FORWARD-LOOKING FESTIVITIES WELL DONE

Having attended most of the Convention Center events on Friday, I can say the yearlong planning and the final execution were perfect. Well done.

How appropriate to look forward and not back. The two speakers who kept dredging up their version of the past were well overtaken by the informative and useful forward-looking folks.

The closing event, emceed by Uncle Tom, was the best close to the day I could imagine. The Drifters, Platters and Coasters were tops.

Only downer was my discovery that a friend in his 20s next to me did not have any clue as to what a "platter" (aka record) was. How far we have come in 50 years!

Paul E. Smith | Honolulu

MAJORITY WOULD STILL FAVOR STATEHOOD

Thank you, Advertiser, for your reporting on the Statehood Admissions Day commemoration festivities. I'm sure your picture of Shelly Muneoka setting fire to the 50th star in a desecrated American flag will endear her and her fellow anti-statehood activists to the hearts of the other 90 percent of Hawaiian residents who prefer statehood to the stone-age government that was Hawai'i 200 years ago.

In answer to the anti-statehooders, please urge the governor to hold another plebiscite on the question of statehood. I'm pretty confident that there would be an overwhelming yes vote on the question. I know some of us would like us to be a sovereign nation — sort of like Tonga — but I also think that those Hawaiians who think that are in a tiny minority in our beautiful state.

I think the queen took one look at the choice between the exploitatory empire-building countries of that time — Britain, Japan, Holland, France, Spain and Germany — and concluded that the transfer of her country to the U.S. of A would be far preferable.

And she procured the protection of the mighty U.S. government from being absorbed by the empire-builders in the bargain.

Thank you, your highness, for making the right decision.

George Baker | Honolulu

ALA WAI

NEW SIDEWALK PART OF EMBARRASSMENT

I would like to know who is responsible for replacing the sidewalk along the Ala Wai in Waikiki. I have been traversing this sidewalk weekly for years now, with the exception when the sewer pipes were blocking it for years.

A few weeks ago they began to replace the sidewalk starting at the Diamond Head side and working toward town. Today was my first trip down the new sidewalk. The barriers are still there, just moved to the side, but the paving seems to be completed.

To my shock the new pavement is already cracked, pitted and crumbling in hundreds of places! This sidewalk is less than a week old. It is already in worse shape than the sidewalk they replaced. How can this be possible?

The Ala Wai should and could be a major Waikiki attraction but seems to be more of a major embarrassment. Over three years have passed since the rains, and still there are huge black sewer pipes along the canal, at least finally taken off the Waikiki side, but when you pass by where they were you still smell the raw sewage.

Mike Loomis | Honolulu

RAIL TRANSIT

PLEASE REPORT MORE ON PER-CAPITA COSTS

The League of Women Voters of Honolulu thanks The Honolulu Advertiser for informing the public of the per-capita costs of the mayor's rail transit plan. Especially important is the information that the per-capita cost in Honolulu is many times that of other cities with rail transit.

The Advertiser rendered a great public service by putting this story on the front page. The subsequent front-page stories on the secrecy surrounding the tax collection shortage were in the same vein of public service. The city's characterization of your revelation of that shortage as "misleading and irresponsible" is transparently self-serving.

Another great service you could perform is telling us exactly where the $1,000 per person already collected in taxes went and how much is still to be spent.

For instance, did the cost of the elaborate exhibit at the recent finance expo come from the rail excise tax money? How much tax money has been spent on media advertising? How much tax money did the meetings soliciting public input cost? Just where has the excise tax money gone and how much is left?

The Honolulu League of Women Voters has written several letters to the mayor requesting answers to these questions. The reply we did receive contained no specifics, only generalities.

Piilani Kaopuiki | President, The League of Women Voters of Honolulu

ROAD MAINTENANCE

OUR FREEWAYS OUGHT TO BE BEST IN NATION

By any comparison, the state of California is in far worse condition than Hawai'i.

Yet on a recent trip to California, armies of road crews would descend on the freeway system every night. They would strip off the old pavement and lay an entire new, smooth road surface. Standing sentinel everywhere over these crews were signs stating that their project was being paid for by President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

We have the smallest freeway system in the nation. Yet we have the worst. The stretch of H-1 from Waikele to the Middle Street merge is no better than roadways in most Third World countries and it is less than 25 miles in length! All we've been able to count on every year are crews with substandard material filling in potholes that make the situation even worse.

The length of all three of our freeways is less than 58 miles. California's freeways are thousands of miles long. Why aren't our freeways the best in the nation?

David Taylor-Garcia | Mililani