Ferry protesters ignore needs of isle families

This is in regard to the article about the anti-Superferry demonstration on Maui (Star-Bulletin, June 2). What is the big deal about the Superferry going to the outer islands? So much for the Aloha State.

People should be grateful for the Superferry. How many people from the outer islands will be using the ferry to come to Oahu? Should Oahu say screw the people from Maui and Kauai also? That's why people from Hawaii can never seem to agree on anything and that's we Hawaiians never get anywhere on any issues -- too much talk, no agreement. Everybody should be happy that now families can be together more often, like they used to in early Hawaii, sail to the other islands to see family. We should change our motto from the Aloha State to the Grumbling State.

Visitors take many memories of Hawaii

Mahalo to the kamaaina who made our time in Oahu the best. If you drove our bus or trolley, greeted us each time we returned to our hotel, helped keep our room homey, prepared our food, shared the music and dance with us and nourished our souls, talked with us anywhere and smiled as we passed on the street ... then you made a difference in our lives. You are Hawaii, and we will miss you.

News coverage shows left-leaning agenda

After reading letters to the editor on Friday and Saturday regarding the absence of any public mention about the personages visiting Honolulu (Oliver North, Sean Hannity and Newt Gingrich), I said, "Is that not strange?" My friend replied, "No, it's not strange, it's intended!"

I believe this reply was right on. If Cindy Sheehan, a wild woman, or Barack Obama, a native son, came to town it would certainly be in our daily papers and on the TV newscasts, because they are Democrats.

What explains this appalling dearth of reporting for your conservative readership? The paucity of balance is evident not only on the editorial page but elsewhere throughout the paper.

On the other hand, Star-Bulletin's redeeming features include the very reasonable George Will column on Sunday, Charlie Memminger almost daily, the crossword puzzles and the funnies ... especially with the new strip "State of the Union." It's rude and raw but it's about time for catch-up with "Doonesbury"!

Hawaii general was right about Iraq

The ancient Roman senator Tacitus warned, "A bad peace is even worse than war." What we are seeing and experiencing in Iraq is not a war, but rather, a bad peace. With thousands of brave men and women lost on both sides of the conflict, it is easy to forget the names of heroes, but there is one name that I hope the people of Hawaii, and indeed the people of this country, will never forget: our very own Gen. Eric Ken Shinseki of Lihue, Kauai.

It was Shinseki who warned the Senate Armed Services Committee in February 2003 that a war in Iraq would be costly and involve hundreds of thousands of troops. Rather than listen, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield announced Shinseki's replacement a full year in advance, politically isolating the Army chief of staff. The Pentagon's OPLAN 1003-98 -- a script for war with Iraq -- initially projected not less than 500,000 troops would be necessary in Iraq, but the Bush administration refused to listen to its own military planners and went ahead with a botched war, canning or forcing into retirement Shinseki and other generals who spoke from the heart.

This is something that those who have lost sons and daughters in this terrible peace must never forget and a knowledge that must be imparted to the future generation. As we mourn and honor our dead, let's not forget to remember the tragic hero who tried to keep them alive -- Eric Shinseki.

Carcinogens are the problem, not laws

I agree with Dave Reed's Sunday letter to the editor. Especially when he says that "neither the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii nor any government agency has any right whatsoever to govern or seek to control any legal activity that happens within the confines of my own home."

No one has that right. But they should have the right to prevent noxious chemicals from drifting outside his home and into the homes of anyone who doesn't want that putrid, carcinogenic filth around them. Why, I wonder, does Mr. Reed think he has any more right to invade someone else's home than the government?

Unfortunately, tobacco smoke travels, and in the dwellings so far mentioned, that is a real problem.

Forcing it on others is not a smoker's right

Please keep secondhand inhaled tobacco smoke out of our homes! Secondhand inhaled tobacco smoke is an Environmental Protection Agency-declared carcinogen. It injures and destroys the lungs and breathing ability of our keiki and kupuna, let alone all others. The deleterious effects of this smoke costs a bundle and lasts a lifetime.

I grant that everyone who wants to smoke has the right. However, that person has no right to inflict that poisonous smoke on others, let alone the vulnerable. The smoker has the responsibility to smoke in a manner and under conditions that keep his smoke from others. Right now, there is no incentive for smokers to contain their secondhand smoke.

My children and elders and I have the right to breathe clean air in our own home and not be assaulted by the secondhand tobacco smoke of my neighbor! So smoke if you want, but keep your smoke contained.

Requiring all multidwelling units to be smoke-free by law is one way to protect both the smoker's and nonsmoker's rights.

Anti-smokers should stay out of our homes

The people who support a tobacco-free Hawaii do not understand their own success.

Along with accommodation, tolerance is important in Hawaii. More accommodation has been made on this issue than most, if not all of the other states in the country.

Now the freedom of choice in our own homes is being challenged. This is intolerance.

Not being able to smoke in bed is being proposed by some. What next will I not be able to legally do in bed?

Poetry is more than mere politics in rhyme

It's unfortunate the title of "poetry" is affixed to the political hacking of Joe Gedan ("According to Joe," June 3). Real poetry can be very nice, sometimes uplifting, even inspiring. Political sing-song is just a particularly flat and not very creative way of expressing one's opinions.