Commemorate history of Thomas Square

With Thomas Square in the news lately, I would like to suggest an idea to enhance this historic site and educate the public about its significance.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a statue on the Beretania Street side of the park of Adm. Richard Thomas, who restored sovereignty to the Hawaiian kingdom,and on the King Street side a statue of King Kamehameha III?

Although thelongest reigning monarch of the kingdom, there is not a single memorial on the island of Oahu to honor Kamehameha III. It was he who uttered the words, "Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono" at the time of the restoration.

A small, tarnished, hardly noticeable plaque embedded on the side of the stairs, by the Daughters of Hawaii in 1935, is the only marker to commemorate this historic event in which the British flag was lowered and the Hawaiian flag raised after the illegal takeover of the kingdom by Capt. Lord George Paulet in 1843.

Barbara Del Piano
Waikiki

Ethics Commission acted arbitrarily

It was irresponsible for a headline to characterize the April 10 meeting of the EthicsCommission as a "spat" ("Ethics Commission backs executive director in spat," Star-Advertiser,April 10).

Dan Mollway raised fundamental issues about the duties and functions of the commission. He argued that Leslie Kondo, the executive director, overreached when he accused someone ofviolating the state Ethics Code when no determination by the Ethics Commission had been made. Nomeeting was held to take up the imaginary violation, and no vote was taken at a properly constituted meeting.

The commission could have used Mollway’s complaint to conduct a model review. Instead, MariaSullivan, the commission’s chairwoman, told Kondo, "Based on my contacts with the staff, I believe you’redoing an excellent job here."

Wow! Instead of reviewing the issues, Sullivan just polled the staff and came to an arbitrary decision.

Warren Iwasa
Makiki

Cannabis plant has many social benefits

Why is the cannabis plant such a controversial issue?

Times have changed. With today’s research and knowledge about this plant, you would think that it would be time to legalize.

We need to see this plant as a resource for food, energy and medicine. I have learned that this amazing plant can produce paper and its growing cycle is 12 to 14 weeks versus a tree taking 20 years to mature. This means saving the trees that produce cleaner air and not destroying forest species.

It’s time for our elected officials and our public to start doing their homework on this amazing plant. We need to see this plant legalized, so it can bring in tax revenue, create jobs and provide safer organic material for medicine. More important, we can make room in our prisons for true criminals.

Bernice Romero
Aiea

Littering is the issue, not smoking at parks

I’m not a smoker, but I would like to address the new no-smoking law at beaches and parks.

From what I understand, what brought this on is the abundance of discarded cigarette butts in the sand. I hate that just as much as the next guy. If the issue is cigarette butts, why not address that issue and not ban smoking altogether? Why not stricter enforcement of littering?

A bigger problem at Hawaii’s beaches and parks is the public restrooms. Have you ever been in one lately? They are so dirty and gross that they are literally unusable.

Perhaps we should follow the logic of the cigarette ban and pass a law banning all eating and drinking at beaches and parks so nobody would have to use the restroom.

James Ward
Ewa Beach

Early education will cost us all a bundle

As stated by Terry Lock, director of the governor’s Executive Office on Early Learning, initially the state’s proposed early learning program would be a child-care program, not an educational one. Also, the program would be created only if the voters approve a constitutional amendment.

So why start now? Why not wait until the voters decide? How long would it be before the state determines that enrolling 4-year-olds one year before kindergarten does not ensure they are "ready to learn?" That’s when the state will want to enroll 3-year-olds and possibly 2-year-olds. The state estimates that when the program is fully up and running for only the 4-year-olds, it will cost an estimated $125 million. Once the state adds the 3- and 2-year-olds, that will sound like a bargain.

Also, will children be entitled to the same services as they are in public schools: transportation, breakfast, lunch, after-school care, special-education teachers?

How many programs are taxpayers expected to pay for?

Maureen DeCosta
Pearl City

Ritte exemplifies bottom-up approach

I loved your feature on Walter Ritte ("Walter Ritte, Name in the News," April 5). It’s good to see leaders from the grassroots being recognized in the Star-Advertiser.

He makes so much sense regarding the need for leadershipto preserve the land for the use of Hawaiian people rather than selling out for a small swath of land in Kakaako. His stance against GMO (genetically modified organisms) is something that is spreading like wildfire here. People in Hawaii have already started taking up the call for "No Mo’ GMO!"

It’s not just a few crazy, wild-eyed people against GMO; it’s a growing movement of people who are beginning to see you can’t make change from the top down (i.e., legislators).

Remember Waiahole-Waikane?

It takes communities, unions, students, teachers, churches to make change.

Sylvia Thompson
Makiki

DPP seems intent on spoiling Oahu beauty

The city’s Department of Planning and Permitting seems devoted to swamping Oahu with more B&Bs, community hotels and alternative lodging, thinking that if you build it, they will come. "They" will, and Oahu will lose what "they" come to experience.

Why ruin the aloha of existing neighborhoods? Waikiki is a dead zone for residents. We must save the Windward and North shores. Enough tourists visit these shores to experience what’s left of authentic life. DPP has been conned by developers. Rail transit’s real motive is for more suburbs, malls and big increases in population. Rail will be overwhelmed by more people with more cars. Why develop anymore? Our water supply is getting lower. Why pack us like sardines?

Paul Nelson
Waialua

Affordable Care Act getting expensive

According to your article, the nonprofit Hawaii Health Connector has won $128 million in newfederal grant funds to implement the health insurance exchange ("Nonprofit given $128M to create state insurance exchange," Star-Advertiser, April 9).

And $205 million was previously received from the federal government "to build an on-line insurance exchange website." (Nice website!)

Has anybody noticed?That is a total of $333 million,which "could be used by as many as 100,000 uninsured Hawaii residents" under the new Affordable Care Act.And that is for expenses through December 2014 only.

Doesn’t sound unprofitable or affordable to me.

Kathy Leong
Niu Valley