Letter to the Editor – 10/30/13

Israel not Hawaii

I was interested to read J. Cassen’s letter “Friendly Israel.”

Much of what the writer says is true, with reference to the warmth shown to visitors and their scientific, technological and agricultural achievements. Upon these, Israel should be congratulated. However, to compare Israel to Hawaii is an indication of departure from reality.

Hawaii does not possess more than 300 nuclear weapons. Hawaii has not dispossessed millions of Palestinians, nor continues to oppress millions more. Hawaii does not attack its neighbors militarily. Hawaii does not build settlements on other people’s land.

Hawaii does not have vast territorial ambitions, unlike Israel, whose late prime minister, Menachem Begin, declared openly that the land of Israel “stretches from the Nile (Egypt) to the Euphrates (Iraq).”

If letter writer J. Cassen would care to obtain a more balanced picture of the area, may I suggest that his/her next vacation be spent in the West Bank.

Jane M. Donahoe
Downtown

Bad science

Roy Wittenbach’s letter shows the extent of knowledge being exhibited by the anti-GMO side, which seems to love science but demonstrates that they really don’t understand it.

When he proudly proclaims that the increase in GMO foods is correlated to a rise in cancers, the same could be said for organic foods. Organic food sales have been increasing, so that automatically must mean it is correlated to increased cancers and autism also. It isn’t different from other activists who claim Spam causes diabetes!

Mr. Wittenbach clearly fails to understand that correlation doesn’t equal causation. Dr. Perlak and his Ph.D. in plant molecular biology knows much more than Mr. Wittenbach does about basic science.

Joni Kamiya Rose
Kaneohe

A lolo rail lua plan

The director of Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation has stated that “all restrooms will be a single, ADA-compliant, secured restroom, so there will not be separate restrooms for men, women, or disabled persons. The station attendant will accommodate the access request.”

So there will be times when passengers have to wait in line to use the restroom – hoping that they do not miss the train. Also, the rail station attendant will not have enough time to comply with passengers’ restroom-access requests in a timely manner and still have time to perform other duties.

To provide an adequate number of restrooms, all rail station plans should be revised to provide for the construction and operation of separate and readily accessible restrooms for men, women and disabled persons.

Robert Thomas
Manoa