The people of Hawaii need to know that this money is literally being taken away from the support of public schools, low-income housing, worker assistance and the Clean Water Act.
Since the Pentagon has enough money to allot $2,000 for a door hinge and $20,000 for a urinal, let's get our $13 billion back into causes like education, community services and environmental improvements.
In other words, please tell the voters of Hawaii what Senator Inouye doesn't stand for.
Pamela Polland
Kula, Maui
A census is taken of the rest of us. We have Social Security numbers for our tax liability; we are fingerprinted and photographed for licenses; foreigners are "green-carded."
Therefore, it is necessary that each one of these homeless people be brought in, and identified and documented as being homeless here in Hawaii. Then we can find out who is responsible:
Barbara Jessee
Kaneohe
In January 1981, President Carter submitted budget recommendations envisioning a deficit of some $50 billion. President Reagan withdrew the Carter proposals and substituted his own, calling for astronomical military expenditures and a tax cut to create a deficit of more than $200 billion.
Profligate spending and charging continued apace until, with President Bush, the federal debt (due wholly to Reaganomics) was rushing toward $5 trillion.
When President Bush, with congressional leaders, agreed on some mincing steps to slow down his inherited charge-it-to-the-grandchildren policies, the president shamefully apologized to Republican convention delegates for having approved some slight tax increases.
Bush was denied re-election, resulting in President Clinton's budget submission, the first in a decade calling for smaller rather than larger deficits.
Fred R. Methered
Several years ago, I was chairman of the Parks and Recreation Committee on the Kailua Neighborhood Board. A board-sponsored survey asked residents whether to restore Camp Kailua or convert it to an open park. The overwhelming majority responded: Tear down the camp.
I have been a resident of Kailua for more than 30 years and have never once used Camp Kailua or talked with anyone who has. This camp did not benefit the majority of people in our community.
I am glad to see Kailua's City Councilman John Henry Felix and others on the Council supporting something most Kailua residents have wanted for years.
Let's remember at the voting booth who really supports the majority of people in Kailua - and it isn't Steve Holmes.
Mike Barker
Kailua