SUPERFERRY

SUPERFERRY TO BLAME FOR AVOIDING EIS

I agree with Maui Judge Joseph Cardoza. No one should be exempt from conducting an environmental impact statement, especially with a project as huge and expensive as the Superferry.

Why have regulations if you're going to give big business exemptions from abiding by laws that protect our natural and cultural resources?

The impact on our environment will be devastating to our endangered species and precious resources. It's not about being afraid of change. It's about looking at the potential impact of your activities on our community and environment, and addressing them before they become irreversible problems.

There should be no special session to accommodate the Superferry. Don't blame the community for your losses. You're to blame for trying to sneak around the EIS. If you had done your homework and completed the EIS, you wouldn't be losing money now.

Take a lesson from those that have gone before you — like the Army Stryker Brigade, which is in the middle of completing an EIS.

We took them up to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. You can follow in their footsteps, too.

VOCAL MINORITY THINK ONLY OF OWN PRIORITIES

Congratulations to the most selfish vocal minority of Maui and Kaua'i residents.

They have stopped an important mode of transportation between islands. These ships are better equipped to prevent accidents than any other ships operating in Hawaiian waters.

I have a physical disability and cannot fly between islands, and this was going to be my way of visiting family on other islands and spending my money there.

But these people don't really care about anyone but themselves. They use the whales and surfing as an excuse for their own priorities.

Selfishness and greed cost everyone. What have these people done on a positive note? Who have they helped? What have they contributed in a positive manner?

Probably most have done nothing to improve anything around them. Go do some work for the homeless or go help with the food bank. Just do something constructive rather than destructive.

LINGLE WILL LOOK OUT FOR FERRY REGARDLESS OF LAW

Here she goes again. Still not willing to accept blame for the Superferry fiasco, Gov. Linda Lingle now wants to impose conditions on the Superferry that would not be subject to judicial or administrative review.

According to The Advertiser, legislators could add conditions later if they were not satisfied.

The state administration has been bought off. The governor will do anything in her power to get what she and the Superferry want, regardless of the law.

Given her intransigence and the refusal of her administration to satisfactorily explain how illegal exemptions were given, it is time for the Legislature to focus on the real issue, impeaching the governor.

SHOULD WE ALSO STUDY IMPACT OF DRIVING?

The courts have shut down the Superferry to do an environmental assessment, in part because of the fear of hitting our visiting whale population.

In the meantime, pedestrians are getting picked off in record numbers on O'ahu's streets and highways. Perhaps we should halt all driving in Honolulu until the same type of study can be made to determine the impact of the accidents on our state population, especially the elderly.

LEADERS AT FAULT FOR IRAQ, FERRY DEBACLES

It is not a stretch to draw comparisons between the catastrophe that is Iraq and the debacle that is the Superferry.

President Bush insisted that Iraqis wished to be free in the same way that Americans are free.

Gov. Linda Lingle and the Legislature refused to abandon their assumption that the residents of Kaua'i and Maui had the same interests in the Superferry as residents of O'ahu.

Bush scoffed when experts announced that they could find no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Lingle and the Legislature refused to heed experts' warnings that the Superferry could have a serious environmental impact and that the law required an assessment.

Both ignored law and facts in rushing our nation into war and the Superferry into operation. Both the war and the Superferry were avoidable disasters, but Bush and Lingle now claim that we have no choice but to go forward because stopping would be fatal to our nation's prestige and to our state's ability to attract private investment.

The hubris and arrogance of our elected officials in Washington and Honolulu are at fault, and these officials should be held to account.

KAUA'I

MOST LOCALS WELCOME O'AHU VISITORS BY SEA

The majority of local people on Kaua'i welcome locals from O'ahu. We welcome you to come to Kaua'i and enjoy our views, beaches, parks and drive your own car on our roads.

The real local residents of Kaua'i realize that without the tax contributions of residents from the other islands, Kaua'i could not survive. It is your tax dollars that subsidize our roads, parks, schools and social programs.

We apologize that a majority of our county and state elected officials oppose O'ahu residents visiting Kaua'i by sea. The same elected Kaua'i officials who are preparing to demand more of your tax dollars to subsidize Kaua'i in the upcoming 2008 session.

That being said, we, the real locals of Kaua'i, appreciate and love you all. Whether by air or sea, you all deserve to visit Kaua'i and enjoy our assets. Welcome! We depend on your tax dollars.

Aloha!

RAIL TRANSIT

RAIL TRANSIT IS WHAT IS BEST FOR ENTIRE ISLAND

I notice that some of the anti-transit sentiment seems to come from residents who live on the Windward side of the island or in East Honolulu.

They object to their tax dollars being spent on rail transit because they think they may never use it. They want the voters to decide.

Let me assure them that no one gave me the chance to vote on spending my tax dollars on the H-3 Freeway or improvements to Likelike and Pali highways, which I rarely use.

And we didn't get to vote on widening Kalaniana'ole Highway either, with those expensive underground utilities and landscaping in the middle of the road.

Let me educate them on what it's like to commute to work every day from the Leeward side of the island.

We have to get up at dawn, then fight traffic for an hour or more to town, work the entire day, then drive back in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Rail will bring a welcome traffic relief to our community, and will provide options to get to and from town that don't exist today.

Let's do what's best for the entire island. Let's move forward with rail before it's too late.

HONORS

AWARD FOR TEACHER OF YEAR MUCH TOO PALTRY

I applaud the State of Hawai'i for recognizing the teacher of the year.

However, I thought the award for this outstanding individual was a bit stingy. A paltry $1,000 award and the use of a new car for a year.

If the State of Hawai'i can afford to pay coaches six-figure salaries, can't it come up with a $10,000 or $20,000 check and clear title to a new car for our state's top teacher?

NIMITZ

SOME OF GRIDLOCK COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED

I was caught up in the gridlock caused by the overturned truck on Nimitz Highway on Oct. 17.

I stood in awe, watching a minimum of 10 police officers direct traffic through the intersection at Sand Island Access Road.

My bewilderment peaked when they stopped traffic heading west while three tow trucks righted the overturned vehicle.

The gridlock encompassed all back roads adjoining Nimitz in Kalihi because none of the drivers had any idea they could not turn west on Nimitz.

If HPD had stationed officers at intersections along Nimitz between Alakawa and Sand Island and then rerouted traffic to Dillingham Boulevard, it would have cut delays for drivers.

I realize HPD is understaffed and the officers do an admirable job with what they have to work with, but let's hope that in the future HPD can think about ways to solve the problem rather than congregate en masse at the problem.

HONOLULU

HIGHER PROPERTY TAXES WILL MEAN HIGHER COSTS

Property taxes in recent years, along with most city fees, have increased tremendously; this is in addition to a 12 1/2 percent increase in the excise tax for rail.

The city recently adopted new property tax rates and has been taking credit for a reduced home rate along with a one-time $100 per-person rebate.

However, the public has been greatly deceived. Overall property taxes will be 23.4 percent higher for the new fiscal year.

This is because of the huge increase in commercial real property rates. Businesses will be forced to send these increased costs on to consumers in higher prices for goods, services and rents.

So the big question that our city government should answer is "why should cost of government increase several hundred per cent faster than the cost of living increases or the ability of people to pay?"

It is no wonder our city is having an increased homeless problem and people are moving to the Mainland because of the high cost of living in Honolulu.

PEOPLE WHO LOVE ISLES DON'T GIVE UP AND LEAVE

You've got to hand it to Michael J. Lauck (Letters, Oct. 22) for potentially bringing this shattered state back together by, yawn, once again offering the services of one of the dime-a-dozen Hawai'i expatriates who insist on preaching to the rest of us — once safe and snug on the pollution-ridden Mainland — exactly what we're doing wrong.

I've got news for Mr. Lauck and Hawai'i expatriates just like him — the folks who love Hawai'i enough to try to make it work for ourselves, day in and day out, have the true love of the Islands.

We're the ones who don't give up and, make no mistake, we do rise up and demand when boneheaded moves are made against us.

And, by the way, regardless of whether the Superferry stays or not, that's still the problem of the people of Hawai'i in the same way that a high violent-crime rate is a problem on the Mainland.