Are isle hotels paying their fair share?

If Nevada hotels take in $5 billion and the people who work there pay no state income tax, the hotels must be paying their fair share. They have streets and schools and toilets that flush. Hawaii hotels take in three times as much and look who's paying all the income tax. And these people have to work two or three jobs just to survive!

Union campaign aids all island workers

On June 14, I witnessed another flood in Waikiki, but this time it was the launching of a reinvigorated social movement -- a movement called "Hawaii Hotel Workers Rising." About 1,200 hotel workers of Local 5 flooded the streets of Kalakaua Avenue and made their way to the Duke Kahanamoku statue for a rally featuring former vice presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with community, political and other union brothers and sisters, these hotel workers rallied in support for a fair contract. Edwards spoke of the need for these workers to gain status into Hawaii's middle class by ensuring that they secure good hotel jobs for a healthy Hawaii.

I am just a student, but I realize that Local 5's "Hotel Workers Rising" campaign is not just the hotel workers' fight. This campaign is about my future, too! It is about a Hawaii that I want to feel proud to call my home. A Hawaii where people are treated fairly at work, have the right to join a union and be able to earn a sufficient livelihood without sacrificing their own health and bodies for the sake of others.

Father and son share guts, integrity

It is heartening to read an increasing number of letters in support of 1st Lt. Ehren Watada. Such letters were being outnumbered earlier by letters that referred to Watada as cowardly, whiney and childish, among other things.

One such letter made the point "like father, like son" because of father Bob's opposition to the Vietnam war. Actually, I agree that the senior Watada and his son seem to be very much alike. Bob Watada served as the director of the state Campaign Spending Commission with guts and integrity. He was unafraid to bring down anyone who violated the laws governing campaign spending, including some of the most powerful political insiders in Hawaii. Likewise, his son's actions demonstrate the type of principled courage that refuses to go with the flow when illegalities and deception are used by those in power.

Don't throw it away, let it be used another way

I've been saving glass and paper, and stockpiled quite a stash. I'd rather just recycle it, not throw it in the trash. I've got lots of plastic bottles, and empty tin cans too. And all sorts of other stuff that's almost good as new.

Our landfills are quickly filing with junk that's really not. Is conserving not important, or have we just forgot?

This can't go on forever; soon there'll come a day ... when things are used and used again and not just thrown away.

But why wait until later? Too much will have been lost. Reduce, reuse, recycle. It's too good to be tossed.

Iwo Jima heroes finally recognized

The Board of Directors of the U.S. Marine Corps Iwo Jima Memorial Association, Inc., are grateful to U.S. Rep. Ed Case for bringing recognition -- after 60 years -- to the 5th Division Marines who captured Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima (Tokyo prefecture) and raised the American flag on Feb. 23, 1945. This was the first American flag raised on Japanese territory during World War II.

Case honored the heroism of the men responsible by reading their names and deeds into the congressional record. Those men were: 1st Lt. Harold G. Schrier, office-in-charge; Sgt. Ernest I. "Boots" Thomas, platoon leader; Sgt. Henry "The Count" Hansen; Cpl. Charles Lindberg; Pfc. Raymond Jacobs; Pfc. James Michels; Pvt. Philip Ward; and PhMac John Bradley.

"Uncommon valor, a common virtue."

The USMC Iwo Jima Memorial Association, Inc., is a nonprofit, volunteer Marine organization.