Loss of playwright deeply felt by many

I can't believe my eyes, ears and heart that Lisa Matsumoto was just taken from us at only 43 ("Inspiring playwright dies after head-on crash," Star-Bulletin, Dec. 15). Hawaii's cultural neophytes and elites alike will be forever affected by the amazing work of Matsumoto, a dear friend and mentor for many, including me. Lisa was a true steward of aloha, a wonderful humorist and an incredible playwright/actress/director/artist! Not to mention a muse to many other locals in the same positions.

Lisa, I know you are in a great place, but girl, I'm gonna miss you, your smile, your sense of humor, your beautiful laugh, your ability to be inclusive while utilizing an exclusive language and your stewardship to live aloha. I send my condolences to her family and friends who, along with me, will miss her for their forevers.

Love, light and aloha to you, Lisa!

Tires spikes on ramps would stop head-ons

To avoid more accidents like the one that happened last Friday when Lisa Matsumoto, driving the wrong way on the H-1, hit another car head-on, one simple way to solve the problem and save lives is to install tire spikes like the ones you find on any little parking lot if you try to skip the $3 fee. It would stop any confused drivers from going farther on the freeway and hurting innocent people.

But now it's up to the Legislature to decide if we can afford them. We still have to fill up few potholes here and there first.

All in a day's work for angels at HPD

On Sunday morning, Honolulu's finest were at their finest. While returning home from shopping, my son and I observed a distraught woman climbing on the railings of a bridge preparing to jump. It was too dangerous for us to stop, and we had no phone. We made a U-turn at the first light, saw a Honolulu Police Department officer and tried to flag him but were unsuccessful. Some other concerned angels had called HPD. In the two minutes it took for us to get back to the bridge, HPD had arrived in the nick of time and saved this woman!

I'm sure Honolulu's finest brave men and women perform these kinds of miracles daily, but you never read about it or see the good that they do. They gave this woman and her family a gift that can never be repaid. They gave me and my family a Christmas we will never forget. Thank you, HPD.

Enticement law violates Constitution

The American Civil Liberties Union should intervene in the arrest of University of Hawaii professor Marc Fossoreir ("Professor is guilty in online sex sting," Star-Bulletin, Nov. 16). The electronic enticement law is ill conceived, unconstitutional and a misnomer. His rights were taken away by the ruse "for the safety of the children." Our government limits our rights to our computer in our own home, our right to say and chat on the Internet anything we want, the right to communicate to others our thoughts, dreams, fantasies and even lies.

The law does not take into account that chat rooms are not contract rooms (to use against you) and that the other party is never known. They take away your right to meet in public someone you don't know and never met, then they lie and deceive and they "entice" you to come to them, only to arrest you for thinking you must have known the unknown person in your mind.

If this is not unconstitutional, I don't know what is.

Only birth control, not FFVs, can save planet

Clifford D. May advocates mandating flexible fuel vehicles in his "A Matter of Opinion" column (Star-Bulletin, Dec. 16). All well and good, but if he or others think that would make a significant dent in our imports of oil, it is better to think this idealistic idea through a little further, as there is not enough water anywhere on the planet suitable for growing enough agricultural products to produce the enormous quantities of ethanol envisioned.

Further, any significant increase in plug-in hybrids would quickly overtax our electricity-generating capacity, requiring building more generating plants that would require either fossil fuels or even more alternative fuels that we don't have the water to produce.

While we should all be in favor of anything that will help ease the current problems, there is only one real problem and only one real solution: There are way, way, way too many of us (some 6 billion on a planet that can realistically sustain maybe 2 billion), and we need desperately to reduce the birthrate and the global population.

For those readers who are also concerned with global warming, the real solution is still the same.

Whether more or less, violence is a good sign

By now, everyone should be aware that the decrease in violence in Iraq proves security is improving there.

Naively, most people don't realize that more violence can also be a sign that security is improving.

American Army Gen. Joseph Votel, just yesterday, announced how, in spite of increased violence in Afghanistan, security is improving in that country.

So now we can rest assured that no matter whether violence goes up or down, the situation is always improving.