Change fireworks law if it can't be enforced

State Rep. Roy Takumi (”;Letters,”; Dec. 31) complains that people explode fireworks in total disregard of the law. He says it is impossible to enforce the law because a police officer has to observe the violation.

Why doesn't he suggest to change that stupid law? Instead he wants to ban all fireworks and turn jurisdiction to the counties, while knowing that already banned unlawful fireworks like rockets are going off lustily all the time, everywhere, unhindered by the law. Such unintelligent approach to legislation in Hawaii is appalling and frustrates me very much.

A simple law that would allow videotapes of violators to be used in court for convictions and give a $400 reward to anybody for making and turning in such videotapes that result in convictions would completely stop almost all violations. But of course you would have to keep the names of those “;anybodies”; secret or else nobody would report violations for fear of violence!

Why pick and choose? Let's save all traditions

Let's make believe that cultures from all over the world should be preserved and protected outside of their original native countries.

If an unnamed culture demands to use their noisy fireworks without regard to anyone else's right to peace and quiet ... Hey! Why not?

If an unnamed culture's justice demands that they can cut off the hands of thieves and stone their own daughters who have embarrassed their family ... Hey! That's cool!

Some cultures don't bathe. Let them on the bus, too!

I come from a culture that would drive a wooden stake through the heart of any suspected vampire. Do any of you have pale neighbors who stay awake all night and don't leave any food wrappings in their weekly trash? I'll take care of them. It's my cultural right.

War takes much more from Gaza than power

With our headline-making power outage, we on Oahu had a minor taste of what it must be like for folks in Third World countries for whom extended and unpredictable power failures are a normal part of life.

Imagine what it has been like for the million and a half people in Gaza living without power in a state of siege, denied fuel to supply even hospital generators. Imagine what it is like when all but three of the bakeries supplying that population have run out of cooking gas, as have the hospitals, and that those hospitals have run out of the most basic medical supplies and drugs. Then send in the American-made and funded F-16s and Apache helicopters killing 270 Gazans, including 20 children, and wounding more than 1,000. Is this what you want your taxes to pay for?

It's up to Arab world to stop the violence

The “;pro-Palestinian activists”; who demonstrated outside of Barack Obama's vacation home in Kailua (Star-Bulletin, Dec. 31) seem to conveniently forget some relevant current and historical facts. The only reason there is an “;occupied territory”; is that 50 million Arabs surrounding Israel attempted to destroy Israel in 1967 and suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of this tiny and brave nation of less than 5 million. Hamas is a recognized terrorist organization that has continued to shell and attack Israel despite repeated warnings, and purposely places its military facilities within civilian populations to use its own civilians as human shields. There is no sovereign nation on Earth that would not take similar action if its population were being attacked this way.

Israel is an advanced democracy that has taken formerly Arab-controlled slums and literally turned them into gardens, while defending its citizens against enemies with stated objectives of “;wiping them off the map.”; Americans respect this, and if the Arab world wants similar respect, it should start the process of true nation building by recognizing Israel's basic right to exist, denounce Muslim extremism and stop strapping explosives to men, women and children in a futile attempt to gain the respect they so desperately want.

No matter where Obama's from, he is us

It does not matter. Whether he is black or white, law professor or lecturer, Chicagoan or local boy. What matters is that he will be the president of the United States, he will be us. Our military, all federal employees and especially the Secret Service make no distinction in the value of the man Barack Obama or George Bush. They all rise in his presence, and so should we. They are willing to die to protect him, and so should we.

Like other presidents before him, he will age twice as rapidly as the rest of us in the immediate years ahead, especially with the enormity of problems awaiting him.

Let's not claim him. Let us support him.