HAWAI'I KAI

CONDO PROJECT REQUEST WOULD ADD CAPACITY

Have you had difficulty finding a parking space at a Hawai'i Kai shopping center recently? Have you noticed more and more traffic congestion in East Honolulu? More brownouts? Less open space?

Are you aware a request has been made to change zoning for the Hale Ali'i condominium project near the Hawai'i Kai post office?

The proposal to raise the height limit from 60 feet to 90 feet would effectively increase the capacity of the building by 50 percent.

The developers knew the zoning requirements going into this project and should stick with them.

If you answered "yes" to any or all of the questions above, then I urge you to contact Henry Eng at the city Department of Planning and Permitting and Councilman Charles Djou to express your concerns about this project.

WAR

PRESIDENT SHOULD SEEK FORGIVENESS FROM IRAQ

I was completely appalled at the arrogance of George Bush during his interview on "60 Minutes."

The concept that the Iraqi people "should thank us" seems so far from reality that one wonders if the Current Occupant (as Garrison Keillor calls him) has lost his marbles.

Thank us for what? For bombing their country to smithereens, thereby wiping out resources to clean water, electricity and other civilized world amenities for years? For creating a chaos in which their children are afraid to walk the streets? For further dividing people who were already struggling to find ways to coexist with each other?

And we did this to a people and country that had done nothing to us, other than be predominately Muslim and have oil.

Mr. Bush, as a Christian you should be begging their forgiveness.

IRAQ

THERE ARE THREE PARTS TO THE WAR WE ARE IN

We will make the wrong decisions in Iraq if we continue to see it as one war, versus the three wars it really is.

The first war was the well-executed one, which was won with the fall of Baghdad so long ago.

The second war started during our effort to set up a functioning democracy, as we did in Japan after World War II. This war was a second front in the global war on terror led by al-Zarqawi on behalf of al-Qaida (following his joining with bin Laden). The third war is between Iraq's Sunni and Shiite factions and looks much like a civil war.

Many people only see the civil war as an Iraqi issue that we could probably walk away from and therefore oppose any further involvement. The tricky part is the second war, the Iraq part of the war with al-Qaida that is obscured by the coverage of the third war.

If we walk away from that war, bin Laden and al-Qaida will declare that they have defeated the U.S. in Iraq as they defeated the Soviets in Afghanistan. They will legitimately claim to have proven that we are a paper tiger, running from them in Iraq as we ran in Lebanon and Somalia, and this after only a few more deaths in four years than they wrought in the U.S. in one attack on Sept. 11.

It is for that reason that we need to continue to pursue victory and hope the president's new team and their additional forces can deliver it.

AGRICULTURE

BIOTECH FARMING IS ALREADY SAVING PEOPLE

The Legislature has opened, and activists are firing up once again to promote anti-people, anti-technology legislation to kill modern farming technology that is saving people and wildlife habitat around the world. The letter from Francine Pearson (Jan. 13) is but one of a flood this newspaper will be asked to print in the weeks to come. It's a typical sky-is-falling letter that most thoughtful readers will reject.

The notion that "all of our open-pollinated crops will become genetically modified" is preposterous. Plants only pollinate within species.

Cross-pollination can be — and is routinely — controlled, as generations of farmers around the world have demonstrated. There simply is no possibility of a macadamia nut tree sprouting biotech ears of corn, soybeans or papaya, only macadamia nuts. Period.

I urge every person, church, organization and group — especially farmers and Hawaiian cultural and environmental organizations — to stand up right now, contact your legislator and the governor, and let them know you support the benefits of modern biotechnology and other modern farming practices that are crucial to feeding people and saving wildlife habitat worldwide in the next 40 years. Your keiki are counting on you.

SPECIAL NEEDS

SKILLS TRAINERS OPEN WORLD TO THESE YOUTH

In response to Beverly Creamer's article (Page B1, Jan. 12) on skills trainers: My 16-year-old son's skills trainer, Ian Watanabe, provides my son with a path to the world.

Through patience and diligence, Ian has been able to reach my son in ways that his local public school was unable to even comprehend, let alone implement.

Although my son struggles to focus, he is learning to manage his symptoms with the assistance of Ian and many other dedicated professionals.

Providing learning opportunities and developing skills to manage symptoms are what Ian and other skills trainers do.

LILI'UOKALANI

STATUE SHOULD BE IN MORE PROMINENT SPOT

I am curious to know who owns the Queen Lili'uokalani statue, and more curious to know why it was placed in its current location.

It is really out of the main view of the general public, unlike the highly visible Kamehameha statue on South King Street.

With the hardship Queen Lili'uokalani endured during the overthrow of the monarchy, it is a disgrace to have the statue in its current location.

Might I suggest relocating it to the 'Iolani Palace grounds, fronting the palace where it should respectfully be.

I call upon every Hawaiian organization and others who are concerned to please help get the ball rolling on this issue. Mahalo.

RECYCLING

Is anyone bothering with the big picture?

The recent article "Trash exports still an option" and various letters to the editor supporting curbside recycling represent two sides of the same coin. They leave me wondering if anyone is looking at the big picture.

Anyone who has lived in a community with curbside recycling will tell you the volume of recyclable waste can easily exceed non-recyclable. With such a program recycling much of the island's household waste, there would be no need to export trash.

TAX CUT

SURPLUS MONEY SHOULD BE SPENT ON EDUCATION

I am writing in response to Gov. Lingle's suggestion that the budget surplus should be returned to the taxpayers in the form of a tax cut. As an educator, I strongly urge her to reconsider.

Please, Gov. Lingle, keep the surplus and fix education. The private financial benefit to families of a tax cut would be nothing compared to the good you can do everyone by fixing education. Everyone wins: Children flourish, become adults who succeed, contribute to a society that works and solves its problems.

I work at a university, a research university, whose library has stopped buying books. This is a joke; more accurately, we will be a joke. UH desperately needs increased funding to fix the library. Please, Gov. Lingle, keep the surplus and fix education.

'MAUI FEVER'

NEW TV SHOW DOESN'T ACCURATELY PORTRAY US

MTV's new reality show "Maui Fever" is a show based on haoles, and only haoles, living on Maui.

As a local who was born and raised in Hawai'i, I am appalled at this biased reality show. It portrays Maui in an awful way. The cast was not born and raised in Hawai'i and they portray Maui as a rich, white surfer community.

There is no diversity in the cast. People on the Mainland want the real thing and not a bunch of cast members pretending to be local.

The media has once again stolen our identity.