Pleasant Holidays really stepped up
The recent statement by Pleasant Holidays to allow a credit for Aloha Airlines tickets purchased toward an alternative airline is a class act that must be applauded. The trickle-down effect of its good will reflects positively on the state of Hawaii as a whole, and will do much to protect jobs of related and connected industries.
The black eye imagery of both Aloha and ATA paid ticket holders getting stranded at Honolulu International Airport would take time to undo. Hopefully the buzz will be, you come to Hawaii, the aloha spirit will care for you in good times and bad.
Barry Markowitz
Hawaii Kai
Dogs, cats and pigs don't belong in homes
Your March 8 editorial was right about chickens being farm animals, but so are pigs, dogs and cats!
Pigs, dogs and cats do not belong inside homes with shared ventilation systems or on playgrounds or in parks or at beaches where people are laying half-naked on the ground, and most certainly not inside shops, grocery stores and restaurants!
If animals were restricted to zoned agricultural land, HMSA would not need to increase premiums by 12.6 percent! In fact, most home, property, auto and health insurance premiums could be reduced to the immediate reduction in claims.
In addition, most of Hawaii's endangered species would not only survive, but thrive without dogs, cats and pigs destroying their nests, harassing and chasing sea turtles and monk seals back out to sea and uprooting flora in our forests and nature paths.
If we want healthy children, and we want them to enjoy living in Hawaii, then write your legislators and request a bill to restrict animals to zoned agricultural land!
Rico Leffanta
Honolulu
Settlement violates Hawaiian rights
I am concerned that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is willing to compromise the rights of Hawaiians by selling ceded lands in order to settle the money owed by the state. Hawaiians strongly believe in being stewards of the land and the thought of selling the land is equal to selling their birthright for a "mess of pottage." Mahalo to the Supreme Court and the Senate for their recent decisions regarding ceded lands.
Hawaiians are motivated to gather their genealogy in order to return to their kuleana lands. OHA should sponsor workshops designed to empower Hawaiians to do this and perhaps regain the trust of the people they took an oath to serve. As long as there are living Hawaiian descendants, ceded land can never be lawfully sold and can be challenged at any time. Hawaiians must know their lawful rights and be able to apply and exercise them.
I hope OHA will listen to the voices of all Hawaiians and not disregard the rights of Hawaiians who disagree with them. Let us all work together, openly and in public.
Laura Kahaialii
Lahaina, Maui
Hey, Democrats, give democracy a chance
I was extremely disappointed when I learned that U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi joined other high-profile Democrats in calling for a swift end to the party's presidential contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. It is shameful that while American soldiers are dying to install democracy and uphold free elections in Iraq and Afghanistan, back home we're trying to shut down a presidential candidate's campaign just because some of us don't have the patience to wait until the proper time, or we're afraid that people might not vote the way we want them to.
Edward R. Murrow said, "We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home." We owe it to the people to let democracy work by letting the process run its full course. Democracy is messy, freedom is unscripted and liberty finds its own course, but that's the risk we take when we live in America.
If the Democratic Party is so fickle and easily divided that Hillary Clinton's continued candidacy puts its future at risk, then its time we ask ourselves which is more important: free choice or party choice?
Daniel de Gracia II
Waipahu
Homeless man has humanity others lack
Kirk Matthew Lankford, on trial for the murder of Masumi Watanabe, is the product of a society in which people lack care for each other. Several of Watanabe's Pupukea neighbors saw the girl in distress and continued on their way. How ironic that a homeless man at Kahana Bay, grieving from a similar heartless killing of a friend, was the only person to have enough social responsibility and humanity to stop the alleged killer as he tried to bury the body (Star-Bulletin, April 3).
If this man, John Thoma, had had a home in Pupukea and had seen Watanabe's situation, she would likely still be alive today. Thoma is a hero and a role model for all of us.
Shelly Brown
Honolulu