Ah, yes, I can foresee it now (“Target date for new Aloha Stadium is now 2026,” Star-Advertiser, July 29). Processes, statements, proposals, reviews, more reviews, prolonged environmental impact statements, and tons of money will be spent.
It all adds up to an obscure “targeted” date of 2026, just like rapid transit was “targeted” to be finished years sooner at Ala Moana. It didn’t happen.
Will a new stadium face the same fate and end up, not in Halawa, but at a cleared space with wooden bleachers in Mother Waldron Park at the termination of the rapid transit station called the “Civic Center,” which is actually in Kakaako?
Donald Graber
Kakaako
If you run for Congress, you should stick with it
If you want to run for Congress, stick with it. Daniel Inouye did. Daniel Akaka did. Spark Matsunaga and Patsy Mink did. Brian Schatz, Ed Case and Mazie Hirono are doing it. That’s how Hawaii is represented. That’s how we get appropriations. You build up seniority, chair important committees and get the most for Hawaii.
They’ll name airports, hospital and bills after you. Represent Hawaii with purpose and commitment and something will be named in your honor: airports, hospitals, laws. Your impact will be remembered forever.
Don’t be a traveling salesman, or worse, a part-timer. Don’t have delusions of grandeur or be a hypocrite. Be somebody for Hawaii! I believe everyone in Hawaii would approve this message.
McLean Yamashita
Kapalama
Water-related sports deserve more coverage
I’m not one to read the sports page very often, but I do check in when it comes to most water-related sports. To my disappointment, day after day, there has been zero coverage of the Pacific Cup Race.
Begun in 1980, this yachting race just celebrated its 36th year. It is an exciting trans-Pacific sailing race beginning in San Francisco Bay and ending just offshore of Kaneohe Bay. This year featured 61 participants from Hawaii, the mainland and Canada. Elapsed (actual) time across the roughly 2,500 miles varied from a stunning six days to a long 18 days. Regardless of time spent at sea, a race like this is extraordinary and tests sailors and their equipment for days on end.
Please do more to celebrate and highlight the sports that celebrate our unique place in the world, cultural connections with others in their sports communities, and place positive focus on our state. Sailing, surfing and outrigger canoe races all are deserving of the front page of the Sports section.
Kevin Butterbaugh
Kailua
Japan treats Hawaiian music better than we do
It is very sad and pathetic that Japanese tourists, who used to run our economy, aren’t coming back to Hawaii.
One of the greatest Hawaiian musicians, the falsetto singer and slack key guitarist Gary Haleamau, lives in Las Vegas. Japanese tourists can simply ignore Hawaii and fly to Las Vegas to experience the great singer of “Pohakuloa.”
Japan has kept alive the Hawaiian and contemporary Hawaiian music genre by being super-awesome hosts to such musicians. Also, a lot of hula halau from Hawaii have ventured to Japan to spread the Hawaiian culture. Japan has more Hawaiian style than Hawaii.
Promoters of music venues have to try hard to bring back great Hawaiian musicians to perform at home. We need to promote the Hawaiian culture.
Dean Nagasako
Kamuela, Hawaii island
Navy hasn’t considered all options for Red Hill
I concur with (Ret.) Col. Ann Wright’s assessment that the Navy self-selected the most expensive and longest method for defueling Red Hill (“Military chooses slow, most expensive solution for Red Hill,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, July 28).
When questioned at the July 19 hearing by Hawaii legislators, Rear Adm. Dean VanderLey, commander of Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Pacific, said that pumping fuel out of the tanks from the top (rather than repairing the entire facility and pumping the fuel three miles down to Pearl Harbor) was too risky.
His statement seemed to indicate that more expeditious alternative methods have not been analyzed by the contractor hired by the Navy. Does the Navy prefer to take 2.5 years and $1 billion of taxpayer dollars and then make the case Red Hill should not be closed due to sunk time and costs?
That would be an enormous betrayal to the people of Hawaii. To quote a famous saying: “The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies.”
Susan Gorman-Chang
Ewa Beach
Trump’s lies are not other side of the story
Journalists not reporting “both sides” of the story didn’t make Donald Trump’s big lies work (“Why do people believe the ‘big lie’? Because they don’t trust the media,” Star-Advertiser, Marc A. Thiessen, July 29). If we say the world is round, there’s no need to give equal time to the flat-Earth people.
People believed Trump’s lies because the lies reinforced and exploited their own existing prejudices against Blacks, immigrants, gays, Muslims, the poor, the sick, politics, government, the mentally ill, science, gun control and abortion. They wanted to believe Trump. Reporters reported facts — facts that now show Trump tried to overthrow the government.
Walter Wright
Kaneohe
Hauula needs repairs to poor infrastructure
I am a concerned resident of Hauula. I urge you to please take the infrastructure issues of Koolauloa region seriously. We need immediate action taken to fix the water mains, bridges and roads. The recent events of broken water mains in Kahana and Punaluu have adversly affected many residents.
Additionally, innovative ideas to solve the problem of one way in and one way out of Hauula, relying exclusively on Kamehameha Highway, also is an important topic that needs to be addressed. If there were more options than “one way in and one way out,” it would alleviate much stress.
Kanani Horito
Hauula
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