EARTH-FRIENDLY

SPEND THE SURPLUS ON CURBSIDE RECYCLING

I have an answer for the "600 million-dollar question." Let's use it to create more jobs, slow the filling of and need for more landfills, and make this state a little more friendly to its fragile ecosystem.

I'm talking about curbside recycling.

Now is the perfect time to get this going. Giving a tax refund might stimulate the economy, but only by getting people to buy more stuff that they will eventually just throw away, making need for more landfills.

A statewide (or at least here on O'ahu) curbside recycling program would be much better for everyone.

Let's join the other 136 million Americans who have implemented curbside recycling programs in their own states. It's a win-win for everyone: convenient, earth-friendly and even good for tourism.

VOUCHERS

LIBERTARIAN APPROACH WOULD HELP SCHOOLS

Bravo for your Sunday editorial, "Voters, not Democrat brass, should decide."

If we applied your philosophy/advocacy to, say, public school systems, for just one example, don't you agree we'd all be a lot better off? Let parents, not bureaucracies and union "protect our turf" bullying, decide and control their children's education.

Yes, school vouchers are a good step in the right direction of achieving better schools. This market-based approach happens every day in the business world, where some businesses fail for good reasons and others flourish. Your libertarian-leaning advocacy is very welcome and makes a lot of sense, which the Libertarian Party, America's third largest political party, has been championing for decades.

Libertarians believe in the greatest good for the greatest number of people, which will result if we have more personal choice and personal responsibility. Our political system, controlled by tweedledum and tweedledee, the Democrats and the Republicans, continues its governance by special-interest groups, but it will slowly evolve for the better with the help of your editorial good sense.

Ed Case has some strong Libertarian beliefs (as you mentioned, he's anti-Jones Act, a good example of special-interest group legislation), as does City Councilman Charles Djou and state Sen. Sam Slom. Let's build more momentum toward more personal choice (voters, parents decide) and we'll surely have a better society and discover that the Libertarians and libertarianism have had it right for decades and that our Founding Fathers have had it right: "Government that governs least governs best."

KAILUA

AFFORDABLE APARTMENTS MUST BE SALVAGED

Your Jan. 23 editorial is most welcome. Kailua must not lose those 217 affordable units.

I know some of these people; some are retired nurses, some are seniors struggling to make ends meet by working beyond their expected work cycle, some are younger people in jobs that pay so little.

I think it would benefit your readers for a reporter to interview the tenants of Kailua Palms, Coral Apartments, etc. Let's put a face to who is affected.

It is appropriate that Gov. Lingle addressed her concern about affordable housing and that it will be a focus for 2006. We voters should be able to expect that our Windward senator, representative, City Council member and Kailua Chamber of Commerce will be actively involved in retaining the affordable rent for the citizens of the above apartments. For a lot of them are the workforce to which Lingle referred.

There should be no approval to what is rumored to be built in their place — luxury condos.

CEMENT WORKERS

DOESN'T MAKE SENSE

The cement workers make more than my husband with a master's degree. They were angry about a 20 percent co-pay for medical, which is what most of us have paid for years. Their average salary is $86,000, and now they'll be getting a raise of $31,000 over five years. The amount of the raise alone is more than a teacher's starting salary. Things that make you go "Huh?"

LINGLE PLAN

TAX RELIEF ESSENTIAL FOR THOSE STRUGGLING

Gov. Lingle showed a sincere understanding of the financial challenges Hawai'i residents face every day.

The price of paradise is out of reach for most people, and I can attest to it. Half of my friends sleep in their cars every night or else try to find a spot on my couch.

After I listened to Gov. Lingle's State of the State address, I was truly inspired. Here was a compassionate leader who knows the people and their needs — much more than the House Democrats and House Speaker Calvin Say, who compared tax relief to extra loco mocos.

With all due respect, Mr. Speaker, tax relief means a lot more. Far too many of us find that scraping together enough money to buy a plate lunch is a daily struggle. That is, after we pay our rising income taxes, rent, gas tax, bottle deposit fee, vehicle registration fee, medical expenses and all the other expenses we are burdened with to merely survive in this state.

I hope the Legislature will follow Gov. Lingle's lead and give us all a break in the form of tax relief. We could certainly use it.

WITH SURPLUS

GOV. LINGLE'S PLAN TO 'HAVE IT ALL' IS DOABLE

I was touched with hope and optimism to hear Gov. Lingle articulately and proficiently lay out a framework by which the people of Hawai'i can truly "have it all." No more "this or that," "cut funds here and there." It's all possible.

But then Rep. Kirk Caldwell countered pessimistically that, "No, we can't have it all." He seems to think her words have no meaning or substance. So, who can we believe? I, for one, would trust Gov. Lingle.

Every year, she submits to the Legislature a balanced budget, as required by law. Her Budget-in-Brief, an easy-to-read public document, details her plan to "have it all." She even manages to "do it all" and leave a surplus for next year. Conversely, the Legislature, which is not required to propose a balanced budget, submits a "spending list."

If anyone can say with confidence that "we can have it all" and turn it into reality, it's Gov. Lingle. Thank you, Governor, for giving us something we can hope for and someone we can believe in.

INFURIATING

LEGISLATION THREATENS LEASE-TO-FEE CONVERSION

It should infuriate all fair-minded residents to learn that the state Legislature is considering the passage of House Bill 1523, which, if enacted, would repeal all of the meaningful provisions of Hawai'i's Residential Leasehold Law.

Under the contemplated legislation, residential lessees would lose the right to demand lease-to-fee conversion of the land beneath their homes. The mere consideration of such anti-working-class legislation clearly illustrates that Hawai'i's land monopolist — aided by its friendly lawmakers — will never give up the fight to assure that everyone who resides in the state is an impoverished tenant of the resurrected evil oligarchy.

NO HIGH-RISES

BACK TO THE FUTURE FOR KEWALO BASIN

The proposal from A&B to construct additional high-rises in Kaka'ako Makai is nothing more than another land grab.

Kewalo Basin was a place for the "Hawaiian in heart" for many years and never a dump. I have spent many of my 87 years living and working in Kaka'ako. I still live in the area and have seen the recently constructed development of Kaka'ako with its high-rise monstrosities that block most of the trade winds.

Kewalo Basin should be cleaned out; relocate all boats to the Ke'ehi and Honolulu harbor areas; remove all the piers; the harbor entrance should be blocked at the land's end with large boulders to regulate the water flow; construct a low bridge mauka of the boulder dam for pedestrians; create a small sand beach along the diamondhead side of the existing channel for turtles and Monk seals; a walk-way along the shore from Ala Moana to the Honolulu Harbor should be constructed; low-profile (two stories maximum) "local" shops and restaurants as well as a walkway linking the entire area together should also be constructed.

The Falls of Clyde sailing ship should be relocated to the mauka-'ewa corner of Kewalo Basin where the fresh-water outflow from springs will keep the ship in brackish water.

Kewalo Basin should be stocked with local fishes to view, and fishing tournaments for children can be held at periodic intervals.

With the cleanup of the harbor, the basin can again truly be called what it used to be in my "small-kid days," Blue Pond.

NOISE

SKATEBOARDERS ARE MAKING LIFE DIFFICULT

It is with great empathy that we read the letter from Gregory Smith regarding noise pollution. The true problem is inconsiderate (possibly brain dead?) citizens.

We live on a cul-de-sac on the North Shore. Fortunately, our street is too short to interest the loud gear heads with acceleration mania. It is, however, a safe haven for feral, unsupervised, skateboarding, screaming children.

The police have been less than helpful. Even your Bureaucracy Buster columnist, Robbie Dingeman, got the run-around while investigating our complaints. Each officer gives us a different suggestion; none is effective.

Noise, especially loud, intermittent, wood-ramp skateboarding, is particularly stress-producing. How comforting to read that a skate park will be completed in June. Originally it was to be completed in May.

Nonetheless, no one should have to have his quality of life compromised daily by inconsiderate adults too unconscious to realize that their children's behavior is hardly endearing to all.

HAWAI'I PROJECTS

MONSANTO CANNOT CONTROL ENGINEERED PLANTS SPREAD

It’s good to see Monsanto finally feeling some heat for its secretive and irresponsible genetic engineering projects in Hawai'i, as evidenced by Ray Foster’s testy letter touting his industry’s supposed safety record and condemning those who question it.

Mr. Foster, on behalf of a multibillion-dollar multinational corporation, lashes out at "big activist organizations on the Mainland," and describes all criticism as "baseless" and critics as "unethical."
Hawai'i has quietly become the genetic engineering outdoor testing laboratory for the world, and it was not Mr. Foster’s "activist" boogeymen but the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in his December 2005 audit report on regulation of the genetic engineering industry, who recently found that, while USDA has "assured the public that its controls over the field tests process are rigorous and effective ... (its) current approach is not sufficient to manage field releases of regulated GE crops," and it lacks "effective internal controls to minimize the risk of inadvertent release of GMOs into the environment."

The inspector general found that the USDA "lacks basic information about the field test sites it approves and is responsible for monitoring, including where and how the crops are being grown and what becomes of them at the end of the field test," and, as a result, permit requirements are violated, field tests of experimental crops are not inspected, crops unapproved for human consumption are grown "where they could easily be taken and eaten by passersby," crops are planted in unapproved locations, and harvested unapproved crops lie in open fields "for months at a time, their seeds exposed to animals and the elements."

Yet, Mr. Foster’s claims of "transparency" notwithstanding, Monsanto will still refuse to tell you whether it is growing an experimental crop next door to your child’s school.

Monsanto cannot control the spread of its genetically engineered plants that start reproducing in the wild, and it cannot silence the concerned public merely by calling names.