Kids trade filthy vice for something nice

I was passing Castle High School on Kaneohe Bay Drive recently, and what I saw made me feel so good. On the corner at the entrance to the school was a group of teenagers gathered together. It looked like they were talking about what they were going to do for the day. In their hands were not cigarettes, but crackers.

I felt so good inside to see the crackers instead of cigarettes. Go, students of Castle High!

Emilye Gubby Ramil Heinicke
Castle High School Class of '67

Prisoners were the 'truly innocent' ones

Truth, as the saying goes, is the first casualty of war. Unfortunately, uninformed opinions follow closely behind, as Don Mangiarelli's May 8 letter illustrates.

Mangiarelli tries to compare the slayings and desecration of four Americans (he calls them "truly innocent civilians") with the torture that occurred in the Abu Ghraib prison. While both of these incidents were outrageous, the simple fact is that the four Americans were not "truly innocent civilians." They were mercenaries working for Blackwater USA, a military contractor, and probably earning around $10,000 a month, if reports are accurate.

Mangiarelli also says that the people tortured in Abu Ghraib were "in prison for being bad guys." This, too, is not entirely accurate. Many soldiers in Iraq with knowledge of the prison situation have acknowledged that the prisons are full of people randomly swept up in raids (or, to put it another way, they are truly innocent civilians).

The only way out of the mess in Iraq is to start speaking the truth about the situation there. The Bush administration has made mistake after mistake, and as long as the fallacy of "America = good, everyone else = bad" is allowed to stand, no one will ever win.

Sebastian Blanco
Honolulu

Punish whoever was in charge of prison

If the officer in command of those men and women involved in these acts of evil atrocity at Abu Ghraib prison did not know what his or her troops were doing, he should be dishonorably discharged -- no benefits, no retirement, reviled by all -- and this punishment should extend all the way up the chain of command.

If the officer in command did have knowledge of these acts, he or she should be arrested and tried in a world crime court and this arrest should extend all the way to the top: to the commander in chief, the president of the United States, George W. Bush and all his henchmen.

Write letters, phone, fly flags at half-staff or upside down, wear black ribbons on your sleeves and stand on street corners. Let the world and your fellow Americans know you will not condone such behavior. We are not Nazis in this country. What decent human being would want his son or daughter involved in such madness? Let your voices and your actions be seen and heard.

As for the religious fanatics among us: pray. And wonder as you do what kind of a god you worship.

Bettejo Dux
Kalaheo, Kauai

Race-based NBA games could help charities

In the National Basketball Association playoffs, there are more black than white players. It would be interesting to hold exhibition games between the black and white players.

The proceeds from the games could go to a charitable organization picked by the NBA.

How Tim Chang
Honolulu

Pali potholes won't be fixed anytime soon

Want a chuckle? Call the state's "pothole hotline." You'll hear a friendly, taped voice informing you that the Department of Transportation appreciates responsible citizens reporting potholes. The tape goes on to say that DOT will "get crews on the site immediately, we are working to improve our roadways."

While I never expected an immediate response, I did expect some action. Yet a month later, weekly calls to the hotline have elicited no action on the growing potholes on the Pali Highway. When I called the DOT, I was told that no repairs were planned until the completion of the Castle Junction project in four to six months. This, despite the fact that one of the potholes has grown to more than 8 feet across!

Calling the governor's office offered no results, either. An aide told me he sympathized with me because he also lived on the Windward side. He suggested that I get used to it since no pothole repairs were scheduled for at least four months. His advice to me was to "drive around them" like he did.

With representation and responsiveness like this, is it any wonder why citizens increasingly stop participating in the electoral process?

Stephen T. Molnar
Kailua

Leaf blower sprays filth on neighbors

While riding my bicycle to the University of Hawaii-Manoa one morning, I came upon a cloud of dust emanating from a restaurant next to Washington Middle School. I soon discovered that their yardman was using a leaf blower to move the accumulated dust and who knows what else, (i.e., bird droppings, dried human saliva from spit, animal droppings, mites, dead insects, various microbes) over the wall that separates them. I phoned the school to let them know what their neighbor was doing.

Soon after, I saw it again and again. Subsequent followups with the school and the restaurant fell upon deaf ears. They are still doing their dirty deeds with impunity and idiocy.

I feel sorry for the elementary school students because they have an open cafeteria vulnerable to the trades that carry their neighbor's trash.

Russell Kim
Honolulu