Make HECO rent undersea cable

It looks like Hawaiian Electric Co. wants its ratepayers to pay for the cost of building the undersea cable from Lanai and Molokai. This plan will allow HECO to make a profit off the undersea cable.

Why not have the taxpayers, who are taking all the risk anyway, pay for the undersea cable and charge HECO rent for the use and maintenance of the cable?

The current plan sounds like the underwater oil drilling arrangement the federal government has with the oil companies. The federal government subsidizes the drilling for the oil companies, the oil companies then sell the oil on federal property, which is owned by the taxpayers, and keeps most of the profits. How is this fair?

Roy Kamisato
Honolulu

 Focus prayer on people of Japan

How can a person immediately help the Japanese recovering from a deadly earthquake and tsunami, while living with a possible nuclear catastrophe?

With unknown loss, fear and hopelessness in the hearts of Japanese today, they need our prayers of hope for a better tomorrow. Please gather together with your family, friends, co-workers, neighbors and congregation in prayer to end any further death and destruction in Japan.

Bob Iinuma
Honolulu

Tsunami aid heartwarming

There are countless issues in the world causing constant disagreements. With all the bickering and violence occurring throughout the world, it was heartwarming to read of the support being extended to those in Japan after the tsunami. It’s amazing that many of these people are making personal sacrifices to donate and help out other people.

While we will always have corruption and devastation no matter what society we live in, being a civil human being really does make a difference. As Gandhi once so beautifully put it, "Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion."

Janae Leilani Rasmussen
Kailua

Gear Up opens students’ eyes

Congratulations to Gale Mehea, Waipahu project coordinator for Gear Up at Waipahu High School, in her effort to support the freshmen in danger of failing or repeating the ninth grade ("Failing students see squalor," Star-Advertiser, March 20).

The Fresh Start program helps struggling students see the stark reality of life without an education. These students might have an idea or no idea at all. Gail and her Gear Up team cement this fact of life within students’ thoughts through various field trips that are eye-openers. Students take in a very deep breath of what their bleak future might be if they choose the broken path.

Long-term federal funding goes a long way for these students, who are the future of Hawaii.

Joyce Choy
Teacher, Waipahu Intermediate School

Bill of Rights not just for journalists

It strikes me as ironic at best and hypocritical at worst that journalists, authors and publishers should stamp their feet and wave their fists when there is a perceived threat to "their" amendment — the First in the Bill of Rights — then are quiet or weigh in heavily on the side of the assault to our Second Amendment rights ("Bill holds writers, publishers liable for trespass," Star- Advertiser, March 20).

"It’s a terrible bill. It’s an absolute violation of the Constitution," cries a media attorney in regards to the House Bill 548, HD3.

So are the bills routinely introduced to prevent law-abiding citizens from owning and carrying firearms, yet the media supports these wholeheartedly.

You can’t have it both ways. Either there is a Bill of Rights or there is not. An attack on one of the amendments is an attack on all and the Constitution itself.

Gordon Fowler
Aiea

Big Isle a natural for energy center

Unprecedented opportunities are possible in the arena of renewable energy for Hawaii, James Kent and Eric Casino note ("Hawaii, Guam raise profiles in Pacific," Star-Advertiser, March 14).

This is true only if we take proper action.

The proposed U.S. Department of Energy budget includes the establishment of three additional DOE innovation centers. I hope our congressional leaders will do everything possible to assure that one of them is built here. With the Big Island having more sources of alternative energy available to it than any of the other islands in the state (geothermal, solar, wind, wave, OTEC, hydro, waste, bio-fuels and algae production, to name a few), and with better consistency than nearly anywhere else in the world, it would seem to be a natural for such a center.

John Floyd
Kailua

Public restrooms a public disgrace

I agree with William Posenecker’s letter about the "appalling" condition of the Sharks Cove Park men’s restroom on the North Shore ("Sharks Cove restrooms filthy," Star-Advertiser, Letters, March 11).

Unfortunately, this is only one example of many city park restrooms on Oahu that lack professional cleanliness.

Why is it that workers in Waikiki’s hotels can keep the porcelain fixtures, tile walls, stall partitions and floors of very busy public hotel restrooms shiny and clean, while the city’s workers allow similar restroom features to be covered with the same dark yellow slime and grey nastiness year after year? These conditions endure despite repeated complaints to the city’s complaint line by many residents.

Mayor Peter Carlisle promised that if elected he would clean up the city’s parks. We’re still waiting to see clean park restrooms.

Auwe!

Robert Rodman
Waikiki