Don't make it easier to drive to university
What's missing from Tuesday's Star-Bulletin article "
Study: UH traffic and parking improvement will be costly"? Options ... of the non-gas-guzzling kind. Are we really interested in motivating students and others to drive their cars to the University of Hawaii? Do we need to "meet demand" for additional parking? Or should we consider changing the level of demand by motivating use of bikes and legs to get to campus? Should we be thinking about creating more cement-covered roadways, or scenic bike paths and pedestrian walkways lined with trees?
If the passage of City Charter Amendment 8 by 77 percent of the voters is any indication, I think the answer lies at least partly with providing safe routes for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Natalie Iwasa
Honolulu
Sierra Club's benefits outweigh its faults
I have been a Sierra Club member, and active in the chapter's Hawaii Service Trip Program, for many years. I have not always agreed with every action that the club has taken on the political front. But even if you disagree with its stance on a particular issue (
Letters, Nov. 11), there is no denying that the Club has played and continues to play an important role in protecting our environment.
Through 40 years of service in Hawaii, the Sierra Club has protected open spaces, coordinated thousands of hours of volunteer labor on service projects that preserve critical habitat for threatened and endangered species, educated thousands of people on Hawaii's natural resources through organized hikes and outings, been an intelligent and thoughtful voice for sustainability policy, and campaigned for many quality-of-life issues (clean beaches, bicycle and pedestrian safety, recycling).
Because of these and many other outstanding contributions, I remain a committed Sierra Club member and will continue to financially support the organization at a level beyond the membership fee. I hope that the strong majority of members feel the same, and that others who appreciate and value Hawaii's natural environment also will consider supporting the club's great work.
Janice Marsters
Acting chairwoman Hawaii Service Trip Program
Context changes meaning of words
Pick a word: Dismayed. Disappointed. Dissatisfied. Disgusted. They all describe how I feel when snippets from speeches are inaccurately presented in political ads and media reportage as representative of a presidential candidate's position. Lifting a phrase, a sentence or even a whole paragraph out of its full context, either to promote or demote a candidate, when that language is not indicative of the full thought is not only dishonest, it is deceitful.
Hillary Clinton's speech at Wellesley College is exemplar. Many in the media have been proclaiming that something she said in that speech showed her "playing the gender card." Those few words, standing alone, seem to point in that direction. But looking at the whole speech illustrates how that phrase was wrenched from the fabric it was woven into.
She was speaking of the college, of the demands, the challenges, the learning, the camaraderie, and how all of this had prepared her "to compete in the all-boys club of presidential politics." Her point was that the college had prepared her as it was now preparing the students in her audience for what they will do in the future. It was not a gender claim; it was an educational one.
How easy it is to pull things from context and make a candidate appear to be off the mark, indecisive, contradictory, sexist or racist. The issue is not IF a particular candidate spoke certain words; it is about HOW the words are used.
I wish all campaigns would stay away from this kind of rhetoric, but that being a pipe dream, I wish the media, print and air, would just refuse to repeat it.
Wendy Pollitt
Kaneohe
City should get rid of Waikiki hookers
I'm sorry to say that the pure beauty of Hawaii has been tainted.
This summer my husband and I looked forward to attending a wedding at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider on Waikiki Beach. Most of the guests stayed at the Sheraton Princess. On the weekend at the corner of Kalakaua and Kaiulani avenues, prostitutes were lined up actively soliciting clients. Each night we had to walk through them to get to our hotel. It is very bad publicity for your island that prostitutes are allowed in an area where tourists with families are staying.
I complained to our hotel manager, who acknowledged the problem. He said the police move them away but they return. If you really wanted to clean up your city, you would! Unfortunately, as much as I love the beauty of your islands, you must be catering to a different tourist and I would not return with our family.
Karen Johnson
Chicago, Ill.
Who's behind all these cruise ship illnesses?
It seems like tourists on these cruise ships consistently contract gastrointestinal illnesses when arriving in or close to Hawaii (
"Virus hits 220 on isle cruise," Star-Bulletin, Nov. 13).
The Queen's Revenge?
Ted Chernin
Honolulu