Support the symphony that supports our kids

Thank you for reporting on the educational outreach program of the Honolulu Symphony at Nanakuli Elementary School (”;Raw talent,”; Star-Bulletin, Nov. 24). The symphony contributes to the community in so many wonderful ways.

The annual fund drive to support the symphony and its educational programs is now under way. I urge everyone to support the symphony as generously as possible.

Save your money, invest in the country

My single mother taught me as I taught my kids' growing up that anyone can retire a millionaire. Even a burger flipper can retire as a millionaire. Start teaching our children when they're young (everyone, start now) to save 10 percent of their income; they can be worth more than $1 million when they retire! (Is it easy? No! Discipline never is ... that's one reason we have obesity, too.)

I'll grant you, when I was growing up, banks paid around 6.75 percent interest on passbook savings. Your deposit would double about every seven years on compound interest. Actually, at that rate, you'd only need to put in $10,000 when you're 18 and without ever depositing another cent, you'd have more than $1 million by the time you're 70 years old. When you consider that people spend more than $20,000 on an average wedding, this is not a huge sum of money.

We need to encourage people to save. Banks need to pay 6 percent to 7 percent interest on savings and then do NOT tax interest on regular savings. Just imagine if everyone did that now, the banks would not have a shortage of money to lend because they would be receiving huge cash deposits every payday. Voila! No bailout needed.

America can again reach for the stars

”;We ... choose ... to do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one that we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”; - John F. Kennedy, Sept. 12, 1962

We as a nation chose to go to the moon and we did. Just as JFK said we should. Since then we have become soft, politically correct and fearful of offense. We are entertained in silly ways by boxes with wires to our ears and hands and we call that living. We complain and ask that others pay for our luxuries, our toys, our health care, our education and instruct our children.

We have lost the respect of other nations and most importantly the respect of ourselves. What has happened to us, how did the dream of JFK die? Was it lost in Dallas? Was it lost in Memphis? Or, most likely, was it lost by us?

Ask not, intoned JFK. Ask not!

Do not ask for a bailout, don't ask for a handout, and don't give one to those who are unwilling to do what's hard. Expect more! No, demand more, more from yourself.

Take heart in the election of Barack Obama, He has done a hard thing. Provide him with support, let him know that we are ready again to go where it is hard, where the risks are great but the rewards beyond measure.

Look up, seek the stars.

Don't play games to decide rail route

Why play “;jan ken po,

Where the train suppose to go?”;

For sure, without a doubt,

No build the rail if you don't know the route.

Ahanakokolei,

Rail no go past Kapolei

No go to Waikiki. No go to University.

No go to where the people stay stay.

Mo bettah first fine-tune the prize-winning TheBus

Easy, quick, save billions and no muss, no fuss.

Spineless Council fails to enforce B&B law

In your ”;Newswatch”; for Nov. 13, City Councilman Charles Djou talks about the city being unable to enforce the law regulating the vacation rental industry. Whose fault is it? The majority of the community back in 1989 did not ask for that law; on the contrary, it fought against it. But the Council bowed to special interests and passed it. What rationale did it have passing a law if it did not have the resources to enforce it? Was the Council so naive as to believe that in a business where lots of money stands to be made, no one would try to undermine the law?

The city has failed the community for almost 20 years while it put the public's interest on the back burner. It is time for the city to face up to the long-neglected enforcement responsibilities that came with 1989 granting of permits for the operation of B&Bs and TVRs in residential communities. It is time for the city to lift its own self-imposed status quo by finally providing the Department of Planning and Permitting with the necessary means to enforce the law, and not by the creation of yet another layer of bureaucracy. And it is time for the city to stop bowing to special interests in spite of overwhelming community opposition.

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