Stadium serves public interest

I agree with the letter, "Stadium has expenses, too" (Star-Advertiser, May 22).

If the University of Hawaii were to be given rent-free use of Aloha Stadium, together with the income from concessions, parking, merchandising and signage, I would assume that UH would pay for direct expenses related to the football game.

Aloha Stadium should be treated like any other public building the state or city builds in the public interest, with the construction and ongoing maintenance paid by our tax dollars.

Buildings such as the Capitol, Honolulu Hale and the police and fire stations are not expected to produce an income stream.

Aloha Stadium serves a very real service to the public welfare.

Hamilton Winston
Kailua

Privacy concept is disappearing

The cyberworld has blown our cover.

Like it or not, there is more freedom of information. Personal space, top secrets and everything between are disappearing.

Cyberworld leaders promise us everything and give us more, confounding and dumbfounding everyone, including themselves.

For what cyberspace has wrought, we are jumping for joy, running for cover and even running back to church to learn to accept our sudden nakedness.

Things like patents, copyrights, royalties and state, corporate and personal secrets may be things of the past, changing many of our countries, industries, careers and lives.

Widespread changes will soon dominate education institutions’ fees, curriculum, teaching methods and delivery systems.

The concept of privacy may shrink and become a mere intellectual curiosity.

Richard Will
Waikiki

Hawaii affected by world events

Kioni Dudley’s commentary resonated in that we in Hawaii need to realize that actions beyond our waters are going to affect us deeply ("Afraid of sea level rise? Consider groundwater inundation," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, May 17).

Our land, shelter, water, and food resources are at crisis points already.

On the mainland there are people who are taking no prisoners in their march to control our Congress, our media, our water, our food — our republic.

I was in South Carolina when corporate media campaigners, posing as nonprofit organizations, got their Republican candidate — one who had been abandoned by the Republican Party — into office.

Just as we cannot ignore the actual rising waters, we cannot ignore the context of those rising waters in what is happening on the mainland.

Now is the time to act on what we, the people, want: a government that is truly and really of the people, by the people and for the people.

We need to act now, from the "pono" in our state motto on all issues.

Robert F. Ripp
Kaneohe

Best employee not always local

Regarding the University of Hawaii needing to hire a new president with local ties and a big heart, look how well that played out with Jim Donovan.

Athletic Director Ben Jay is an outsider with smarts and savvy and is slowly turning that department around. Even when approached about the Warriors name change, he was smart enough to bow to public opinion.

We need smarts and experience at the top of the UH food chain, not just another bruddah with good intentions.

Michael O’Hara
Kaneohe

Grace Pacific heeded the call

Despite our differences as to the stockpiling of reclaimed asphalt paving on private land above the agricultural farm lots in Kamilo Nui Valley, we have to give a loud shout out of thanks to Grace Pacific Corp.

It heeded our call for kokua with repaving and patching the valley farm road (Kamilonui Place) at no expense to the farmers who created that agricultural valley, have lived there for three generations and want to make improvements, particularly to the common areas frequented by the public.

Grace Pacific’s generosity with this road repair benefits not only the farmers and their customers. Others include residents who enjoy the valley for recreation, and agencies that provide public services such as the U.S. Postal Service, the city Department of Environmental Services (trash pickup), the police and fire departments and the water and electric utilities.

Jeannine Johnson and Evangeline Yacuk
Aloha Aina O Kamilo Nui Nursery, Kamilonui Valley