GO UNDERGROUND

BURYING POWER LINES A MATTER OF PUBLIC SAFETY

On the morning of Nov. 2, I was walking on McNeill Street on my way to work when suddenly I heard a loud explosion. I turned around and saw high voltage wires sparking on the sidewalk that I passed a few moments earlier. Had it been a few moments later, I would not be writing this letter. HECO, bury those lines — it's a matter of life and death!

HOMELESS

TOURIST SHOULD LEARN THE MEANING OF ALOHA

It seems that after 35 years and up to 70 visits to these islands, longtime tourist Rose-Anne Borger (Letters, Nov. 9) still has not learned the meaning of aloha. Yes, we have homeless in Hawai'i. Do you not have this problem in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada? If you do not, please return and teach us how to effectively help this situation. If you do have this problem in your home country, do you also expect it all to go away there, because you don't like it?

Should you ever return to these islands, you may also want to brush up on other familiar words, phrases and practices we use in Hawai'i. Kokua: participate, assist, help. Ho'oponopono: come together with solutions.

Finally, all beaches in Hawai'i are open to all people, not just those who visit, and I'm sure that the individuals you observed on the benches would rather have been safe and sound in their own homes. Good luck to you, Ms. Borger.

ELECTIONS

ELECTION RESULTS YIELD HOPE FOR DEMOCRACY

I would like to thank the American people for voting for a democratic nation. Democrats understand that the philosophy of America is based on by the people, of the people, and for the people. Thank you President Bush for working with both parties for a better America for all.

DAD STEPS UP TO THE PLATE FOR THE DEMS

I would like to take this time to express how proud I am of my father, Randy Iwase, in his run for governor. When it seemed like nobody wanted to challenge Governor Lingle, my father stepped up to the plate for the Democratic Party. Along with Malama Solomon, I felt they ran a terrific campaign with the limited resources they had. Although the other candidate outspent us by more than 20-to-1, in my opinion we out-worked them 30-to-1.

Even though the result didn't end up the way I would have hoped, it was a great experience for me. With that said, I would like to wish Governor Lingle the best during her next four years in office.

THOUGHTFUL EFFORTS BY VOTERS THIS ELECTION

I believe Hawai'i's voters should be praised for their conscientious voting on Tuesday.

I worked at one of our precincts and saw many voters at this election with notes in hand to help them complete their ballots. Others stopped at the voter information table to read or borrow our brochures explaining the various amendment issues. In checking the online elections statistics I see that for most O'ahu amendments the number of blank ballots was around 10 percent. So approximately 90 percent of our voters put in a lot of hard work to answer questions that were sometimes very confusing, not to mention often requiring that voters spend about 20 minutes in the voting booth.

Whether you agree with the results or not, you certainly should appreciate the dedicated efforts of our voters, who keep our democracy strong. Hurray for Hawai'i voters!

GOVERNMENT WORKERS COULD HELP AT THE POLLS

Since the state experienced problems getting workers for this election, would it be possible to have state and county employees man the polls? This might be an old idea, but having state and county workers sign up for a few hours should be their community service as well as a condition of employment. After all, they do have the whole day off with pay.

Additionally, this would alleviate the state from having to find people to work at the polls and would save the cost per person that they normally would spend. The private sector gets only two hours off by law, and that is only if they don't have two hours from the time the polls open and close. Therefore, I feel state and county workers should be able to sacrifice a few hours out of the eight they receive every election.

GOP CANDIDATE RAN A CLEAN CAMPAIGN

I take issue with Mr. Johnny Brannon's article in the Nov. 8 issue of The Honolulu Advertiser which states: "Some of the nastiest mudslinging-by-mail took place in the Downtown and Chinatown areas, where Democrat Karl Rhoads and Republican Collin Wong slugged it out for the House District 28 seat."

The article implies that Collin was just as guilty as his opponent. As Collin's campaign manager, I need to establish for the record that we chose to run an ethical campaign based on addressing the issues relevant to our district. No "hit-pieces" came from Collin Wong's campaign. A large part of the personal attacks directed against Collin and his family were below the media's radar as it also involved phone calls to voters, Internet sites and rumor mills.

I hope that this does not discourage other idealistic young people from participating in the political process.

SMOKING

NEW LAW GOOD FOR HEALTHY, CLEAN STATE

I am 14 years old and home-schooled in Kailua. I read the recent article on Nov. 8 about keeping smoking out of certain places. This will help Hawai'i to keep its environment clean and will protect others from second-hand smoking. Because of this new law, Hawai'i will be safer for little children who are around smoke.

When I smell smoke, it makes me sick to my stomach, which is not a pleasant feeling. Because cigarettes are continuously thrown on the ground, the beach and even on the roads, does this mean that there will be more litter in permitted smoking areas?

TRAVEL

WILL RULES ON THEBUS BE THE SAME FOR RAIL?

Several months ago, a reader complained about not being allowed to carry luggage on a city bus. A representative of TheBus responded that by law, city buses cannot compete with commercial conveyances to and from the airport. Will passengers on the new proposed rail transit be allowed to have suitcases with them?

PEARL HARBOR

UPGRADES LEAVE GOOD IMPRESSION ON VISITORS

Wow, what a difference at Pearl Harbor! It's been a few years since I have taken visitors to the USS Arizona and the USS Missouri. I would also take them to Pearlridge for a nice lunch.

The Pearl Harbor Visitor Center is a wonderful surprise. We can take our time to have an excellent lunch, see the shops, get out of the sun and rest and relax and have cold drinks and ice cream. They truly have the welfare of the tourists in mind.

I had read some negative comments in the paper, but I saw nothing negative there. The employees were happy and helpful.

A definite improvement to the entire complex.

SMART SOLUTIONS

CONNECT THE DOTS TO SOLVE CHRONIC WOES

Well, here we have the flooding rain again, along with the ever-too-often sewage spills into our beautiful oceans.

It seems there's just too much water that overloads the systems. It's such a crying shame. I wish there were smart people who could solve that problem.

Another problem that plagues Hawai'i — dependence on oil. It sure would be nice if we could grow something like sugarcane to use instead. But they say there's just not enough water to support this crop. A crop that won't be eaten, only used to supplement our energy needs.

I'm sure "they" are smart enough to have looked at all the ways it could be done. Yeah, too bad we can't think of any solutions.

RESIGNATION

RUMSFELD DOWN, CHENEY AND BUSH TO GO

Donald Rumsfeld resigned. Bravo!

If Dick Cheney and George W. Bush also resigned, the world would shudder with joy.

ABOVE-GROUND PIPE

CITY SHOULD COMPLY WITH INSURANCE REQUEST

This letter is in response to H. Better's that appeared Nov. 9 in the Letters section of The Honolulu Advertiser.

The landowner of the Niu Valley Shopping Center is a very good neighbor just to consider allowing the contractor to operate from the center's private property.

From what I understand, the shopping center's insurance carrier is the entity that is requiring the city to increase the coverage of insurance to cover any liability. That sounds reasonable. The church has a right to demand proper coverage. Why is this a show-stopper? It would seem that the cost of the additional coverage would pass to the contractor who would file a change order.

When you try to secure a contract with the City and County of Honolulu, state of Hawai'i or the federal government, they tell you exactly what kind of insurance coverage you need to qualify for the project. If you do not secure the insurance, you do not get the job. Simple as that.

The city engineers apparently failed in scoping the work and getting all the costs and facts of this project identified. Again, it's not the church's fault, it's the city's. The city needs to comply with what the landowner's insurance company requires, and the job can continue.