City Councilwoman would be a great mayor

During my 27 years with the Honolulu Police Commission, I have worked with many commissioners. Ann Kobayashi was one of the most knowledgeable, dedicated, focused, no-nonsense commissioners we ever had.

I am elated that she is running for mayor. We need her!

It's not necessary to torture animals

I agree that the Army's practice of shooting pigs so soldiers can learn to treat human injuries is unnecessary and obsolete ("Choose a better way to teach medicine," Our Opinion, Star-Bulletin, July 20). Besides using pigs in experiments such as this, other animals are routinely cut open, poisoned and forced to live in barren steel cages for years, although studies show that because of vast physiological variations between species, human reactions to illnesses and drugs are completely different from an animal's reaction.

Studies by many organizations including the Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine have shown that today's non-animal research methods are humane, more accurate, less expensive and less time-consuming than animal experiments. Unfortunately, change comes slowly and because of economics, many researchers are unwilling to switch to superior technological advances. Using animals in experimentation, like these poor pigs the Army is shooting, is not only preventing us from learning more relevant information, it continues to harm and kill animals and people every year. I do not support the use of my tax dollars for the shooting of pigs by the Army.

Leadership must have strong role in transit

Those clamoring for the voters to decide the issues for Oahu's proposed rail system should accept that major projects of this kind require strong and active leadership to succeed. Perhaps the best example of such leadership in connection with public transportation and infrastructure is that which has been provided by the Port Authority of New York during the last 70 years. The many critical transport and infrastructure-related projects that have preserved the New York metropolitan region's quality of life and competitiveness would have been impossible if left to the chaos of a political system in which -- in the end -- no one was responsible for the analysis, planning, advocacy and management needed to bring these projects to fruition.

We are a long ways from New York City. But, no less than New York City, we need the kind of leadership provided by the Port Authority if we too are to maintain our quality of life and competitiveness.

Leeward won't need rail 10 years from now

Let us realize that construction of the rail system will make traffic congestion worse for 10 years. And in 10 years the rail system will be obsolete! Kapolei will be an independent city and will have all the functions and services of Honolulu. It will have the university, public and private schools, government services, health facilities, businesses, stores and recreation. People will happily live, work and play in Kapolei. Commuting will be a thing of the past.

Think 10 years and $4 billion! That money could be used to repair potholes, strengthen sewers, upgrade water treatment plants, relocate the trash facilities, air-condition our schools, build the University of Hawaii Leeward campus and pay our police and public service workers more. These are things Oahu needs now!

Four billion dollars is a huge amount of our money. Let us use it wisely.

Anti-Rush rantings say more about the writer

It appears that C.W. Griffin is guilty of the very thing of which he accuses Rush Limbaugh -- trying to brainwash the readers of his column with "post-hoc" garbage ("Limbaugh and the audacity of mendacity," Gathering Place, July 22).

I'm wondering what rock he has been under that he could not know how many times our president attempted to get Congress to vote on drilling in Alaska and offshore of Florida and Texas, only to have the Democrats in both houses of Congress succumb to the environmental lobbyists' pressure to defeat any efforts at preventing the very situation in which we find ourselves today? If we had drilled seven years ago, when President Bush first sent his appeals to Congress, and if Griffin's fellow engineers had been busy designing and building new refineries for our own oil, we could all now be reaping the benefits instead of paying $4 a gallon for gasoline.

Let's cut the hate speech and start supporting real, sensible solutions that will give the U.S. freedom from the giant economic drain of our dependence on foreign oil.