Little sympathy for strikers

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Reduce 'ice' use by putting state in charge

The Star-Bulletin inadvertently printed the solution to the ice epidemic, buried in a story on page 10 of the Sept. 16 edition ("Pot patients peeved at Canada's proffering"). The Canadian government is growing medicinal pot and selling it, but customers complain that the dope is "disgusting."

Clearly, if we abolished the free market and put our legislative leadership -- the same people who thought the van cams were a jolly good idea -- in charge of producing and distributing crystal methamphetamine, people all over the state will start jonesing rather than buy the resulting shoddily made, overpriced ice.

Jim Henshaw
Kailua

Hokulia developers didn't follow the law

Kona Circuit Judge Ronald Ibarra's ruling halting the Hokulia development is welcome news (Star-Bulletin, Sept 10). Developers should not be exempt from our land-use laws. Just because they've invested a bunch of money doesn't allow them to evade the law. The Hokulia development also has had problems such as muddy runoff and disturbed burial sites.

We are losing wild, undeveloped coastline to development. Land-use laws protect our cultural and natural resources and state taxpayers. Hawaii's coastal areas deserve as much protection as we can give them.

Randy Ching
Honolulu

Commercialism saturates UH games

I am disturbed by the gross commercialism at University of Hawaii football games at Aloha Stadium. It has descended to a guy at the 50-yard line waving a Burger King flag before kickoff.

Already, the end zones and sidelines are contaminated by cheap, collapsible commercial signs much as baseball parks 100 years ago promoted whiskey and tobacco on outfield walls. Just when I look at the scoreboard to see if it is second and seven, there's a message instead promoting a cause or product. Even the public announcements are tainted with other than football information.

And on the radio, I hear Bobby Curran practically saying that the 5-yard run around the right end was brought to you by the Buick Motor Car Division.

What's left is this: Eat at Joe's painted on the turf at the 40-yard lines and small planes circling overhead touting hostess bars with "all new" exotic dancing ladies.

Lyle Nelson
Honolulu

Coach is flush, while students do without

Community colleges in the University of Hawaii system have canceled dozens of courses this fall due to budget cuts (Star-Bulletin, Sept. 4), at the same time UH administrators have been forced -- begrudgingly -- to reveal the details of the sweetheart $800,000 contract of football coach June Jones.

I am sure those students whose courses were canceled will understand that the money was better spent to pay tuition for Jones' children to go to private schools and to make sure he has two new leased vehicles to drive.

Of course, UH President Evan Dobelle did promise "transparency" in all UH dealings in his inaugural speech two years ago. Unfortunately, it now appears that those promises are forgotten and it's now simply business as usual. Those with the least influence and power within the UH system -- community college students -- bear the burden of the ruling oligarchy and their finely feathered nests within UH.

William Kester
Makawao, Maui

Marketplace rehab will revive old Waikiki

In my youth, at the site of what is now the International Marketplace, there were cottages in a parking lot under a banyan tree on Kalakaua Avenue. Up to the early part of the 20th century, the cool waters of Apuakehau Stream flowed through Aina Hou, Princess Kaiulani's home and then emptied into the Pacific Ocean on Waikiki Beach. In 1908, one of the nation's greatest water-sports clubs, the Outrigger Canoe Club, was founded on the banks off Apuakehau Stream.

I offer my heartfelt congratulations to the Queen Emma Foundation, Mark Hastert and all of those who are planning the revitalization of the International Marketplace (Star-Bulletin, Sept. 11). It is particularly heartwarming that the centerpiece of this revitalization is Apuakehau Stream. This renaissance is the kind of development that will help sustain Waikiki as a Hawaiian place.

Sen. Fred Hemmings
Senate Minority Leader

Tax gas-guzzling cars and encourage biking

The world does not owe us gas at $1.65 a gallon. Putting a price cap on gasoline is market control, as done in communist countries (and California); it doesn't work. The problem is, we use too much gas. Increasing demand in the face of fixed or diminishing supplies causes the price to go up -- supply and demand.

But if you favor government intervention and market controls, and are concerned with the price of transportation, why not go whole hog? Tax luxury gas-guzzlers. That should take some of the edge off demand and make the road safer at the same time. While we're about that, let's enforce speed limits; a car going 60 mph uses more gasoline than one going 40.

That'll also save a lot of lives as well as insurance premiums.

While we're making it safer, take that gas-guzzler tax money and use it for destination-oriented bicycling and walking routes. That way, more of us will walk or bike for the 40 percent of all trips that are less than two miles, further reducing gasoline demand and price, to say nothing of congestion, pollution and parking. The energy for this will come from around our collective middles at the rate of about a half-pound a week. Looks like we can reduce those health insurance and Medicare premiums, too.

We'll live longer, experience more pleasant traveling and have fewer accidents. Makes more sense than a gas cap.

John Goody
Kaneohe

Price caps would cost motorists more

One point in your Sept. 1 editorial ("Gasoline price cap will have its moment") was correct: If the government's ill-conceived gasoline price cap isn't repealed, Hawaii consumers are likely to pay higher prices at the pump. In fact, according to the Lundberg Report, if the price cap had existed during the three years before its enactment, Hawaii consumers would have paid $82 million more for gasoline than they already paid.

Gasoline generally costs more in Hawaii, according to state and national experts, because the state has imposed the highest gasoline taxes in the country, because it passed retail marketing laws that reduce competition and because we are a small, island economy with expensive real property and other costs.

Proponents of Hawaii's gas cap insist on an alternative to the flawed legislation. But do we really want to follow a California politician's scheme to regulate prices that editorials in the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register have condemned as anti-competitive and anti-consumer?

It's time the press more responsibly reported industry profit margins. Petroleum industry profit margins are on par with the average of all other industries in the country. A recent report to the Legislature on the gas price cap unequivocally stated that the gas cap is bad for consumers. It should put to rest the notion that oil companies in Hawaii are making profits out of line with other businesses here.

Melissa Pavlicek
Western States Petroleum Association

Family-owned cemetery is a sad loss

On Sept. 5, we, the children of Herbert M. "Montie" Richards, reluctantly closed the Honolulu Memorial Park cemetery. We kept it afloat for more than 30 years, but because of continuing losses, can no longer afford to do so.

Our father set up the park in 1958, along with a nonprofit association to maintain sold property, not only as a business but to further the interest of his own father, Theodore Richards, in cultural harmony between Hawaii and Japan.

By the time he died in 1970, the new Pali Highway had disrupted the formerly quiet backwater in lower Nuuanu. Most of the property was sold, but both organizations were insolvent.

In continuing the business, we have drawn no payments and have subsidized these organizations with more than $1 million, far beyond any other inheritance from our father.

We have pursued many avenues for solutions, but sadly without success. Meanwhile, our family's good name and intentions have been jeopardized by the problems surrounding the cemetery, in spite of our best efforts to do the right thing.

It is time for us to step aside in favor of others with an interest in the cemetery. We are ready to donate the cemetery to any such qualified organization.

Manning Richards
Herbert M. Richards Jr.
James A. Richards
Mary Richards Shattuck

Bush uses Sept. 11 for political gain

I urge the news media to please devote some time to discussing the Bush administration's political use of the Sept. 11 tragedy. President Bush clearly has been exploiting Americans' fears to further his agenda and, since tying his rhetoric to 9/11 has been successful, he is likely to continue.

If you will look at the record, Bush advanced his economic plan of tax cuts for the wealthy and the Cheney energy plan by tying them to 9/11; implied Saddam Hussein had been involved in the 9/11 attacks when he proposed attacking Iraq; and justified passing the restrictive Patriot Act as a response to 9/11.

Finally, it seems hardly a coincidence that the Republican Party will hold its 2004 national convention later than ever before so that their nomination of Bush for re-election will fall just before the third anniversary of Sept. 11, allowing him and the party to make 9/11 commemorative events part of the convention agenda.

Paul Kennedy
Honolulu

Don't compare 9/11 to overthrow

Eric Poohina's letter to the editor on Sept. 12 really sickened me. Poohina's comparison of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893 was inappropriate.

As far as I know, no one died in the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. But 2,792 people died in the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. What occurred in 1893 was unjust and illegal, but comparing it to 9/11 is unconscionable.

Aaron Stene
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

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Little sympathy for striking drivers

Oahu is easy driving for bus operators

All we continue to hear from Teamsters leader Mel Kahele and the bus drivers is that they "deserve" their pay and benefits. We all know their pay is in the top 10 percent for bus drivers nationally, but they do not realize that they are also in the top 10 percent of the easiest places to drive.

Any city on the mainland comparable in size or larger presents significantly more challenges and rudeness than we have here. Having lived in Southern California and driven in other large cities, I believe Honolulu is by far the most courteous place to drive.

We should have all the drivers all go to Los Angeles and drive for a month, then come back and tell us how Honolulu compares. I drive every day and I, along with others, consistently let TheBus drivers merge into traffic at the expense of my (our) time.

I have a feeling that there are many drivers out there who may not be so courteous in the future as a result of this strike. It's time for bus employees to grow up and earn a living, instead of feeling entitled to one.

Ken Panosh
Kaneohe

Raise fares for kids wearing $80 shoes

If the City Council wants to raise the fees for the bus, don't raise it for the handicapped and the elderly; raise it for the students. They are the ones with the money. Do you see any elderly or handicapped person who can afford $80 shoes and $60 jeans? Besides that, it's the young who are marking up the bus windows and seats with graffiti. If they can't afford to pay the increase, then they can walk. Do they not have youth and health on their side?

And if more youths walked or rode bikes, then I wouldn't have to ride the bus listening to all the foul language coming from the mouths of babes.

Minei Kiefer
Kailua

Public servants poised in face of bus strike

When the bus strike began, six intermediate students from Hiroshima, Japan, and three host families were stymied. Since their instructor had insisted that the students come to class, one of the host mothers braved horrendous traffic on the first day to drive them safely to class.

Seeking an alternative, I called TheCab, the city's information line, the Honolulu airport information line and the Department of Transportation. Each time, those I spoke to were patient, courteous and so kind! I imagine they must have been inundated with calls, yet they treated my inquiries with genuine concern. Personnel from both city and state offices called me back with additional information.

None of the options were viable for the students (either too risky or they were too young to qualify), and in the end their instructor agreed to e-mail their lessons to them for the duration of the strike. I'm grateful that these people set an example of true public service.

Beverly Nomura
Aiea

Fire the bus drivers and hire a teacher

I will work for $30,000 and be grateful for the job. The bus strike is pure insanity. Get rid of the bus drivers' union and let the market run itself. There will be a line of job-seekers circling Oahu as soon as the TheBus drivers are fired.

I'm tired of teaching school and would much rather drive the automatic transmission, air-conditioned bus. Please give me one of their jobs. I can start today.

Hunter Pate
Honolulu

Strikers demands reveal their greed

After reading news coverage of the bus strike in Honolulu and researching the benefits for the strikers in comparison with other public workers, it boggles my mind that the union is asking for a raise.

What qualifications do you really need to drive a bus, as compared to a firefighter or a policeman? I think they are getting greedy. They are earning more than critical public servants, and they expect more? Maybe TheBus should get rid of all the striking drivers and hire a new batch. There are many who would be happy with the salary that is now being paid.

Steve Hao
Pukalani, Maui

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TheBus
Navigating Oahu's bus strike