Letters to the Editor
Let businesses fund Pro Bowl
I agree with the governor on the NFL Pro Bowl game.
I do not believe taxpayer money should be spent to bribe a multi-billion industry to play a game in Hawaii.
I do not worship the NFL like some people do. If the business community thinks the Pro Bowl is important, it should come up with the money to pay for it.
Norman Bring
Kailua
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Don’t belittle civil unions
Gov. Neil Abercrombie brings out the worst in his latest rant against the Pro Bowl. He states, "We will get more out of civil unions in a weekend than we will get out of those guys" ("Governor flays Pro Bowl deal," Star-Advertiser, June 10). Really — $30 million more?
And to belittle civil unions as a money-making scheme rather than the closest thing to marriage that gay couples have, and to knock the years of struggle to have it passed, is just wrong.
Abercrombie makes light of this situation but it seems like a slap in the face to people on each side who support either gay marriage or the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. Why the need to choose? Both would be welcome to the islands as they bring what is needed more than ever — more opportunities for the people of Hawaii to come together, make a little money and show why Hawaii is the best place to live, work and play.
Vanessa Matautia
Waipahu
Allow hunting of feral mammals
Axis deer are not our only game mammal problem. Feral pigs, goats, sheep and deer are changing the very character of the Hawaiian islands. They are destroying the forested watersheds our entire water supply depends on, imposing huge costs on agriculture and killing the native plants and animals that make Hawaii unique.
The administration must take the response to a new level, one that hasn’t been seen since the territorial government’s noxious-animal control program morphed into the state’s game mammal program.
Maybe in time we can afford to fence and manage the hunting areas, but right now there is no need for hunting restrictions. The territory didn’t have them, and its control program removed more than 170,000 feral pigs and many thousands of other animals in the early 1900s.
Mary Ikagawa
Kailua
Attorney general protects all of us
A Star-Advertiser item incorrectly states the "attorney general’s client is the governor" ("State’s top lawyer doesn’t represent you," Off The News, June 10). The governor is not the only client.
Our attorney general represents the entire state government, the Judiciary and the Legislature, as well as the public interest of every citizen. Indeed, in its parens patriae (parent of the state) role, the attorney general has broad powers to protect every citizen against abuses.
To ensure some level of independence from the governor, the attorney general can be removed only with the advice and consent of the Senate.
Michael A. Lilly
Former Hawaii attorney general
Access fees are way too high
Alan Yonan Jr.’s articles on transparency and Big Wind was excellent ("Big Wind discussion stymied," Star-Advertiser, June 12).
The Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism’s request for $15,000 and the Public Utilities Commission request for $8,000 was the fee for simply providing Life of the Land with a list of the Big Wind documents in their possession, not the actual copies themselves.
Henry Curtis
Executive director, Life of the Land
