Self-centered women caused 9/11 attack

In regard to the Sept. 11 Star-Bulletin report of a New York policeman and a combat vet calling for vigilance in the wake of the 9/11 attack, one is reminded this is not a matter reserved for police and military personnel. We ordinary citizens have a role to play.

Much of the terrorists' propaganda edge overseas derives from the ease with which they impale our cultural degradation. Maybe it is time for American men to encourage American women to focus on a return to the modesty, dignity and self-respect of an earlier era.

Most of the currently glamorized excesses -- self-mutilation, trashy public conduct and clothing choices typical of a prostitute -- can be traced to influence deliberately exerted by the "cry-baby boom" elite. Clearly women were wrong to walk away from responsible behavior beginning in the sixties in the fatuous pretense they were somehow "liberating" themselves. That infantile, self-centered nonsense has led directly to increasing hatred of America abroad and a fertile recruiting ground for terrorist extremists who continue to get a lot of mileage portraying America as "the great Satan."

Women are naturally heroic. They guard the gates of a society's morality. When they abandon that heroic duty, they suffer and so does everyone else.

Thomas E. Stuart
Kapaau, Hawaii

Gore and Clinton caused 9/11 attack

I keep hearing the names of Al Gore and Hillary Clinton as potential draftees to run for president, just the thought of which makes me sick to my stomach.

On the second anniversary of 9/11, I reflect on the Clinton/ Gore legacy of wasting time fighting terrorism through criminal proceedings in court rather than with bullets and smart bombs. Just thinking how Clinton/Gore put a blind cleric in jail for the original bombing of the World Trade Center, while saying no to taking custody of bin Laden, makes me want to draft Clinton and Gore as candidates to be hung in a public square.

Eric Ryan
Ewa Beach

Rough-water swims are wild but not crazy

Criticism toward Ted Sheppard and the organizers who volunteered at the Waikiki Rough Water Swim is tapering off (Star-Bulletin, Sept. 2). As the 358th finisher, I would like to offer another perspective on what occurred that morning.

Being surrounded by water, you hear of people getting caught in high surf and jumping off cliffs, you hear about shark attacks, heck, you even hear stories of people sticking their butts in the blowhole! The ocean is an unpredictable, unforgiving element. She can deliver perfect 4-6 foot surf, then in the next 10 minutes punish you with 12- to 16-foot storm chop.

When I turned the last buoy, the only thing I could focus on was how glad I was going to feel finishing, not "how could the organizer send me out in conditions like this"!

The event was well organized and participants well informed. As one radio announcer put it, "Hello, that's why they call it a rough water swim."

Gregory Suenaga
Honolulu

Why do UH sports use so many colors?

I'm a bit confused and wondering the following:

>> If the "new" University of Hawaii colors are black, green and white, why does the UH band have gold sashes?

>> Why do the coaches wear drab grey shirts? Don't they have green aloha shirts?

>> Are the referees so blind that the TV-timeout guy (Timmy Chang's dad) has to wear a red polo shirt? Again, why can't he wear green?

>> Not that I minded one bit, but why do the Rainbow Dancers wear orange shorts?

>> Why are the Wahine volleyballers wearing high black socks? Are they going for the Gothic look?

>> Why do so many UH "fans" wear reds, blues and yellows to the games?

>> Why don't they have the blimp at the stadium, too, instead of only the arena?

Sean Nishiyama
Waipahu

Bus driving isn't uniquely dangerous

When I learned that the bus drivers might go on strike, I figured I would walk more and give my health a boost. I did not expect the demise of an ankle, which was sprained three times in the past, or the protests from arthritic knees.

It was not a comfort for me to see on the evening news that bus drivers walking the picket lines were getting massages on their sore feet. Who was there to massage my ankle or knees?

It was not a comfort to me to read a letter from a bus driver who claimed he is being nice to let people with packages board his bus. How does he expect seniors to get their packages home from stores?

It was not a comfort to me to hear on the radio the union boss telling people how bus drivers deserve pay raises because they work holidays, weekends and overtime. What about nurses, firefighters, law enforcement officers and their support personnel, who work holidays, weekends and overtime, and receive far less in wages?

It was not a comfort to me to hear one bus driver tell the City Council that he gets abuse from passengers and therefore deserves the wages he makes. What about teachers and law enforcement officers where this type of treatment is almost routine and who receive far less in wages?

Yes, we seniors do need to pay more for our yearly passes; however, I believe bus drivers need to be less greedy and be grateful they even have jobs in these tough economic times.

Syndy Soucy
Honolulu

U.S., not Saddam, protected terror group

Star-Bulletin columnist Cynthia Oi's critic John Colwell is wrong to imply that because an al-Qaida terrorist group was active in Iraq that therefore Saddam Hussein's regime was connected to it, or permitted its existence (Letters, Sept. 14). In fact, the group Ansar al Islam was in the northern, Kurdish part of Iraq before the war, where the U.S. "no-fly zone" protected it from Saddam. This is cited in a Feb. 20, 2003 U.S. State Department document.

One could make a better case that Ansar al Islam was protected by the U.S., not by Saddam.

Tom Sheeran
Honolulu