Brainstorm! Challenge

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Exhausted students can't take longer day

Reading the Nov. 13 article about extending the school day shocked me. I'm a high school junior. I spend an hour-and-a-half to two hours in each class and at least six hours in school each day, only to go home to hours of homework. Let's keep in mind that a well-rounded student is expected to maintain good grades while participating in sports, clubs and other extra-curricular activities. Some of us are trying to include jobs and what we like to call a social life. Sometimes there aren't enough hours in the day for what we have to do already, and the Department of Education wants to add more.

In addition, the DOE now wants to make school strictly brain-frying material by reducing physical education from two semesters to one, while complaining about obesity among our youth! I speak for students like me, since so often we don't have a say in important matters like this. The DOE is not directly affected; we students are.

Kristen Madsen
Ewa Beach

Stryker will desecrate sacred land

I haven't bothered to read the Stryker/Pohakuloa draft environmental impact study. Other than the latest corporate whitewash, it has no news to offer.

Big Islanders have known for years what's up there -- a sacred place. We've witnessed depleted uranium and other weapons of mass destruction our weekend warriors toss around with reckless abandon. Should some choose to refute my claim, then give us Geiger counters and free access to the firing range.

Living on Mauna Kea, I heard the bombs' reports and saw red-cindered smoke blot out Hualalai. I felt my aina rattled by volcanic battle.

The short-term economic benefits to the Big Island from the war machine will forever pollute tourism, fishing and agriculture -- the mainstays of our local economy.

The Stryker is a NIMBY issue -- Not In My Back Yard! An urban assault vehicle, it's designed to ride roughshod through the Third World's narrow slums. It will kill more civilians than terrorists.

Were a global survey taken today, the United States would win as the most morally bankrupt country on Earth. Morality aside, the fact remains: A preponderance of mankind lives -- and dies -- in fear of us. We export more WMD than anyone.

The unheralded, grass-roots antiwar movement must run rampant war out of here -- and only hope its next victims of aggression can stop it, over there.

Only peace and preservation can save us. Only we can wreck our aina. Peace begins at home.

Get U.S. ordnance off my island.

David Williams
Kealakekua, Hawaii

Eliminating war means killing individuality

Wars occur because of the vast differences and diversity of human culture, education, ideology, economics and religion.

How then should we go about not having wars?

In theory it is relatively simple:

1. Create a "unicameral" world government.

2. Develop a monotheistic religion so that we all worship only one "supernatural" entity.

3. Share and share alike all the resources and wealth on this Earth.

4. Invent a "uni-all" society so that we all think and act alike.

5. Enforce a stringent government-regulated birth control program.

Then for certain we shall have everlasting peace, while at the same time we'll be living in a dull, boring, stagnant, non-progressive society and world.

Tetsuji Ono
Hilo, Hawaii

Our postal workers deserve a big mahalo

I just wanted to take the time to say thank you to the postal workers for all their work throughout the year, especially this holiday season. Thank you for extending your hours and working harder to accommodate us, but still greeting us with smiles. You are a great example of the holiday spirit. Because I'm a procrastinator, I was really grateful for your service. Have a happy new year!

Paula Chong
Honolulu

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[ BRAINSTORM! ] What should the city do with the elegant old sewage pump station? It's empty and fading, and now it's taking a beating from all the construction going on around it. The O.G. Traphagen-designed sewage pump station on Ala Moana Boulevard, more than a century old, is a monument to the glory days of municipal architecture, when city fathers took such pride in their community that even a humble sewage station became a landmark structure. Millions of tourists drive by it every year, and it's an embarrassing reminder of how poorly Honolulu treats its historic landmarks. Over the years, dozens of uses and excuses and blue-sky speculations have been suggested for the striking structure. Now we're asking you, Mr. and Mrs. Kimo Q. Publique, what should the city do with the elegant old pump building? Send your ideas and solutions by Jan. 15 to: brainstorm@starbulletin.com Or mail them to: Brainstorm! c/o Nancy Christenson Star-Bulletin 500 Ala Moana 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210 Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 Fax: Brainstorm! c/o Nancy Christenson 529-4750