Police should focus on worse violations

I'm a daily walker and it frustrates me to no end as I wait for lights to change at intersections so I can cross, only to watch as cars and trucks speed through red lights to end up at another red light down the road. Where are the police officers? They can be found at Fort Street Mall, Chinatown, Hotel Street or appearing on TV doing the "Clickit or Ticket" seat-belt law enforcement thing.

I went to Kahala Mall to mail some items, and on my way back toward town I noticed another electronic sign that said "$92 Fine, Clickit or Ticket." Let's be responsible. Let's focus our energy, skills and abilities in areas where it really matters, even though we don't receive as much recognition and high profile. You're watching us. Well ... we're watching you, too!

UH student housing is in terrible condition

I write to inform you about the outrageous quality of life that is University of Hawaii housing. As I write this letter, the fire alarm is going off for the third time this week. There is no actual fire, nor is some prankster pulling the alarm. There is an unknown malfunction that causes the alarm to randomly activate. It has not been fixed all semester.

There is also the small matter of interim housing for students living on campus through the summer session. All students are being forced to move to Johnson Hall B, a dormitory far from the cluster of housing structures most live in, only to move back into their assigned summer rooms four days later. The interim housing is much smaller, and Johnson Hall is the oldest of the housing structures. The rooms are small, dirty and infested with insects. They lack many amenities, including a working fire alarm system.

The list of housing complaints goes on: poor living conditions, major insect infestations, malfunctioning fire alarms, broken elevators, an incompetent housing staff. Exaggerated stories of underage drinking have appeared in the paper. How about a true story about UH housing, and how the officials take advantage of students? After all, according to the housing officials, living on campus is considered a privilege.

Invasion of Iraq was planned before 9/11

Former Secretary of Treasury Paul O'Neill's revelation that the Bush administration had plans to auction Iraqi oil fields in the spring of 2001 suggested the decision to invade Iraq was made long before the 9/11 terrorist attack. White House critics pointed to the infamous Downing Street memo uncovering how WMD intelligence was manufactured to justify a U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Now former CIA Director George Tenet confirms there wasn't substantial information to support the invasion.

This costly war was waged with ill-equipped, untrained troops, often lacking even clean drinking water. Companies that profit from war appear to be the only benefactors.

Rather than being patriotic, Bush is behaving like his grandfather Prescott Bush, who was caught during World War II trading with Adolf Hitler's Nazis. If Prescott had to pay more than a fine then and go to jail, a lesson may have been passed on to George W. Bush. So now it's on us -- we need to impeach him, and teach him and his followers the error of these ways.

No racial group is a majority in Hawaii

For the benefit of Jeffrey Ung (Letters, May 13) who said that "local Caucasians are the majority," NOT!

Unless things have changed a lot in the past couple of years, there is no one ethnic or racial group in Hawaii that is in a majority. And if you are looking at racial groups (yes, there is a difference), Asians (Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, etc.) total more than 41 percent of our population and are the largest group. Caucasians account for about 25 percent of our population.

We are all minorities.

Biotech protesters missed an opportunity

After all their complaints that genetic engineering research would harm taro, it is interesting that anti-biotech activists failed to support legislation that is a positive step forward.

With leadership from Sens. Russell Kokubun and Kalani English the Legislature passed SCR 206, which requested the Department of Agriculture to develop a taro security and purity research program. The program includes exploration of alternative forms of taro research other than genetic engineering.

Therefore, one would have expected a rallying cry of support from the activists. But this didn't happen. It seems that a program to stem the decline of taro production in Hawaii was of little interest. After all their complaining and so-called defense of taro, what they really wanted was to stop genetic engineering research altogether.

HCIA member companies are not engaged in taro research because the market is too small. However, we care about the taro issue because we believe farmers should have the best tools available to help defeat invasive species and disease, which include conventional, organic and biotechnology practices.