Why put illegals ahead of honest immigrants?
Did Neil Abercrombie take an oath to uphold the laws of the United States when he was sworn in as a U.S. representative or did he not? If so, then he should be impeached for breaking his oath.
His shibai ("Attacking families isn't immigration reform," Gathering Place, May 22) shows just how much his oath means to him. The illegal immigrants he defends are just lawbreakers like any others.
In fairness, I also think that every single person who has legally applied for and is on the waiting list to become a citizen should ask Abercrombie why they shouldn't be put to the front of the line, ahead of all the illegals. Why should criminals benefit and the good guys be penalized? What does Abercrombie have against the honest people from the Philippines and Asia? Why does he want to allow illegal alien Latinos to jump the line in front of them?
What a shame the gutless Republicans and left-wing, drive-by media are afraid to say a word about this. But after all the years with one-party rule having turned Hawaii into a Third World state, what else could we expect?
Don McDiarmid Jr.
Kailua
Protect homeless from bad food preparation
I happened to attend the
amendment hearing for certified kitchens to feed the homeless and I testified that I was in favor of the amendment, but with reservations. I feel that the state and charitable organizations should continue to work toward a better solution for providing safe food for the homeless population. My proposal is to modify some of the requirements to create "conditional" certified kitchens located in churches and community kitchens specific to meeting this need. This would move food preparation out of private homes where sanitation conditions might not be optimum.
I would also recommend that everyone who is involved in feeding this population be given free TB screening by the state. This is for the protection of the volunteer as well as the people we feed.
Simply because they are homeless and are not paying for their meal does not mean they are not deserving of the same precautions that this fine state upholds for you and me. And if some feel that it beats digging in the trash for food, then those people have really lost it and are worse off than the homeless. There is such a thing as dignity at every level of society.
Leona Pereza
Kailua
Better planning could avert Waikiki head-ons
The other night we were driving back home in Waikiki after watching a movie titled "Samsara." Turning into Paki Avenue from Monsarrat Avenue we were faced with a chilling scene: police cars, an ambulance, stopped traffic, two wrecked cars that apparently had a head-on collision -- and a deadly silence.
It is easy, mainly for tourists, not to realize that Paki is a two-way street, as one does not expect a three-lane road to be two ways, and two of the three lanes are separated by a yellow line where the paint faded and the streetlight is dim.
I once witnessed a head-on collision where two facing lanes need to turn into Paki, an irresponsible way to plan traffic flow. For the unfortunate drivers, their families and friends, Hawaii was not paradise, but a heavy dose of samsara, possibly caused in part by the lethargy of a transportation department that refuses to fix the quirks in its system.
As another example, I sometimes sit at the Internet Cafe on Kalakaua Avenue near Ena Road. An island with trees separates four lanes, two on each side. But guess what? One lane on one side goes in the same direction as the two lanes on the other side of the island. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen accidents resulting from someone making a U-turn not realizing that the lane next to it has traffic flowing the same way.
It's definitely time for the transportation department to change its tune from "drivers just have to obey the rules" to "what are we doing wrong?"
David Berger
Honolulu
Smoking ban should include lanai areas
Thank you for tackling the Japanese tourism issue and the ensuing debate around the smoke-free law ("Smoking ban isn't to blame for decline in tourism from Japan,"
Editorial, May 14). It is refreshing to see the newspaper acknowledge our state's smoke-free law is likely not the cause of the decline in Japanese tourism and that there are macro-economic forces at work, which are likely affecting the Japanese decision to travel to Hawaii.
At the end of your editorial you state that the law is overly broad to include the outdoor areas of bars and non-bar property of a distance of 20 feet from doorways, windows and ventilation intakes.
The smoke-free law was specifically designed to include these areas to protect workers. Workers should not be subjected to secondhand smoke whether they are working inside the bar or in an outdoor serving area. To weaken the integrity of the law in this manner would be a step backward in the giant stride Hawaii has taken this last year toward a healthier society.
Deborah Zysman
Executive director
Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii
Visits won't be as good after bakery closes
We are deeply saddened to learn that Shung Chong Yuein bakery is closing (
Star-Bulletin, May 24). Since 1980 we have vacationed in Waikiki two weeks almost every winter and summer. At least twice each trip we take the bus into Chinatown to stock up on the bakery's char siu buns (a taste of heaven), and those incredibly delicious wedding and other cakes, which we then feast on each afternoon.
We love Waikiki's great restaurants but we always look forward most to savoring this bakery's treats, and we miss them when we are back home.
Being haoles, we felt a bit lost on our first few visits but the staff was always helpful and friendly, and we soon came to feel like regular customers. This bakery is a national treasure and its closing is a great loss. Our best wishes to the Ng family, who helped make our vacations in paradise exactly that.
Mary and Dennis Helf
Flourtown, Pa.
Speaking English is becoming lost art
We still hear criticisms of pidgin as being poor English, when it is a language unto itself.
Pidgin speakers always get its grammar right, something most speakers of English can no longer claim for themselves.
For a glaring example, we usually hear something that goes like this: "Tickets were reserved for he and I," It is ironic that if you correctly say, "Tickets were reserved for him and me," you are looked at askance as being ignorant.
Foreigners learning English out of books speak better English than we do, albeit with an accent.
Ted Chernin
Punahou