Pearl 'circus tent' shows disrespect

This is about that ugly new commercial tourist tent at Pearl Harbor right next to the USS Arizona Memorial and USS Bowfin Submarine Museum (Star-Bulletin, Jan. 30). I used to work at the Bowfin, so I know the area well.

The Arizona Memorial opened in 1962; the sub museum opened next in 1981; and the USS Missouri came in 1999. All these groups have spent millions of dollars to set up and run their exhibits educating the public about huge sacrifices made by the military to protect the country during World War II. Now suddenly we have these Johnny-come-lately profit seekers show up with their carnival tent to try to leech off all the years of hard work done by the nonprofit museums next door. Don't people realize that every dollar spent at Maui Divers and Hilo Hattie is one fewer dollar that will be spent at the museum shops to help them maintain their ships and exhibits?

These are war memorials and grave sites, not an amusement park and shopping mall to make people happy. If these promoters want to run a tourist swap meet, the place they should do it is Aloha Stadium or Waikiki.

Alcohol in parks is just bad thinking

The sale of alcohol in city parks is by far one of the most foolish ideas ever floated before us. And yes, there will be a sign saying, "Please do not drive after drinking here."

Oh, and this one: "No outside alcoholic beverages may be consumed in this park."

Maybe this one: "Please remember this park is used by children, do not break glass bottles in common areas."

Or this: "Have one drink, maybe two, it's for the good of me and you!"

If you are in charge, you have to be creative, not juvenile. Or maybe the politicians are just itching to have a legal political fund-raiser at these parks -- booze and BS fit together well!

Gaming could help solve money woes

California recently opted to join the multistate Power Ball Lottery. Millions of dollars derived will be used to pay for all of their educational needs. Florida's lottery has done this for years.

Why can't we do the same thing in Hawaii? They just recently raised our property taxes on Oahu approximately 26 percent. One research group relates that each family on Oahu would have to pay about $900 to get a fixed-rail system -- a rail system, due to geographical logistics, about one-half of Oahu's population won't have access to.

Money from our lottery could be earmarked for one specific entity, like public worker pay raises, educational needs or highway/road maintenance. The lottery and other gaming would give us much-needed tax relief and also enhance tourism, bringing in outside money.

Our elected officials and government administrators cannot be hypocritical on the gaming issue. Many of them join the thousands of locals who visit Las Vegas every year, and they, too, "donate" millions into the Nevada economy. Why not keep some of this money home?

Those left behind worry, pray for return

There is something to be said for the life of a military wife. We are left behind here while the war rages on. We see the faces of the ones who have lost and rejoice in the pleasure of those who return home. Still we wait, by the phone, at the edge of our seats. We try to keep up a front so that no one around us sees the fear within. His or her parents, our children, all depend on our courage and strength. At night, when the kids are in bed and the house is too quiet, we pray for their return and we hope that it has all been worth it, and we kid ourselves that our government ever cared for the man on the front or the spouse left behind. Trying desperately to be selfless, for the children in Iraq, we hope it was worth it.

We rage at the fact that our husbands and wives were sent away without the full support of our allies. We curse the administration that believed they could prevail in so few numbers and with such little support. We hope that our children don't grieve like those Iraqi children whose homes and mothers and fathers are simply casualties of war.

We believe in freedom, for our children and theirs, but couldn't the loss of American lives have been reduced or even avoided by evaluating the danger, by seeking the advice of those we deem to be international colleagues?

My husband is there, in harm's way, fighting the good fight. I cannot help blaming my government for leaving him so very unprotected.

Action has been taken against sewage spills

I am writing in response to the Feb. 11 letter to the editor regarding the Hawaii State Department of Health clean-water enforcement actions.

Since the mid-1990s, the DOH and the Environmental Protection Agency have taken several enforcement actions against the City and County of Honolulu for sewage spills and improper operations at waste-water treatment plants. The DOH's most recent action was filed against the city in April 2004.

From 1995 to the end of 2003, there was a reduction of sewage spills. Since January 2004 there has been an increase in spills, and the DOH and the EPA are concerned.

In late 2004 the EPA retained a consultant to evaluate the city's waste-water collection system. This audit is ongoing and completion is anticipated for mid-2005. Both the DOH and the EPA will review the findings to see what actions will best serve the public interest while protecting the public health and the environment. We will not prejudge now exactly what actions will be taken.

Radical fringe at UH backs hate speech

The University of Hawaii has always had its ridiculous radical fringe who loudly and arrogantly try to cloak themselves in pseudointellectualism. So I'm certainly not surprised that they are supporting the hate speech of Ward Churchill.

According to several published accounts, Churchill is being investigated for termination from the University of Colorado because he flim-flammed his way to a tenured professorship without the required academic credentials (he has no doctorate) and because the American Indian Movement, which Churchill claims to speak for, has disavowed and denounced him as a fraud and a phony. So naturally, he fits right in with the ethnic-studies people at the University of Hawaii.

Who's next on the lecture series, President McClain? Neo-Nazis, the KKK and militant Muslim murderers?

What a pathetic imitation of higher education. Fortunately, our best and brightest keiki have far better educational options than UH.

What about children who died on 9/11?

I think it's too bad the Star-Bulletin had to apologize to University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill for misquoting him (Feb. 24). He seems to be full of so many contradictory ideas and opinions that it is little wonder reporters might get confused.

I am a lifelong liberal Democrat who couldn't really care less whether Churchill is of American Indian ancestry. And if professors want to send their students to listen to him to promote freedom of speech, that's their prerogative. However, could everyone just stop for a minute and realize that his "chickens coming home to roost" theory about 9/11 involved not just the murders of thousands of workers in the twin towers, but also two planes full of some more totally innocent people?

Does Churchill think it was OK to send those toddlers who were sitting in their parents' laps in the planes to die in fiery balls of flames? I doubt that he does, although I'm not sure what he believes. He might just want a lot of attention, no matter what he has to say to get it.

UH actually squelches diverse viewpoints

Ward Churchill's visit sure has brought out the free-speech crowd. Funny, I didn't hear an uproar when Ken Conklin was denied the right to teach a class ("Hawaiian Sovereignty -- Another View") in the fall of 2002. The subsequent uproar and accompanying threats and intimidation of the director of the Academy of Lifetime Learning, a frail elderly lady, in her office by burly anti-free-speech members of the academic community at the University of Hawaii were enough to cause the cancellation. Though the course was subsequently reinstated, the damage was done.

Nor was there any uproar over the treatment of Grant Crowell when he was a cartoonist for Ka Leo O Hawaii, the UH student newspaper, in 1994, when Churchill last spoke at UH.

It is obviously OK to say anything you want to at UH as long as it is filled with hate and anti-American.

Students force-fed liberal propaganda

In your Feb. 23 article reviewing the appearance by Ward Churchill at the University of Hawaii, a student mentioned that she was assigned by a professor to go and listen. Huh? I thought Churchill and the UH organizations that sponsored him were all about freedom. Would this student have suffered a lower grade for refusing to go? Are the liberal UH faculty force-feeding unpatriotic, anti-U.S., hate-filled ideas by forcing their students to attend trumped-up, circuslike events such as this one?

This incident has solidified Hawaii's position as the most liberal state in the union, which is not a proud distinction.

Alternate recyclables, garbage pickup

Here is what might make it easier to practice what we want to preach as lovers of the aina.

Nakasone would serve band, Hawaii well

This is in support of the confirmation of Michael Nakasone's appointment to bandmaster of the Royal Hawaiian Band. Nakasone has been a band director in the Hawaii Department of Education for 37 years, 28 of them as bandmaster at Pearl City High School. Nakasone has served as director of the Hawaii Youth Symphony II Orchestra for the past 16 years. For the past four years, he has been my director both on the field and in the band room.

Nakasone has given me, as well as our band program, unwavering support throughout the years. I have no doubt that he will give the same consideration to the Royal Hawaiian Band. His visions have taken our bands to many prominent national and international events. He has demonstrated that his view of music and its role in life is global and inclusive. His involvement in the music of the Royal Hawaiian Band will give the community pride and ownership of this world-class ensemble. He has clearly demonstrated that he can bring the music of Hawaii to the world and spread aloha as musical ambassador of this state.

Tort reform needs to be clarified

George Casen's comments in his Feb. 15 letter to the editor, "Improve medical care before curbing suits," are misleading. Tort law with a cap of $375,000 on noneconomical damages of pain and suffering already exist in Hawaii. There is no limit on economical damages such as loss of income due to loss of organ or life.

We, the physicians of Hawaii, our patients and health care organizations, are asking to make reasonable changes in already existing law to make it impervious to only nonmeritorious or frivolous lawsuits. These frivolous lawsuits have significantly compromised the ability of physicians and other health care providers to provide proper and full health care services. We have an access-to-health-care crisis in Hawaii. By putting a cap on all noneconomical damages besides pain and suffering, reducing the award to $250,000 from currently $375,000 and giving more money from the award to the injured patient or worker instead of their attorneys, we can cut down frivolous lawsuits and unreasonably high awards to those who file nonmeritorious or fake claims. We should appreciate the efforts of all our lawmakers to approach this serious issue to improve the access to health care for majority of the patients and injured workers.