Animal cruelty served a setback

Thanks for helping stop animal cruelty.

Kudos to Gov. Neil Abercrombie, Sen. Clayton Hee, city Prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro and the dedicated staff at the Hawaiian Humane Society for their valiant efforts in stopping dog fighting. This vicious and hideous form of animal cruelty and other kinds of animal cruelty are often a precursor to the violence we see too often in our community today.

Thank you for understanding the importance of stopping animal cruelty in any form. We will be a better society for it, not only in how we treat our four-legged friends, but also in how we treat one another as human beings.

Vicky Cayetano
Honolulu

Why, exactly, are we ‘over there’?

Will somebody, anybody, tell us why we’re "over there" killing people, including our own, destroying our world’s infrastructure, burning untold amounts of oil and hastening our upcoming economic depression?

If our objective is peace and happiness, this project is like raping to preserve virginity. Why are we doing this? Is there a net benefit to this fiasco? We have a right to know. We’re paying for it. Our great-great-grandchildren have a right to know. We’re maxing out their credit card accounts.

Bertram J. Wong
Honolulu

New BOE seems to lack expertise

I am the grandmother of a child in public education in Hawaii. I have been following the political movements of the state Department of Education and Board of Education for some time.

The superintendent of education, while certainly a well-qualified person, appears to have no qualifications in education. Nor is there any depth in the education qualifications of the BOE members appointed by the governor.

The governor chose nine people from approximately 150 applications for the board, and I must assume that there were not many qualified applicants with any teaching experience.

I would wonder what the state uses for criteria for both the superintendent and BOE members. Experience in education must not have been one of them.

These people will be making many important decisions regarding the education of the children of Hawaii. I would have preferred experts for these monumental tasks rather than novices.

Irene Rea
Orofino, Idaho

Vacation rentals are an imposition

Wayne Huber touched on two interesting points ("Vacation rentals good for tourism," Star-Advertiser, Letters, June 10).

One is the difficulty in finding any legal place to stay outside of Waikiki. The reason for that is simple. There are only a limited number of legal vacation rentals. This is how it should be. Residential neighborhoods are for residents.

Most important, however, was Huber’s statement that if it were easier for persons with vacation rentals to operate legally, tourism would increase.

Tourists who stay in hotels and hostels contribute to the tourist industry. Those who stay in illegal vacation rentals contribute mostly to the greed of the operators of illegal vacation rentals.

What Mr. Huber fails to recognize is the socioeconomic impact caused by the ever-increasing loss of housing for people who live and work in the islands. Hawaii doesn’t need an increase of this type of tourism.

Kathleen M. Pahinui
Waialua

Being in prison is a serious red flag

For all the prisoners complaining of losing weight due to smaller portions of food being served, I have a guaranteed, foolproof way to maintain your weight. Stay out of prison. It works every time.

Of course, if you do get incarcerated, the American Civil Liberties Union will rise to your defense. The ACLU’s National Prison Project says prisoners losing weight due to insufficient food is a serious red flag. I’m going to go ahead and one-up them by saying that being is prison is a serious red flag.

As with most stories concerning convicts and their rights, there is never any mention of the victims and their inalienable human rights that were violated.

Pat Kelly
Honolulu

Stadium board should resign

The chairman and members of the Aloha Stadium Authority should honor the governor’s request that they step down.

Whether or not you support our governor, he was freely elected by the people by a very large margin. The people voted for change, and he should be allowed to pursue his agenda as he sees fit. It’s only common courtesy to allow this.

Seeing a comment that a member wants to stay on because the food concessions contract is coming up and wants to be a part of that raises the question: Why?

If we are going to hold our governor responsible for the changes this great state needs at this time, let him do his job.

Ron Baumgartner
Waikiki