Opposition came out against Laau project
An article in Friday's Star-Bulletin said, "Residents were split ... over a luxury development in West Molokai during a ... hearing drawing more than 350 people." The story went on to say that "some" were for the Laau project, while "others" were against it. And you quoted a couple of people for and a couple against.
This makes it sound as if the community was evenly divided, when in reality, the "split" was something like 50 "for" and 300+ "against"!
I was there all day on both days and offered testimony. Although I don't have official numbers yet, I can tell you that nearly all the substantive and thorough testimony was against Molokai Ranch's EIS and its proposed Laau development.
On Friday morning the Land Use Commission made a motion to not accept the EIS, at which time Molokai Ranch asked to withdraw it, even admitting that it "could have done a better job."
Adam T. Kahualaulani Mick
Kaunakakai, Molokai
Let's talk about use of offensive words
Is it too much to ask the University of Hawaii for some kind of input on the issue of and use of words such as the n-word, f-word and others, and how they are portrayed?
I envision professors of speech, English language, communication, history, law and others, hashing it out and coming to a consensus for enlightenment on this issue. Just last week the NAACP began trying to get a Louisiana lawmaker kicked out for saying the word "Buckwheat," or is it the b-word? Are we to be curtailed by history and affected groups, never to use certain words because they offend them? Must we obey them and everyone who claims different offenses of different words?
We cannot say or use words that might offend concerning slavery, the Confederacy, the Civil War, Germans, Japanese, the Holocaust, KKK, swastikas? Each one is sensitive to someone. Do we wipe history from our minds? Are we so sensitive we must use dashes for letters that everyone already knows? As if dashes hide the true meaning.
Can the professors step up and weigh in on issues like this? It certainly would be enlightening, or are they reluctant to get involved in the controversy?
Ken Chang
Kaneohe
Funds on the way for meals, Kupuna Care
In a
Nov. 10 letter to the editor, "Counties should back meals for the needy," the writer highlights the Lanakila Meals on Wheels program and the importance of the Kupuna Care program, which provide for critical services for our seniors in all of the counties.
We want to thank the writer for his concern and for making sure that more people are aware of the great need to support our senior services in our communities.
We also want to reassure the public that the Department of Community Services through its Elderly Affairs Division has been working diligently since May to ensure that we would be able to move as expeditiously as possible once the funds are released by the state. On Nov. 7, we received a letter from the Executive Office on Aging, which stated it intends to award $288,354 to Honolulu and that its staff will be in contact with DCS regarding the contract to allow us to access the funds.
DCS is committed to working with EOA to ensure that these much-needed funds can get to our service providers as soon as possible while complying with legal and procurement laws and processes.
Debbie Kim Morikawa
Director
City Department of Community Services
Judge made bad ruling in puppy-mill case
We are appalled about Circuit Judge Reynaldo Graulty dismissing 25 counts of misdemeanor cruelty to animals against Lucy Kagan (
Star-Bulletin, Nov. 10). Kagan was accused of running a "puppy mill" and mistreating 25 dogs, including newborn puppies. This injustice to animals must be overturned. This judge should be removed from his position. It's obvious he is not making sound decisions.
Michael and Laura Curtis
Kaneohe
Iraq war , too, will be a crime of history
Robert Stone, a novelist who was a writer in residence at the University of Hawaii-Manoa in the '80s, writes in his memoir, "Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties": "The degree to which the Vietnam War consumed the vital energy of the nation, degraded the honor of its stand against the hateful ideologies of the twentieth century, and used up the lives of its youth was tragic. Tragic seems a paltry word, but what can one say? The ruin and death we inevitably brought down on Vietnam will always be held against us. It will be recalled as one of the crimes of history."
Substitute "Iraq" for "Vietnam" and add another enervation, another degradation, another crime to the list.
John Wythe White
Haleiwa
Accused soldier has Constitution on his side
Lt. Erhen Watada refused to obey orders to deploy to the Iraq war, believing it illegal. President Bush created Watada's problem by waging a pre-emptive war against Iraq, clearly illegal to many constitutional experts. It is a breach of the U.S. Constitution, that incorporates the Geneva Convention Rules of War and the United Nations Charter Rules of engagement: aggression against another country without being attacked or about to be is illegal.
Watada made his decision of conscience on carefully researched grounds. He is not naive about the Military Court's position. Watada has met the requirements of speaking his views outside of military property, off duty and not in uniform, and has refrained from coarse or obtuse language.
Watada's critics say he is wrong because he volunteered and the Army has every right to send him wherever his services are needed, but they do not qualify with "even if the war was illegal."
Watada is exercising his full rights as a U.S. citizen and soldier, something we Americans of Japanese ancestry didn't enjoy during World War II. Our older brothers' service and sacrifice for their country while suspected as disloyal and while their families were incarcerated in concentration camps won full rights for those who followed, did they not?
James Tanabe
Veteran
Honolulu
Lead isn't always a health hazard
Regarding the lead in telephones (
Letters, Nov. 14): I'm not an expert on lead. However, I believe that lead is found in a majority, if not all, of the equipment we purchase today. The main thing is, don't put it in your mouth and ingest it.
Small children and babies have a tendency to put everything in their mouths, which is why lead paint on toys and lead paint chipping off your house or furniture is frowned upon. I have yet to hear anyone's child trying to devour a computer, TV or phone, which all might contain lead in the form of the solder that is used on the circuit boards.
Lead is not radioactive. Simple proactive choices, like monitoring your children's activities, will reduce, and possibly eliminate, the likelihood your children will ever ingest it.
Christopher Murphy
Wahiawa