Why the worry about NSA spying?

I have been amused, or rather, bemused, by the article on Mark Zuckerberg’s newest plan to accrue all the money in the world through an ostensibly philanthropic endeavour to provide Internet connectivity to all humanity ("Internet access is vital to life, Facebook chief says of project," Star-Advertiser, Aug. 22).

This connectivity presupposes that everyone could and would friend everyone else on Facebook.

Think of the endless stream of personal information already resident on Facebook that would be enlarged and expanded upon, traded and re-traded, back and forth all over the world.

Your friends who have other friends and their friends’ friends who are friends also are sharing every part and parcel of their lives, jobs, families, shopping, photos, working, playing, buying habits, etc., etc., ad nauseam.

Now please explain all the frothing and fussing over invasions of our privacy since the Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks revelations, when clearly we are offering up all of our personal and private intimate information to Mark Zuckerberg through Facebook.

Isn’t he reselling the information for personal gain?

Andrea W. Bell
Kailua

Congress delegates betrayed voters

I was shocked to read that Hawaii’s two U.S. senators and two U.S. representatives are pushing same-sex marriage in our state ("Gay marriage push gains speed," Star-Advertiser, Aug. 17).

All four, when they were running for office,supported the proposition that marriage was between one man and one woman.

Now, by endorsing same-sex marriage, they have betrayed all the people of Hawaii who voted them into office. Shame on all of them.

God wanted one man and one woman in marriage.But now some people on Earth want two men or two women to get married — all because homosexuals want to have the same benefits as in the marriage of one man and one woman.

It will be all our tax money that will pay the benefits of same-sex marriage.We are already paying high taxes. Why should we pay more?

Sonny Pasion
Pearl City

Empty buildings proof of ineptness

Regarding Richard Borreca’s great column on Friday ("State inertia illustrated by the surfeit of empty buildings," Star-Advertiser, On Politics, Aug. 23): Before any city, state or agency moves on with touching, or even thinking about spending, our money, it should be imperative they clean up the old messes first.

This is blatant mismanagement.

When I was a kid, if I didn’t eat my dinner, I didn’t get dessert.

Until we finish all ongoing projects, we are left with wasted assets, money thrown away.

Mary J. Culvyhouse
Kaneohe

Zunin eloquent on mental health issue

Hana hou to Ira Zunin.

He validated many important points eloquently, several of which Ihave experiencedpersonally ("All society suffers with lack of resources for mentally ill," Star-Advertiser, Wealth of Health, Aug. 17).

Hawaii’s limited offerings of service for the mental health community does lag in comparison to other states.

In California, for example, Judge Stephen V. Manley has done a wonderful jobwith the Mental Health Treatment Court, changing people’s lives.

That program offers individuals mental health care homes instead of jail or living on the streets.

Many sober houses in Hawaii won’t even accept individuals with a dual diagnosis.

Repeated drug-fueled psychotic episodes and the lack of family supportand housing can turn a potentially functional individualintoone of our chronically disabled homeless.

Candas Lee Rego
Kailua

Hiring from within at UH seemed hasty

Allen B. Uyeda’s commentary boosting a university-led research economy in Hawaii ("Growing our research economy will help finance huge wave of public retiree costs," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Aug. 18) surely was submitted before the story on University of Hawaii executive hiring ("Internal hires to fill UH Board of Regents positions," Star-Advertiser, Aug. 17).

It was then reported that Vassilis Syrmos would be promoted from within the current administration to the position of vice president of research at a salary of $239,000.

It is no reflection on Syrmos to say that a university with the aspirations that Uyeda puts forth should fill the position of VPR only after an extensive nationwide search, with compensation sufficient to attract world-class talent.

The research enterprise is a global one, and the competition for resources is intense.

To realize whatever potential there might be at UH will require an authentic commitment, not just to be better than before, but better than the competition.

Until the regents recruit someone who has been on short lists at top-tier institutions, all the talk about a research economy will be mere words.

Michael Shimazu
Valatie, N.Y.