the support that they are receiving from the Republicans.

Peter Ehrhorn
Kailua

License plates should use whole alphabet

David Mau, of the city's Motor Vehicle & Licensing Division, stated that license plates starting with NA are not issued because "We try as much as possible to stay away from words" ("Kokua Line", March 27). Wouldn't it make sense to have license plate letters form as many recognizable words as possible? Recognizable words are easier to remember than strange combinations of letters. The car speeding away from a bank robbery with the license plate NAB 323 is easier to see and remember than the license plate NRJ 323.

Mau also said letters resembling numbers (I, O, Z) are not used on license plates. It would take an unusual mindset to read the license plate JOB 323 as J zero B 323, but even if a person were to read it that way, it wouldn't make any difference. It still uniquely identifies the car.

I remember years ago when similar rationales for restricting use of certain letters on license plates were expressed by a representative of the Motor Vehicle & Licensing Division. I guess expecting development of clearer thinking from them during the intervening years was expecting too much.

Tom Loomis
Kailua

Congress could strike gold with postwar plan

The Bush administration will soon need to go to Congress for money to pay for the Iraq war and rebuilding the country. Instead of simply going along with administration's proposal in the name of national unity, Congress could seize the reins and propose an inspiring, inclusive program to repair tattered international relations and set the multibillion-dollar reconstruction of Iraq on the best long-term path.

With one visionary stroke, Congress could rebuild many broken bridges by opening up the process of planning, funding and awarding contracts to other nations, including the European, Arab and Muslim countries whose questions about the Bush administration's Iraq strategy have been stifled or disparaged. With one surgical stroke, Congress could head off an uproar now brewing about conflicts of interest from awarding reconstruction contracts to corporations with close ties to the administration.

This is a "golden opportunity" (pun intended) for Congress. People are marching in the streets in unprecedented numbers at home and abroad in protest of the war in Iraq. Any postwar program that is self-serving and shuts out other nations will breed more divisive cynicism at home and dangerous ill will abroad.

Janet Thebaud Gillmar