A day of aloha and peace for all

Dear President Obama,

I know you are thinking of how you can justify your Nobel Peace Prize. Share the aloha. Aloha is the soul of Hawaiian culture.

Makahiki is the ancient Hawaiian time of peace. During this time there was no war, a time of harvest and connecting with nature and the ancient ways of caring for the aina and ohana. Proclaim New Year's Day an annual day of aloha and world peace.

Everyone cares about their children. That is one thing that is universal, not religious, not political and something that we can all respect. Let your Nobel Peace Prize represent a real day of world peace. Cease fire. A day when there is no war, no killing, not even kicking your dog.

Even Rommel and Montgomery took off from war on New Year's Day and let the soldiers play soccer on New Year's Day.

Sitting on the beach in a land of peace, I wished only that the world could feel what I felt for a moment. Nature holds the answer. Until there is peace there can be no healing, and only then can come growth. One person can make a change.

New travel rules won't be any help

For the past year the Obama administration has been going around the world on an apology tour, trashing Bush/Cheney, stopping harsh interrogations, giving rights to terrorists and closing Gitmo, thinking this will buy some good will among our enemies. Well, we just got a big dose of terrorist good will on Christmas.

I do not understand how someone whose name is on a terror watch list could have gotten a visitor's visa to enter the U.S.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano tells us that this plot was “;not part of anything larger.”; Am I missing something here?

First the party crashers at the White House, then the Fort Hood massacre, now this near plane disaster. It seems Homeland Security is more concerned with identifying war veterans and those who feel strongly about issues such as guns and abortion as being the real threats to our country.

These latest restrictions with air travel are a knee-jerk reaction and won't help.

The only thing left now is for the administration to blame Bush for this terror attack.

President, please don't disappoint

President Obama, enjoy your vacation here in Hawaii.

I was among those holding signs on Kalaheo Avenue the other morning as your motorcade passed by, urging the withdrawal of U.S. personnel from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq and an end to war.

Last year I was among a group of sign holders at the same location.

At that time our signs focused on the bombing and invasion of Gaza.

A year later, we are still asking you to use your position as the leader of the “;free world”; to lift the siege and allow humanitarian aid convoys to enter Gaza, to tear down the wall, to allow Gazans to rebuild their homes and all the other components of a normal life.

When I was touring Palestine/Israel last May, over and over I heard from Israeli peace activists and Palestinian civic leaders and others that with President Obama in the White House, a just peace was now possible.

Your Cairo speech raised those hopes even higher.

Please live up to those expectations.

Political hacks trash Constitution

Dr. Ronald Carlson wrote eloquently about what is happening to our Constitution and the fact that it is being trampled upon by the Obama administration, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (”;Health care bill denies freedom of choice,”; Star-Bulletin, Island Commentary, Dec. 29).

Not only that, but Sens. Dan Inouye and Dan Akaka and Reps. Neil Abercrombie and Mazie Hirono are complicit in this whole charade.

That wonderful piece of parchment that gives us all the rights, privileges and yes, responsibilities that is the envy of the world is being trashed by these political hacks behind closed doors.