Aloha spirit needs renewal

Diedri Young’s letter reminds me of another lost Hawaii charm: the aloha spirit ("Oahu has lost that old Hawaii charm," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Nov. 18).

The aloha spirit — the spirit of unconditional love, kindness, hospitality and friendly acceptance of others — once set Hawaii apart from all other destinations.People greeted each other with warm smiles and a kind nature.Whether you were walking down the street, entering an elevator or in business dealings, the aloha spirit encompassed all, the kamaaina as well as the malihini.

However, for some time now, there seems to be an absence of this spirit. Not often are you acknowledged with a "Hi!"hidden within someone’s smile or greeted by that feeling of friendly familiarity.

So, all I can do is start within my own family, conveying the importance of connecting unconditional kindness, hospitality and acceptance of all.

Hopefully, others will remember as well.

Barbara Hayashi
Palolo Valley

Brower’s bashing thankfully ended

Having arrived in Hono-lulu on a day when state Rep. Tom Brower’s sledgehammer predilections occupied the front page, I was deeply shocked and alarmed. I also began to question my attitude toward Hawaiian values and culture.

The only upside to this monstrous behavior was that this vicious contempt and disregard for the least fortunate in society was unmasked.

Usually it is carefully masked with pious phrases and religious blah. But that wasn’t much solace.

On my last day here, I was slightly heartened reading David Shapiro’s column ("Marriage history gives way to wacky, wacky lawmaker," Star-Advertiser, Nov. 24) in which he pointed out that Brower had said that if more was done to get crazies off the streets, his sledgehammering wouldn’t be needed.

"After a flood of bad publicity, he set an example and started with himself," said Shapiro.

Maybe I’ll come back after all.

Alvin M. Schrader
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Give Obamacare time to work

Republicans are already declaring Obamacare a failure and demanding that it be repealed.

In fact, we won’t know the full impact on premiums until years three and four. Also, Obamacare’s cost control initiatives will probably take five to 10 years to fully develop.

It would be a shame to repeal something before the public has had a chance to fully understand what it is in the first place.Obamacare is an experiment and it makes sense for us to wait and see what happens so that we can learn from it in developing future solutions.

Lloyd Lim
Makiki

Thank you for letter of thanks

On Thanksgiving morning I read a beautiful letter from Michel Grotstein of Kaneohe ("Hawaii offers much to be thankful for," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Nov. 28).

We have never met, but I would like to say: Thank you, Michel.

Hank Magee
Salt Lake

It’s not difficult to say ‘Honolulu’

I agree with Jack Lee thatthere are a lot of citizens both private and public who mispronounce the word "Honolulu" ("It’s Hono-lulu, not Hahnahlulu," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Nov. 26).

You say it just like you see it: HO-NO-LU-LU. What’s so hard? It’s not that complicated! As a Native Hawaiian, it is offensive to me when I hear any Hawaiian words mispronounced.

But to mispronounce a word that is commonly used andrepresents our state capital, that’s embarrassing and unacceptable.

So for those of you who carelessly say "Hahnahlulu," please don’t be offended when someone corrects you.

Kehau Fa’aumu
Pauoa Valley

Cities don’t need language police

Any call for boycotting over the pronunciation of a city is political correctness run amok.

Prague. Cologne. Moscow. Belgrade. Mexico City. All are Anglicized in both spelling and pronounciation, and no one much cares. Montreal and Paris are both Anglicized in pronunciation and I see no language police enforcing "proper" pronunciations.

Eliot Connor
Lahaina, Maui