OHA was asking wrong question

Asking U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry whether the Hawaiian Kingdom still exists as an independent sovereign state was the wrong question to ask in the first place ("OHA runs afoul of Sunshine Law," Star-Advertiser, Nov. 29).

The question should have been, "What procedure did the United States use to acquire the Hawaiian islands?"

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Powers, the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations and a member of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet, should be included in the inquiry.

Violation of the Sunshine Law is a misdemeanor and a person found guilty may be removed from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs board.

What is the punishment for a violation of an international law and a U.S. domestic law regarding usurpation and annexation of the Nation of Hawaii?

Jimmy Wong
Heeia

Anti-Zionism hard to fathom

Robert Stiver writes that anti-Zionism is not about hating Jews ("Anti-Zionism not about hating Jews," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Dec. 4).

Then what is it about?

Is it about the decision of the United Nations to recognize a small Jewish state in an ancestral homeland?

Is it about five Arab armies trying to wipe a few Israeli farmers and some WWII skeletons off the face of the Earth in 1948?

Is it about so-called Palestinians being told to get out of the way so the slaughter can be complete and then abandoning them?

Is it about continuous wars, acts of terror, and intifadas for some 67 years and then hiding behind civilians when the response came?

Is it about political charters that promise to obliterate Israel and its Jewish population?

Or is it just another variation on the theme of Israel and its people should be destroyed, but some of my best friends are Jews?

Mathew Sgan
Nuuanu

Downtown used to be pleasant

The other weekend I took my family to see a performance at the Hawaii Theatre.

I parked my car on Bishop Street and walked past Union and Fort Street Mall.

What a huge mistake on my part.

The overpowering and overwhelming stench of urine and body odors was almost too much to bear. The stink was still locked into my olfactory senses long after we were seated.

Needless to say, I did not take the same route back after the performance. On the way home I recalled what a pleasant place downtown Honolulu used to be and wondered what our visitors think when they experience the ugly parts of our city.

Joe Hilton
Lower Manoa

Mexico has long bond with U.S.

Because the immigration issue has become so volatile, and based on political speech rather than history, I offer this: 

In 1837, the United States military invaded Mexico by way of Texas. At that time, Mexican lands covered the southwest, in what is now the United States, reaching the Pacific Ocean. Because Mexico, the weaker nation, lost the war, it forfeited to the United States its lands, which included California, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Western Colorado. Mexican citizens living in these states were reclassified and made U.S. citizens according to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war between Mexico and the United States.

Because the new lands were sparsely populated and the U.S. needed workers, the people were allowed to cross the new border freely. Mexico has a history in the Americas that began 40,000 years ago. The native Americans referred to as "illegal immigrants" are the descendants of the indigenous people of America.

Elva J. Wimberly
Aiea

HECO income should stay here

I hate to think of all that money paid to Hawaiian Electric Industries by local customers going to Florida instead of staying in our Hawaii economy ("HEI sold," Star-Advertiser, Dec. 4).

Thomas Spring
Kaimuki