Letters: Scrapping Hawaii Bowl sad yet fitting end for UH; Politicos failing to enact reasonable mandates; Going into Afghanistan was not mistake by U.S.

Firework bombs annoy, disrupt neighborhoods

The knuckleheads in Aiea started with the concussion bombs the day before Christmas Eve, and I guess it’s going to continue on until after New Year’s Eve. My poor dog, like many others in my neighborhood, is traumatized. I had to tranquilize her again last night.

What possible joy do these fools get disrupting their neighbors?

The public has spoken and voted to limit what type of fireworks can be used and exactly when they can be detonated.

Why is there no enforcement? How are all the illegal fireworks getting into the state? The amount coming in is mind-boggling. Just look out your window on New Year’s Eve. All the stuff in the air is illegal.

Frustrated? You bet!

Jim Cook

Aiea

Scrapping Hawaii Bowl sad yet fitting end for UH

So Memphis brings more than 200 people all the way from Tennessee and keeps them all COVID-19-safe. Then Hawaii, the home team, has at least 30 players and coaches entering the COVID-19 protocol, forcing the cancellation of its own bowl game (“Rainbow Warriors withdraw from Hawaii Bowl amid surge in coronavirus infections,” Star-Advertiser, Dec. 24).

What a sad but somehow fitting ending to the Warriors’ football season. Shall we say it ended like a “Graham”-cracker gingerbread house crumbling in a tropical storm?

Matt Nakamura

Kalama Valley

Kudos to Kahele for not taking insult from Navy

I applaud Congressman Kai Kahele’s standing up to the Navy and especially Assistant Secretary of the Navy James Balocki. The Navy destroyed Oahu’s most sublime natural resource, Pearl Harbor, long ago. There is absolutely no excuse for using single-hull fuel tanks; these have been replaced with double-hull tanks everywhere in U.S. and abroad.

There is no excuse for using tanks that are 40 years beyond end of life design. Carbon-based fuels are incredibly difficult to remove from porous pipes and especially porous volcanic rock. Oahu’s aquifer is a precious natural resource — if it is compromised by fossil fuels, there will be no returning to its pristine state, not for centuries.

There is not any excuse for Mr. Balocki’s stupid and insensitive remarks. These comments and indeed, the entire response of the Navy from the start of this crisis, demonstrate the arrogance of a U.S. military that sees itself as superior to the people of the islands on which it shares occupancy.

No wonder the U.S. military, and Navy in particular, is increasingly unwelcome across the Pacific. Thank you for fighting for our land and our rights.

Jon Myers

Kailua

Instead of coarseness, embrace civility, aloha

The coarseness in our society is shameful. On a Christmas call to the president, someone had the temerity to end his call with “Let’s go Brandon,” an obvious insult ruining the spirit of the holidays. Have we reached the point where civility and goodwill toward men cannot survive a time of celebrating joy and peace?

I implore all of us to look in the mirror and decide if we are part of the problem or part of the solution.

We can differ politically yet still love and respect each other.

Let’s put aside the bitterness, hatred, anger that only saps our positive energy and weakens our ability to see the basic goodness in our fellow man.

Let us resolve to abandon meanness and mockery and replace it with aloha, a concept sorely needed in today’s world.

Chris Gray

Chinatown

Going into Afghanistan was not mistake by U.S.

The misguided letter by Neil Frazer failed to note that the Taliban harbored and protected Osama Bin Ladin, who masterminded the deaths of 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001 (“U.S. should apologize, give Afghans restitution,” Star-Advertiser, Dec. 24). Never forget.

They also now have $84 billion worth of military hardware left by clueless Joe Biden and his woke generals.

Time to wake up to the reality that mistakes can be made but going into Afghanistan wasn’t one of them. Leaving Bagram to the Taliban was one. Staying there 20 years was another.

If you serve in the military and you fight wars, you fight to win and come home. With honor.

Allen Canter

Manoa

Politicos failing to enact reasonable mandates

The way I see it, Gov. David Ige didn’t want to be the bad guy, so he passed responsibility on to the mayors. Mayor Rick Blangiardi didn’t want to be the bad guy, so he passed responsibility on to individuals. But many of those individuals gathered irresponsibly in groups that spread COVID-19.

The mayor may have saved the holidays, but in refusing to take action with reasonable mandates, he set all of us up for a nasty new year.

The businesses that complained to him about restrictions may close anyway because COVID-19 spread and infected the workforce.

The biggest failure of our elected officials during this pandemic has been their unwillingness to tell people what they don’t want to hear — that we need to find new ways of living and conducting business. It is not a temporary thing. The sooner we get on with it, the better.

James Young

St. Louis Heights

EXPRESS YOURSELF

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser welcomes all opinions. Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor.

>> Write us: We welcome letters up to 150 words, and guest columns of 500-600 words. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Include your name, address and daytime phone number.

>> Mail: Letters to the Editor, Honolulu Star-Advertiser 7 Waterfront Plaza, 500 Ala Moana, Suite 210 Honolulu, HI 96813

>> Contact: 529-4831 (phone), 529-4750 (fax), letters@staradvertiser.com, staradvertiser.com/editorial/submit-letter