Proposed harbor would impact Mala surf break

Conjecture? Mr. Thomas is obviously not a surfer (“West Maui harbor: A reality check,” Sept. 13 letters). As it is, the surfers dread it every time someone launches out from the current boat ramp at Mala. The boat wakes ruin the conditions at Mala.

Giant bumps in the waves make it impossible to surf. The harbor would make constant boat wakes and ruin the surf, period.

What about the sewer line under Front Street? What are you gonna do with that?

Did you ever ask Weinberg Foundation if the property you want is for sale?

I hate bullies, and that is what you sound like. I actually like the concept of your harbor – just not at Mala.

LES POTTS, Napili

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Harbor design is foolish

As an architect who was honored to be selected to be a member of the governor’s design team to provide a vision for the direction to guide future planning of the whole South Shore of Oahu, I am qualified to say, “This (the proposed harbor at Mala in Lahaina) is the stupidest and most amateur harbor plan I have ever seen in my 40-plus-year career!”

It is less than a beginner-level student of design could render. This environmental atrocity is only a stagnant pond with limited maneuvering space and an operational nightmare, since they would have to have a huge budget for maintaining a constant dredging of the channel to keep it open. (Enter diesel engine and pump house noise/air pollution to the mix.)

GREGORY HALL, Oahu

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Too much favoritism at the legislature

Some political leaders are out of touch with the people they swore to represent: legislators who represent unions, Big Oil, political action committees, special interest groups and corporations. We know corporations don’t care about people; they care about profit. Unfortunately, there is too much political favoritism. During our last legislative session, a number of bills were promoted that would have eliminated environmental review for certain projects and allowed transit-related construction to ignore land use and height restrictions. This is what I mean by political favoritism.

As a citizen candidate, I will represent the people. I will not accept a campaign contribution from any of the above. I pledge as your legislator to repeal Act 55; public land for profit is wrong. Rep. Angus McKelvey voted to support this bill. Is he so out of touch with what the people want and expect from their leaders? This bill gives too much power to the Public Land Development Corporation; no one person, corporation or legislators should be exempt from the rule of law. We are accountable to the people.

I will oppose casino gambling in Hawaii. McKelvey sponsored the bill to bring casino gambling to Hawaii. Can you imagine slot machines on Front Street and casinos on Kaho’olawe? Not if I am elected your next legislator.

I will not vote to raise taxes or fees ever.

I will serve no more than two terms in this office.

I will comply with campaign spending limits.

We will build a West Side hospital in Lahaina or urgent care facility during my first term; build a new elementary school in Lahaina; balance the budget without cutting vital programs; protect and preserve Honolua and Lipoa Point in perpetuity; work diligently to help our failing schools; finish infrastructure projects, improvements and harbor repairs in a timely manner; work with the teachers’ union to address teachers’ concerns; offer tax relief for small businesses and free them from red tape and regulations; support ecological diversified agriculture and good jobs for teens and adults; assist kupuna and working families who struggle to hold their families together; lower taxes on food and medications for Hawaii residents; bring our inmates home to Hawaii; support mandatory food labeling (we have a right to know what is in the food); and install air conditioning at Lahainaluna High School.

I’m tired of party politics dividing us; hyper-partisanship is seriously hurting our economy. I am running as a Republican, but my views, beliefs and heart are nonpartisan. I will always put people before party. Our strength is in unity. When we embrace dialogue and bipartisan consensus-building, collaborate, innovate and focus on solutions, we all WIN!

CHAYNE MARTEN, Candidate, State House District 10

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Vote to keep two-year council terms

The very essence of democracy is accountability. Elected officials who know they will be held accountable every two years are much more likely to listen to and be in tune with the voters than if they know they will only be held accountable every four years.

When our founding fathers wrote the Constitution and created the House of Representatives, they gave each representative a two-year term for a good reason.

We should keep the Maui County Council members’ term at two years. To preserve democracy in Maui, please vote “NO” on Charter Amendment #1.

BOB BABSON, Kihei

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U.S. spends too much on military

I just found out the approval by Congress over the 2013 budget. It is an outrage!

I am American because I truly love the U.S.A. I decided to become a citizen by choice and not by (accidental) birth. So, I feel now that the U.S.A. is clearly overstepping the line: a whopping nearly 60 percent for military spending vs. a meager 5 percent for health care and a just as meager 6 percent for education!

The budget has 12 departments; 11 departments share 40 percent of the budget, while one gets nearly 60!

I’ve lived in the U.S.A. since 1969, and I went through the demonstration era of the early ’70s against the Vietnam War. I also experienced all the other issues my beloved America had to overcome and to master. But now I am at the brink – at the brink of my trust and love.

Americans, stand UP! We must do something! Not soon, but NOW!

I am going to address my congressman and even write to the president directly. We cannot allow this budget to become reality.

I am a devoted American, and Christian, but I am beyond sad and outraged, too.

DR. GEORG WOODMAN, Via E-Mail

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Ryan runs into the truth

To borrow from President Lyndon Johnson’s colorful analysis of a Nixon speech, “I may not know much, but I know chicken [poop] from chicken salad.”

Paul Ryan, the GOP’s current vice presidential nominee, has spent his career in government trying to blur the boundary between the two. Over the years, the ambitious right-wing politico has carefully assembled a stinking salad of positive adjectives to create his public persona: an earnest, straight-shooting, big thinker with integrity and deeply held conservative convictions.

The media swallowed each spurious ingredient, helping push him forth as a Tea Party rock star and, now, a man who could be next in line for the presidency.

But since hitting the national stage, the real Ryan has been revealed as a slippery, dissembling, fabricating, small-minded political hack. His debut speech at the Republican National Convention was so filled with lies and chicken you-know-what that it even caused Fox TV’s fawning commentators to gag. Since then, he has continued to stink up the campaign trail, establishing himself, in the words of one New York Times columnist, as “a veritable poster boy for hyperbole and hypocrisy.”

Then, in a recent radio interview, Ryan really ripped it by demonstrating the dishonesty that resides in his innermost core. Bragging that he’s a very fit fellow, the VP candidate claimed to have run a marathon in under three hours. Wow – that’s championship stuff!

Only, it was just more chicken stuff. Runner’s World magazine checked it out, and Ryan’s run turned out to take more than four hours – an ordinary time.

The candidate later tried to laugh it off as an innocent exaggeration. But whether you run a marathon or run for office, facts – and integrity – matter. Ryan can run but he can’t hide the truth about himself.

JIM HIGHTOWER, Via E-mail