As a licensed architect in our family firm Mark Development Inc. my philosophy is to build homes where families can live, grow and thrive with their community.

I want the same for all neighborhoods and communities on O'ahu. We can do that today by supporting and building the Honolulu rail-transit system as the currently planned system. The primary purpose of an elevated system is to efficiently move large numbers of commuters quickly, reliably and safely from destination to destination.

Putting any segment of the system at ground level will defeat this primary purpose and subject the system to traffic congestion. As an architect, I'm alarmed by the potential negative impacts safety issues an at-grade system would impose.

In taking this stand, I am distancing myself from some of my fellow architects and our professional association. I've read their reasons for wanting rail to be built at-grade, and I simply can't agree.

Elevated rail will allow our families, neighborhoods and communities to thrive, and I encourage my fellow architects to rethink their support for street-level transit.

Paul watase, AIA | Mark Development Inc.

FURLOUGHS

EDUCATION SHOULD NOT BE EXPENDABLE

The people of Hawaii have been hit hard by the recession — some more than others. Economically, everyone has felt the effects. But what I cannot comprehend as a taxpaying citizen and as a parent is all the cuts in education, in some form or other. Now, the children of Hawaii will be deprived of an education. Practically a whole month's worth of school.

The children of Hawaii are our greatest investment. The future of our state depends on the next generation. How will the children of Hawaii compete with others in the future?

Our education system is not up to par with the rest of the states. Our scores are low for the national average. A majority of the schools cannot even pass the No Child Left Behind standards. And yet Gov. Lingle has made sure that there will be cuts in the education system, including 17 to 21 extra days off from the school calendar.

Our politicians should be ashamed. Education should not be on the list when it comes to cuts in spending. The children of Hawaii are our greatest assets. They are Hawaii's future.

alice lenchanko | Ewa Beach

HURRICANE FUND

NOT ALL CONTRIBUTE, SO RAIDING IS UNFAIR

Why do people always want to raid the Hurricane Relief Fund to pay for things that only a select group of people will benefit from? The only people who have paid into the Hurricane Relief Fund are those who have paid for hurricane insurance. This does not include renters, people who live in apartments, or those who have not chosen to buy hurricane insurance.

People should stop thinking about this fund as a general fund to benefit everyone when not everyone has contributed. Why don't people talk about raiding other funds that only a specific group has contributed to? Raiding any fund such as this is unfair and thoughtless.

bryan kuboyama | Pearl City

GLOBAL WARMING

COST OF 'PROGRESS' MAY BE DESTRUCTION

Scientists have reported that global warming is increasing at a faster clip. Earlier, they projected that the polar ice caps would completely disappear by mid-century, but now they are raising the alarm that the North Pole will be under water within 10 years.

Glaciers and polar ice flows are melting at alarming rates, which will undoubtedly raise the sea levels and even change the ocean current's patterns. Archipelagos and low-lying island nations such as the Maldives will vanish from the face of the Earth. Oceanside resorts such as Miami and even Hawaii's famous Waikíkí Beach will disappear.

The impact on Mother Nature will be severe as polar bears, caribou, snow seals and other arctic animals face extinction due to the loss of their habitat.

I fear that the movement to prevent global warming's progress is now too little and too late. It appears the cost of mankind's technological progress will be the destruction of the very thing our lives depend on, planet Earth.

Jon shimamoto | Mililani

EHREN WATADA

PRIOR TO IRAQ WAR, CASE GAINED LEGALITY

Robert Soberano (Letters, Oct. 13) states that "Ehren Watada is a man of good moral character and fiber" because the war was illegal.

It was the Clinton administration, not Bush, that made the case to the U.N. and U.S. Congress that Saddam Hussein should be removed because he had used weapons of mass destruction in the past and had refused to let International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors check them out. Several U.N. Security Council resolutions were passed to enforce these allegations before President Bush was elected.

In 1998 President Clinton advocated for and got Congress to pass the Iraq Liberation Act, which he signed into law. The act legally permitted the president to remove Saddam Hussein and supported a transition to democracy in Iraq.

Congress had the opportunity to repeal the act, but opted not to do so, when President Bush requested funding for the operation in Iraq. All subsequent congressional funding bills supporting the war in Iraq are in fact legal support of the war.

russel noguchi | Pearl City