Brainstorm! Challenge

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Anti-military actions support terrorism

Malama Makua and Earthjustice's support for al-Qaida is showing again ("Makua group sues to stop live-fire exercise in valley," Breaking News, Star-Bulletin.com yesterday). Lack of training costs lives, as we are now seeing in Iraq with our soldiers from Hawaii. Our military needs to train when and where they believe it is necessary, without intervention from anti-military and anti-American terrorist-supporting groups.

It is beyond the time for the U.S. Justice Department to declare this groups and others like them as supporters of terrorism and for aiding the terrorists killing our men and women in our military who are serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Ronald L. Edmiston
Honolulu

Highway patrol would free up HPD officers

The other day I was traveling down H-1 from the H-2 merge to the Aloha Stadium area. I was two cars behind a blue and white Honolulu Police Department patrol car. We were doing 63 mph the whole way. During this short trip I observed:

>> five cars weaving back and forth from lane to lane not using their turn signals

>> 10 cars that never used turn signals before changing lanes

>> three cars in the far left lane traveling much faster than the police officer and I were traveling

>> one car with an expired registration sticker

>> three cars with expired safety check stickers

>> one car with a cracked windshield (spider-web cracks)

>> one very old car blowing a cloud of smoke out its tailpipe.

>> 12 cars (including the police car) going 8 mph faster than the posted speed limit.

These 35 drivers either did not know they were breaking traffic laws or they were so secure in the knowledge that they would not be ticketed that they ignored the laws in full view of a police officer. What worries me more is the apparent lack of concern by this uniformed officer. (To be fair, maybe he was going somewhere important and just didn't have the time to issue any tickets.)

HPD has said we do not need a highway patrol duplicating HPD work. I think a small highway patrol with no other duties than enforcing traffic laws would free up our hard-working police officers to work all the other things that keep them from working on traffic law enforcement.

Steven Marsh
Mililani Town

Tourists still can find value in Waikiki

In regard to Ronald F. Espin's March 2 letter relating his feelings about the changing isle values: My wife and I visited Waikiki last month for the first time after a five-year hiatus. We have made trips to Oahu, Maui and Molokai since 1990.

I agree with him to a certain extent about the high-end retailers taking over Waikiki. But I would like to take issue with him about affordable lodging in Waikiki. This time we stayed at the Ohana Reef Towers. We got a kitchenette suite for $79 (plus parking). That's not too far from what we paid at the same hotel seven years ago. We did stay in an oceanfront suite at the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach our last three nights, but it was our reward to ourselves.

We had good local grinds several times at the new Lewers St. Lanai and Loft, with a plate lunch around five bucks. We also dined at Alan Wong's. Again, our choice. We would have been just as happy eating plate lunches.

The values are still around; one just has to look for them.

Rex McCall
West Columbia, Texas

Senate leader voted for Hong appointment

Your editorial yesterday stated that I voted against Ted Hong's confirmation to the Circuit Court bench. But my recollection, supported by accounts published in the Star-Bulletin, is that I was one of 12 senators who voted in favor of Hong's appointment.

As for attempts to rein in the powers of the governor, the Legislature's efforts have been longstanding -- as long as I have been a legislator, in fact. As recently as 1999, during Ben Cayetano's term, the Senate approved a concurrent resolution requesting the Legislative Reference Bureau to do a study to determine which powers the Legislature could take back from the governor. Unfortunately, the events of Sept. 11 sidetracked this effort, but it has gained new life in recent months.

Anytime you have an executive branch with strong powers and a co-equal branch of government that finds its mandates ignored by that executive, you will have conflicts. A too-strong executive branch breeds arrogance and the abuse of power, and that is what the Legislature is trying to temper with its proposals.

Robert Bunda
Senate president

Editor's note: The error was corrected for the afternoon edition of the March 16 Star-Bulletin. A correction notice also is on page A2 of today's Star-Bulletin.

Who would tolerate sewage backups?

Your March 15 story about sewage problems in Foster Village showed that city officials can be almost criminally negligent where the health of some of our citizens is concerned. How long would Mayor Harris, Frank Doyle (city director of environmental services) or the City Council put up with sewage backing up into their homes when heavy rain falls? Not for 24 years, I'll wager.

The Foster Village sewage problem needs to be fixed now, not six months from now.

R.C. Johnson
Honolulu

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[ BRAINSTORM! ] Does Honolulu need a city museum, and what should be in it? Does history matter? If so, whose history? Bishop Museum is one of the leading cultural museums in the United States, but it is not a history center. Honolulu seems to be the only state capital city without a municipal museum. Does Honolulu need a city museum? What should be in it? Where should it be? Should such a museum be a collection of artifacts or a learning center? Would such a museum be geared for Hawaii education or for entertaining tourists? Send your ideas by March 17 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