Don't give city rail funds to state budget

I hope the state Legislature is wise enough to vote no on the proposal to siphon off Honolulu's rail funds to balance the state budget. This would be foolhardy and a short-term fix at the expense of a greater long-term traffic solution. Besides, rail would create thousands of new jobs and bring in more than a billion dollars of federal funds for economic stimulus.

Why jeopardize the rail project and hurt our chances of improving the economy?

Cut the melodrama out of the budget

I liked the sound reasoning in your March 4 editorial, “;Mayor's budget draft makes the best of bad circumstances.”; It is so easy for the usual suspects to provide the typical overwrought melodrama about raising taxes and fees, but it is much harder to come up with real solutions to budget pukas.

This is no time for drama and these proposals seem moderate and reasonable.

How can being gay possibly be genetic?

In his guest commentary, civil union advocate Milton Diamond offers the suggestion that homosexuality is genetic (Star-Bulletin, March 1). This contention was refuted long ago. The problem for this theory is captured in the following question: “;If gay genes exist, how would they perpetuate?”;

Homosexuals generally don't produce offspring, so they don't propagate their DNA. If a gay gene ever existed, there would be no means for it to replicate, and therefore it would be unable to survive through history. In order for a gene to be perpetuated (aside from artificial insemination), a male needs to first be sexually attracted to and excited by a female in order to copulate. If this happens, it proves that sexual attraction is either: 1) inherently heterosexual, and/or 2) influenced by the mind of that individual. The idea that homosexuality is genetic, therefore, is self-refuting.

Hawaiian has been honest about profits

We take exception to Air Line Pilots Association local chairman Eric Sampson's letter to the editor implying that Hawaiian was somehow misleading in reporting its recent financial results for the fourth quarter of 2008 (Star-Bulletin, March 1).

As a publicly traded company, Hawaiian is subject to increasingly stringent federal regulations designed to ensure full and accurate disclosure for the investing public and we are fastidious about our compliance.

We are proud of the fact that, at a time when other carriers are laying people off, the employees and management of Hawaiian were able to achieve a 2 percent annual profit margin in 2008. This is what our federal reporting shows clearly for all to see. Although tiny, this profit helps us to pursue one of our core objectives in all of our labor negotiations, which is to try to find ways to improve the standard of living of all our employees at Hawaiian.

Just last week, we reached a tentative agreement with our flight attendants' union, the AFA-CWA, on a new two-year contract that would provide increased compensation for our flight attendants and operational improvements for the company at the same time.

Our ability to work collaboratively with the AFA-CWA was the key to reaching such a mutually beneficial agreement. We hope to achieve the same with our pilots' union.

Obama's hypocritical about spending

Would someone please tell me why it is all right for the state governors to go to Washington to be entertained at the expense of the American taxpayers? President Obama chastised corporations when he said, “;You can't go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer's dime.”; Congress and our government misappropriate taxpayer funds and should be held to the same standards. The federal stimulus bill and outrageous budget represents this hypocrisy.

What are the consequences of the president's remarks?

Obama's fear and “;catastrophic”; rhetoric has convinced businesses to cancel conventions all over this country. Cities in Nevada, Florida, California and Hawaii are suffering from convention cancellations. As these hotels, restaurants and other tourist-related industries lay off their employees and unemployment lines grow, who do we have to thank?

There was a reason President Bush told Americans to go shopping after 9/11.