'Autonomy' might not be all it's promised

Your editorial opinion (Star-Bulletin, March 19) stated: "Federal investigations into allegations of racial discrimination favoring Hawaiians should be put on hold while talks aimed at acknowledging Hawaiian autonomy continue." Though well intentioned, this is more evidence of the snowballing effect of reconciling political illegalities with the status quo: more snow-jobs. Since 1898, U.S. authorities, including Hawaiians, have not been able to invent a legal reality for Hawaii. Such efforts, complete with legal smoke-and-mirrors, is the legacy of the current system.

Hawaiians, aside from those at the front of the dependent-sovereignty hand-out line, who place their hopes on federal "autonomy" a la "more of the same" better maka ala. Get involved. Don't leave it all up to the bureaucrats. It could get worse.

Michael Locey

Anahola, Kauai

Truth about reason for war finally arises

Finally, Bush administration officials are telling us the truth about the Iraq war. They're now saying that Saddam was a bad guy and the world is better off without him. So why didn't they tell us the truth from the beginning?

They could have said, "Saddam is a bad guy. He's not a threat to anyone but Iraqis. He's not involved with al-Qaida. He has no nuclear weapons. He has no weapons of mass destruction. He has no biological or chemical weapons delivery systems. He's not an imminent threat to us or his neighbors. He's a shell of his former self due to the 1991 Gulf War, sanctions and U.N. inspections. He's fundamentally in compliance with U.N. resolutions. So we're invading Iraq now to take him out because he's a bad guy. The world will be better without him, and it'll only cost you 600 dead American servicemen and women and a couple of hundred billion dollars to start."

Now, how could any red-blooded American not support that?

Rick Lloyd
Honolulu

Liberating Iraq was not all about oil

Remember when we liberated Iraq? Some people yelled and howled, "No blood for oil!" They were positive we were going into Iraq to get the oil. A lack of facts never stopped them from screaming "No blood for oil!"

Now look around at the price of gasoline. Clearly we did not get the oil. We rapidly moved to protect the oil fields of Iraq, for the benefit of those people.

We need to be careful about whom and what we believe. So much of what we hear is not true.

Mark Terry
Honolulu

Why the celebration for Stewart's fall?

Polls say the majority of Americans believe Martha Stewart should serve time after being convicted of lying about stock sales. The Enquirer's front page says gleefully that "inmates in New York can't wait to get their hands on Martha Stewart." Radio DJs are getting on the bandwagon to joke about Stewart. America is buying these papers and supporting these shows. Pitiful followers!

Who in America has done more to promote home and family in recent years than Martha Stewart? Where are her supporters? Where is American outrage when the stock market recently bilked the money from our savings and retirement funds? Oh yeah, we're still playing the stock market ourselves.

Barbara Jessee
Ewa Beach

Fining speeders could lift city from the red

A hitherto unrecognized renewable resource has just been discovered on the highways and byways of Hawaii: speeders! With a virtually unlimited supply of speeders and new ones zealously practicing to replace those who become incapacitated, incarcerated or dead, we may soon be able to do away with property and sales taxes! Thanks to law enforcement cameras that capture speeders on film, county coffers will soon overflow with fines collected from mal-feasants who infringe on the privacy of other people when they kill them.

Another result might be safer roads with fewer people dying on them.

Tom Dolan
Honolulu

Why don't isle prices follow world oil prices?

Each time I pull in for a fill-up, I am mad. Especially if I have just talked to my daughter in Spokane or my grandson in Charlotte, N.C., who tells me he just paid $1.50 a gallon. Wow!

I am not an economist, but anyone can ask questions. Why do Hawaii's gasoline prices not fluctuate with the world price of crude oil, or even with the pump prices on the mainland? It seems that when world prices go up, our prices go up, but when the world prices come down, our prices stay up. This doesn't make sense. Who is cashing in?

Ruth Ellen Lindenberg
Honolulu