Letters To The Editor
October 31, 2007 - MidWeek
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Del.icio.usAbuse and class
Thank you to MidWeek for two recent articles on domestic violence - the Oct. 17 cover story on four survivors and Jade Moon’s column last week.
Ms. Moon is absolutely right - DV crosses all financial and social strata. I know. I was married to a prominent businessman who emotionally and physically abused me. His colleagues and country club golf pals would be shocked to know the truth about what outwardly appears to be a successful, popular man.
Like the four women on the cover, I urge all victims to leave while they can, before it’s too late.
(Name withheld)
Honolulu
That’s not news!
I just want to say thank you to Jade Moon for her recent column about all of the stupid stuff that passes for “news” on TV.
I’m a “news junkie,” and since reading that column I vowed that every time a TV anchor mentioned Britney Spears or Lindsey Lohan, or the cameras went to a car chase in Los Angeles or a fire in Philadelphia or a bank robbery in Atlanta, I would change channels and say “I don’t care - give me some real news.”
I’ve been doing a lot of channel changing, and I feel much better about life and myself.
Ann Matsumoto
Salt Lake
Coffee logic
Thanks to Jerry Coffee for once again using his powers of logic to point out several Superferry “red herrings” offered by its opponents. We need more of that in the media, locally and nationally.
Ted Lee Kaimuki
Ferry is ideal
Although the governor and Legislature started the Superferry without an EIS, it must be noted that the Maui Tomorrow and Sierra Club advocates knew this was being planned at the time it occurred.
So why then did they wait until the ferry was built and the service was about to start (about two years) before they started to push for no ferry and an EIS first?
I’m wondering if everybody on Kauai and Maui is supporting these two groups.
Yes, everybody is afraid of massive development ruining their islands. You have recourse to prevent any kind of takeover like that. But a ferry system would be ideal for all the islands for a closer unity. I thought all the islands were one state. You have to have some development, whether it is slow or fast, your choice. Otherwise you will fall back to the time before Kamehameha, with no progress at all.
When I heard the ferry was starting up, I thought this was the chance I was waiting for since I moved here to see the other islands. But when I saw the film of what the demonstrators were doing to the cars, I figured I didn’t want that. I can have that done to my car for free without leaving Oahu. I don’t want to steal your land or build hotels. I just want to sightsee, to say I was there. I have second thoughts now since the aloha is fading away.
Bill Lovell
Honolulu
No flood of cars
I like Bob Jones’ MidWeek observation that “more and bigger roadways” can be so effective at congestion reduction that he fears more cars will be “flooding into town”!
Additional lanes, at grade and elevated, going where we want to go is the tried and true way to reduce congestion - it works! But does this mean more cars “flooding into town”?
Surprisingly, just the opposite is likely to happen!
The current poor participation by the public in using TheBus will change. Extra transfers as rail would require will not be necessary. Consistent speed and reliable schedules can expand the attractiveness of TheBus. The result is more people actually needing to come downtown will “leave their car at home.” The job market has reached its saturation in downtown, as have parking options. That is already a “natural’ control on cars. Rail, if it comes to Honolulu, will cater to - and hold stagnant - the same market as TheBus does now.
About 50 percent of TheBus ridership is by people who do not even have a driver’s license! They do not have a car to leave it at home! Thirty-five percent of the riders are from households without cars! Eighty-seven percent walk to the bus stop. Only 5 percent tolerate more than one transfer! Less than one quarter use TheBus for transport to work! If we keep money from going down the big rabbit hole called “rail,” we can have more of what we want right where we live! We can leave the car at home!
Philip Blackman
Honolulu
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