Natatorium ideal for volleyball

The recent column on the Natatorium by Richard Borreca brings our attention once again to the real value that this area can create ("Natatorium is just a problem that won’t go away," Star-Advertiser, On Politics, Oct. 4).

The many of us locals who play and live in that environment agreed with the committee’s study some time ago, i.e., tear down the pool area, move the war monument back 30 to 50 feet mauka and build six to eight sand volleyball courts, with covered seating for spectators.

Local, University of Hawaii and world-class volleyball players could play there. Also, add a couple of mounts for TV coverage.

Sand doubles courts are 30 feet by 50 feet in size.

Poles topped with fishnets would protect the playing area and allow total visibility.

Is there any decisionmaker in a power position on this island who can foresee the world-class value of this suggestion?

If so, please step forward.

Ron Sorrell
Honolulu

Build more homes in town

What is wrong with the people in charge of land use here on Oahu?

The Howard Hughes Corp. wants to proceed with 20 high-end residential towers in Kakaako. At the same time, D.R. Horton and Castle & Cooke want to build 16,000 more homes (Ho‘opili and Koa Ridge) out beyond the H-1/H-2 merge, adding probably 40,000 cars a day to the roads out there.

The answer is obvious: We need a lot more modestly priced apartment dwellings in town.

The problem is that building housing units that regular folks can afford doesn’t sit well with the developers, who want the most money they can get.

Let’s try and get our elected officials and quasi-state agencies to put the needs of people over the needs of developers.

Building in town would still create a lot of construction jobs.

Jack Arnest
Kaimuki

Civil Defense best off separate

Ray Lovell’s commen-tary about removing Civil Defense out from under the state Department of Defense to a Cabinet-level position is especially important with the departure of Vice Director Ed Teixeira ("Civil Defense should be Cabinet post," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices," Oct. 9).

Teixeira exactly fit Lovell’s description of what is needed in this highly critical position, while the adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Darryl Wong, has none of those qualifica-tions.

Better to separate duties and responsibilities and give the head of Civil Defense the authority such responsibilities require as well as direct access to the governor.

Let the general stick with the National Guard.

Robbin Reed
Honolulu

Beautification unlikely to last

It is encouraging seeing the city finally replanting the grassy areas along Kuhio Beach and repairing the watering system, even though it is surely being done for the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference rather than any attempt to reestablish some of former Mayor Jeremy Harris’ beautification projects for us residents of Waikiki.

Still, on further reflection, it is extremely disheartening to realize that once next month’s big event is over, there is little doubt that all the improvements will once again fall into disrepair due to our local government’s never-failing propensity for deferring maintenance.

Just a cursory glance at Honolulu’s Ala Wai Promenade, city parks or freeway landscaping provides direct evidence to this civic malady.

Ray Pendleton
Waikiki

Protests hitting wrong target

The lack of clarity of the Occupy Wall Street movement is both telling and disconcerting.

It seems to me to be a mobilization for impending class warfare fueled by its enabling emotions: greed and jealousy.

Most disquieting, however, is the tacit support coming from the top of our national government. This seems dangerously premature to me, and likely to be attempts at political leveraging.

I would feel a whole lot more comfortable with all of this if, like the tea party, these protests were more directed at the seats of political power and not our economic engine.

Paul Krugman’s column missed on a number of points — not the least of which is personal individual responsibility — but he is correct in pointing to poor governance as setting the conditions for our economic woes ("Wall Street protesters aim at right targets this time," Star-Advertiser, Oct. 9).

Let’s not encourage continued poor governance to polarize the population.

John Hansen
Waipahu

Asia trip reflects poor judgment

The total lack of leadership at the state level is appalling and alarming.

I thought that we had a problem when Gov. Linda Lingle’s chief of staff was playing hanky panky right under her nose on their trip to the Philippines, but that was nothing compared to what is happening in the Abercrombie administration now.

With the resignations of his No. 1 and No. 2, as well as his his de facto civil defense director, Gov. Neil Abercrombie goes on a junket to Asia.

This is reminiscent of Lingle leaving to go campaign for Sarah Palin when the state’s finances were going into the tank.

If this is not an indication of total lack of sense of responsibility and good judgment, I don’t know what is.

We deserve better — or do we? After all, we elected this academic-turned-legislative politician with zero record of having managed or led anything.

Tadahiko ‘Tad’ Ono
Kaneohe

Schools don’t teach about God

Ann McFeatters’ column makes the comment, "The tea party, too, sprang from dissatisfaction with the way the country is being run. … But along the way it got enmeshed in denial of basic science such as evolution" ("Anti-Wall Street protests born of rampant unfairness," Star-Advertiser, Oct. 8).

What is interesting about this comment is that the issue of evolution versus intelligent design divides our country today. The theory of evolution denies intelligent design/creationism, thereby denying the God of the Bible. As such, our public schools are required to teach our children the basic "science" that the God of the Bible does not exist.

As an extension, our public schools are prohibited from teaching the Bible, the God of the Bible and prayer to God.

It is not that the tea party got "enmeshed" in the denial of evolution. The core belief of many leaders of the tea party movement is that the God of the Bible created the heavens and the Earth and that evolution, as the genesis of the human soul cannot and will not be proven as true.

Rodney Lau
Honolulu