Letters To The Editor
August 26, 2009 - MidWeek
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Del.icio.usStatehood is best
Just a thought, especially for those who are not “celebrating” Hawaii’s 50th year of statehood: Where do you think our islands would be today if we were not fully one of the 50 United States of America? Try a comparison to Samoa and Puerto Rico. Citizens of both U.S. territories have for years left their island homes for a better life in the states, as many Samoans and Puerto Ricans in Hawaii can well attest.
Thomas Guzman
Aiea
No Obama shock
Rather than talking about boiling frogs in his column (“Obama Brings ‘Frogs’ To A Boil”), maybe Jerry Coffee should boil up a strong cup of his namesake beverage, which would hopefully wake him up so he can remember we had an election last November, in which President Obama won, and Mr. Coffee’s side lost. None of the issues to which Mr. Coffee objects are surprises, but are just what the president promised the nation, and are what caused a majority of Americans to vote for him. In a refreshing change, the president is actually trying to implement the issues that he campaigned on. Why is Mr. Coffee surprised by this?
No one knows what the final content of the health care bill will be, because it’s not written in final form yet. That’s how our government works. We can all decide how we feel about the bill when its finalized, but let the process work and see if Congress can put together a bill that corrects the problems of our currently overly expensive and under-performing healthcare system, which does not work for everyone, and does not deliver the quality of care that Americans deserve.
And where was Mr. Coffee’s anger when the last administration began to cause our deficit problems by the ill-advised, hugely expensive invasion of Iraq and the tax cuts for the wealthy, both of which cost more than the health care system will cost?
But I did take Mr. Coffee’s advice and informed our Congressional delegation of my views on this issue.
Nat Aycox
Kailua
Save ag lands
We hear a great deal about sustainability. The State of Hawaii needs to develop its resources to become self-sustaining. A large need is food grown here in the islands.
Now, as Bob Jones wrote last week, Hoopili may take 1,600 acres out of food growing. Obviously the portion of our government that supports Hoopili prefers to continue to import all of our food. Sayonara sustainability.
In addition, the Board of Water Supply says that “plans to build two desalination plants when needed will be more than enough…” The one desalination plant that was built in the Ewa area years ago hasn’t lived up to its hype. Hoopili should build the two desalination plants before development to see whether they will actually provide potable water.
Mandy Bowers
Honolulu
Garbage at sea
As Dan Rather laments in his column “The Pacific’s Two Garbage Patches,” far out to sea there are disturbing signs that, for all its size, man is nonetheless managing to do serious damage to the ocean and the creatures that live in it. As Mr. Rather reports, there are two Great Garbage Patches, one between Hawaii and San Francisco, the other between Hawaii and Japan. This should come as no surprise. In 1962 when I embarked on a career at sea as a chef aboard P&O Orient Lines, the garbage patches were already developing - as well as others in the Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, even the Black Sea.
These garbage patches at sea are an eerie, putrid, flat, viscous collection, two feet deep, that stretch hundred’s of miles, resembling a dead mill pond. Ships did not have trash compactors or even sewage treatment plants, so everything of no further use was thrown overboard, with the ludicrous understanding it would simply decompose and disappear. Obviously, it doesn’t.
John L. Werrill
Honolulu
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