Letters to the Editor
Thank you, Hawai'i, for support, aloha
We have blisters on our feet, sunburned noses, wet hair and clothes; we're dog-tired and have no income.
So why are we smiling?
Despite the stress and strife of this awful strike, teachers have been blessed with aloha from the wonderful people of Hawai'i. So many folks, strangers who are now friends, have smiled, shaka-ed, honked, waved, stopped by with food or drinks or ice, even a tarp and poles to keep us dry as we walk the picket lines.
These are the folks who understand what our resolve to improve Hawai'i education is all about, folks who appreciate our struggle and our sacrifice. Folks like you who are not fooled by the governor's shell game of moving the same little pot of money around and calling it a new offer. Folks like you who, know how hard we work and how much we care and how little we are compensated for it.
Folks like you who have stopped to tell us they are lifelong Democrats who are ashamed of how this Democratic administration is acting and are considering, for the first time, voting Republican next time. And, we hope, folks like you who will call and write to the governor and your senator and representative, telling them all of these things you've told us, and urging them to settle now.
Mahalo plenty, Hawai'i.
Francine Pearson
Hilo
Cayetano has abused negotiating process
I am deeply saddened by the governor's handling of theÊstate's negotiations with the HSTA. His actions reflect an intimidating, almost confrontational quality toward teachers and their union's officials.
The Legislature set aside close to $200 million to fund teachers' raises, yet the governor still maintains the state cannot afford the HSTA's pay demands. It is unfortunate that Hawai'i's economic downturn coincided with Gov. Cayetano's administration, but this should not affordÊhim the right to penalize teachers competing for funds he had hoped to use to build his legacy of parks and buildings.
When one considers that we live in a democratic society, it is inconceivable that a single person would have enough power to stall labor negotiations indefinitely to fulfill a personal agenda.
Ryan Yoshizawa
Cayetano's position is the correct course
The governor's position on teacher's salaries is wise and responsible. It is the various unions that are killing our state's economy.
Teachers should not have to buy supplies from their salaries, but that is no reason to increase their salaries. Increases should be based on performance — both of the teacher and the students.
We are already the second-highest-taxed state in the nation. General taxes should not be raised. Increased taxes on tobacco and alcohol and new taxes on soft drinks and junk food, as some states have done, would be a source of revenue that could also improve the state's health record and reduce health costs.
Fred Wells
Kapa'a, Kaua'i
Semester expenses going down the drain
My daughter was ready to graduate during the summer. Now what? Who will reimburse me for all the expenses incurred if the semester is canceled?
It's too bad the college students are considered "collateral damage" in this whole affair. Both sides should make sure students get credit for their classes no matter what and that any damage to them is minimized.
Enrique J. Lago
Tax cuts are being wasted during strike
What Gov. Cayetano fails to realize is that his vaunted tax cuts won't save the average family anything because they are being forced to spend the money they would have saved in 2002 on day care for their children now that schools are closed.
The fact finder saw the state's books and found the money needed to fund the teachers' raises, yet Cayetano continues to deny that the money is there.
Mike Bunner
Mililani
Hawai'i's economy suffers during strike
I wonder if Gov. Cayetano has considered all the waves and ripples resulting from the big rock he has dropped in our little pond.
It isn't just the teachers and the professors who can't pay their bills and decide not to make the purchases that churn our local economy. It is the family where one of the wage earners has to stay home to take care of school-age children, which may mean the rent or the mortgage doesn't get paid. This ripples into the banking industry. The travel company won't get the commission for the summer trip. Liberty House won't sell jeans and running shoes. The computer store won't sell the computer the family was saving for. The new weed whacker has to wait. Nothing goes into savings.
The state saves lots of money every day it doesn't pay the teachers. But if teachers' money isn't circulating in the community, the state will collect a lot less tax money.
Worldwide perception will grow that we are a shaky place to visit or do business.
The six years the governor has worked to improve our economy may result in zero net gain because of the business damage of a strike. What an old-fashioned, win-lose way to handle public services.
Marilyn Bornhorst
Commercial flights could handle problem
Just read your April 9 article on the need for an air ambulance for the Neighbor Islands and it scared me. Seems all the state does is sing the "ain't got no money blues." Yet it can waste millions on unneeded projects like an aquarium.
Haven't these people realized that on the Big island, you have commercial airline flights averaging 30 to 60 minutes apart? Can't these idiots get with these airlines and make arrangement to co-op a number of seats on those planes for the patients?
Remove about four to five rows of seats on one side, lock down the stretcher and fly the poor patient to badly needed medical treatment. Heck, you would only have to make the flight an inbound priority to Honolulu Airport and have EMS people standing by.
Pay the airline for those seats — that is a lot cheaper than what I have seen proposed. You probably wouldn't have to disrupt the flight schedule at all. I wouldn't mind waiting or getting bumped from my flight for this reason.
Daniel Munn
Legislature should OK State Art Museum
I fully support the development of the Hemmeter Center as the State Art Museum for the state's public art collection. I urge the Legislature to pass the legislation to build upon the Art in Public Places for the benefit of every resident of the state.
My late husband, Louis Pohl, often said that some of his best works (32 originals) were purchased by the State Foundation for Culture and the Arts.
One of Louis' greatest pet peeves was the fact that there is no permanent collection of Hawai'i fine art accessible to the people of Hawai'i. The state collection visually documents Hawai'i's multi-cultural history from the perspective of local residents like Madge Tennent, Jean Charlot, Hon Chew Hee, Toshiko Takaezu and Louis Pohl to the present new generation of local artists. He felt that Hawai'i artists expressed diversity with a richness and vividness that could not be found elsewhere.
Our local fine artists are housewives, teachers, union members, sales personnel, business owners, architects. They are students of life who have honed their artistic skills and have been recognized by their peers. They were judged by a select committee of local jurors under the guidelines presented by the state foundation's Art in Public Places and purchased with our own money.
The recent opinion of the State Art Museum expressed by Bob Dye as an elitist project is arrogant. It conveys the message that ordinary citizens who do not go the museum are less than those who have the money and time to visit museums.
Sandra Pohl
'Baywatch Hawai'i' brought back memory
Years ago, as a teenager, I nearly drowned while bodysurfing at Hamoa Bay in Hana, Maui. I got pounded under the water by a huge wave and just couldn't get back up to the surface.
With my lungs aching for air, I started to "let go" and found myself drifting upward and out of the water. Hanging in mid-air, I looked down and saw a boy on a surfboard. Suddenly, he lunged forward and grabbed for something floating in the water. Simultaneously, I felt something hit me hard in the face. When I opened my eyes, that boy was grabbing my hair and pulling me onto his surfboard.
Haunted for years, I couldn't tell anyone about my "out-of-body" experience. Finally, when I did tell my husband and teenage children, their facial and verbal reactions made me wish I had kept my mouth shut.
Then last year, while watching an episode of "Baywatch Hawai'i," one of the cast members had an experience very similar to mine. How did the writers come upon such information to write it into the script? Who told them about "out-of-body" experiences in the ocean? Have there been others like me?
Now I am a grandmother of six and I feel I need to say mahalo to "Baywatch Hawai'i." Because of the TV show, I can finally let go of the past.
However, today I am remembering that boy on the surfboard. In 1979, as a young man, he and four of his friends went deep-sea fishing off Maui. They never came home. He was my favorite cousin.
Leilani Akana Ramsey
Moanalua Valley
Wholesale hotel room tax hike isn't justified
It is apparent the Legislature does not understand the wholesale hotel business and is more eager in quickly instituting a new tax than understanding it.
There seems to be the misconception that a wholesaler buys a $200 room for just $100 and resells it to a customer for $200. That is the logic behind imposing the $7.25-per-night tax.
In the real world, the wholesaler may buy that room for $130 but sell it to the customer for $155. I have yet to meet the customer who pays the $200 rack rate.
Perhaps a method should be devised to ensure the state receives the tax on the $155 instead of the $130. But adding $7.25 per night is grossly overdoing it.
David Williams
Visitor from Sleepy Hollow, Ill.
Waikiki proposal is sure to fail
Sam Lemmo's March 30 Island Voices commentary indicates an appalling lack of knowledge of the history of Waikiki Beach, while dictating what he thinks should be done.
If the Department of Land and Natural Resources had done an environmental impact statement, which requires thorough historical background research, water-quality tests, community input and public hearings, it would now be clear that spending $3.5 million for a sure-to-fail plan is not responsible state stewardship for the following reasons:
• Kuhio Beach, Waikiki, is a man-made beach, complicated by man-made structures built on the shoreline since the mid-1800s.
• The T-rock groin system supported by Lemmo, DLNR coastal lands manager, as designed by a Florida company, is similar to a T-groin system tested at Kuhio Beach in the 1950s. After only a few years, accelerated beach erosion required its removal and replacement with the current breakwater wall, which has served Waikiki very well for nearly half a century. Remember the Papohaku sand disaster?
• Contrary to Lemmo's shifting-sand warning, Waikiki currently has more sand and beach area than it has ever had, even with the loss of nearly half an acre to the City and County's recently installed promenade project.
• Lemmo's statement that "There is nothing left to analyze or study" reveals his lack of history and his inexperience in the complexities of designing and implementing man-made structures that impact O'ahu's leeward shoreline.
• Elimination of the current breakwater system will remove the sheltered area where children, families, elderly and the disabled can safely enjoy the ocean.
Lemmo wants to replace this with huge boulder constructions approximately 50 feet at the base, tapering upward to a 10-foot-wide top that would be five feet above low, low tide. The present breakwater is only five feet wide and three feet above low, low tide.
• Lemmo promotes a large boulder design to be placed on annually shifting sand that will render the groins unstable and hazardous to children who might climb on them. This problematic design was submitted by a Florida firm with experience in continental-shelf beaches and with little or no experience on volcanic island conditions that are subjected to the unique and complex exposure to Pacific Ocean seasonal energy, as is Hawai'i.
Let's not rush to replace the present breakwater that has served us well for nearly 50 years with something that was tried and failed. We must provide all visitors to Waikiki with the most careful and considerate stewardship of this popular beach.
Marion Kelly
Spokesperson, Save Our Surf
