Letters to the Editor
O'ahu is learning hard way about water
I'm a 64-year-old resident of the Big Island and am all too familiar with the effects of long-term drought. Living with a catchment system tends to sensitize one to the importance of the vital, life-giving force that water is.
On visits to O'ahu, I witness many wasteful habits, as though the water was infinite and conservation not necessary. Perhaps when water ceases to flow from faucets — or a glassful is brackish and undrinkable — O'ahu residents will realize the inevitable consequences of its over-building and profligate ways.
Victoria C. Hoagland
Makiki needs a park, not another building
I am troubled by your July 27 report of a developer's proposal to build an eight-story apartment building on a 1.25-acre site at the corner of Punahou Street and Wilder Avenue in Makiki.
This is one of the most densely populated areas in the state. The last thing needed here is another building or the 61 additional cars that would come with it.
It goes without saying that Hawai'i needs more low-income housing, but don't good planning and plain common sense suggest that these projects not be built in areas that are already overly congested? What's Honolulu going to look and feel like 20 or 30 years from now if we keep squeezing more and more buildings, people and cars into the most crowded parts of the city?
I say we build a park in Makiki and build the needed housing in a less congested area.
Brian Baron
It's a dumb world in the 'Health State'
Let me get this straight. Your paper reported that the trapeze that's not bothering anyone must come down. Petri Park in Kaimuki will have no basketball or volleyball courts for six months. Same day the news reported that Chinatown is getting its public park, "20 years after it was originally planned." Most public elementary schools still have no playground equipment for climbing, swinging or sliding. It's against some schools' rules to allow keiki to use balls during recess ("Someone could get hurt").
Some value the "Health State" places on children and playing.
Kelly La'a
Kailua
DOE takes its time on the first paycheck
When I was first hired to work as a part-time teacher for the Department of Education, I learned that I would have to wait two months for my first paycheck.
My husband was a student at the time, and living without my income for two months was challenging. Boggled by the lengthy delay, I questioned my colleagues, who informed me that they had experienced the same delay, that this was just the way things worked at the DOE.
Prior to this employment, I had worked for several private and public agencies, and had always received my first paycheck in a timely manner. I also learned that my DOE paycheck would involve a two-week lag. Three years ago, this lag was increased to 20 days. And now, the governor is holding my husband's promised $1,100 "bonus" (he is also a teacher) until further notice.
Are we surprised?
The state is in the habit of retaining our income for outrageously long periods.
Colleen Spring
La'ie
Dillingham flight crew killed in Japan action
Memories were stirred when your July 8 article stated that the name of Dillingham Airfield will be changed to Kawaihapai.
Capt. Henry Dillingham, for whom the airfield was named, was a B-29 pilot in the 502nd Bomb Group, 411th Bomb Squadron, based at Northwest Field, Guam. I was a 411th ground crewman, although I did not work on the Dillingham plane.
The Dillingham crew was the only combat loss sustained by the 411th during the air war against Japan. When it occurred, this deeply felt loss was engraved on our memories. Ironically, the 411th lost another B-29 after the war, flying supplies to Corregidor. This plane left Guam for the Philippines, did not reach its destination and was never located after days of searching. We never learned the fate of the crew.
For those who may be interested, the grave markers of the Dillingham crew can be viewed at Punchbowl. If you visit, say a prayer, lest we forget.
Dale M. Lundberg
Pukalani
Adult businesses treated too harshly
Liquor Commission, I am astounded that Golden Dolls Showgirls lost its license and that Club Yokohama was fined $31,500 because employees and customers touched each other.
We have dogs and cats attacking people on the streets, and the only official action has been for the Humane Society to make certain the animal was OK.
Rico Leffanta
Irony in complaint
Does anyone else see the irony in an Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee complaining about conducting interviews for its new administrator at the Pacific Club because, he says, it has a history of racial discrimination?
Bruce S. Anderson
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Creationism in public schools?
Let us all pray BOE sees the light
Contrary to Denise Matsumoto's recent statements, evolution and creation are not competing scientific theories. One is science, the other is religion.
As a long-time student of the sciences, I have never come across a single teacher or researcher who disputes the process of evolution. It is not an ancient event that has been patched together from fossils, but something we can see happening every day.
For those of us who are not biblical literalists, evolution and creation need not be mutually exclusive ideas. However, to teach religious theory in public schools would be unconstitutional and wrong.
Let us all pray that the school board leaves science in our classrooms and religion in our churches.
Nick Whitney
Creationism merely an allegation of fact
OK, BOE, let's take this real slow. It's true. Evolution is not a fact. It is a theory that seeks to account for the facts.
It is the nature of science that no theory can ever be final. Every claim of the theory must be testable and tested. If a fact appears that the theory cannot account for, or a claim is tested and found wanting, then the theory must be changed. Darwin's theory has had many details changed over the years as new data have been found.
Creationism is not a theory. It is an allegation of fact. Since no evidence could prove its central claims are false, they are untestable. One cannot know that they are true. One can only believe, or not. They are not, therefore, comparable.
The nature of creationism has not changed. For all its pretense, it is still an allegation of fact, not a testable theory attempting to account for all the data. It does not belong in the science curriculum until it is.
My personal opinion as a science-trained clergyman is that, if God exists, God created the wonderful diversity of species by means of something very like that described in the theory of evolution. And the first chapter of Genesis is a poem of praise for the goodness of that creation, not an attempt to describe God's technique.
I call upon clergy of all faiths, and all people of faith, to stop trying to turn the public schools into Sunday school. That is our business, not theirs.
Rev. Mike Young
Minister, First Unitarian Church
Creationism isn't even a scientific theory
It would appear that creationists have not learned from their recent debacles in Kansas and Louisiana.
What's next? Should physics classes make equal time for astrologers? And which alternative theories to evolution will be allowed? Will they include the Hindu or the Hawaiian version? Or will it be strictly the Judeo-Christian version?
Creationists like to claim there is no concrete evidence for evolution. The primary reason creationists make nonsensical statements like this is that not only is there no evidence for creationism, but it's not even a scientific theory.
Perhaps creationists can explain why chimps, gorillas and humans are all genetically closer to each other than to any other species. And why does the gene for vitamin C work in our primate cousins but not in humans? Our copy of this gene is busted. Did the intelligent designer mess up? Or did our copy of the vitamin C gene suffer during the fall? Evolution can explain this.
And while she's at it, the Board of Education's Denise Matsumoto could perhaps explain how the Amitsoq Gneiss was radiometrically dated by five independent methods to 3.7 billion years old. What scientific alternatives does Matsumoto propose? Enquiring minds want to know.
We now have another reason to rid Hawai'i of the BOE. Not only is it a profound waste of taxpayer money, but it actively seeks to dumb down the science education in this state.
Stuart A. Weinstein
Geophysicist
Whose version should we use?
Thank you, Denise Matsumoto, for re-inventing the wheel.
Even though the Board of Eduction has no control over the University of Hawai'i, I am certain Matsumoto would love to see the same balanced treatment taught at the college level. Therefore, the next time I teach SCI 121, I will make a point of it to cover the Hittite, Olmec/Zapotec, Northwest Indian and the Fore (Papua-New Guinea) tribal versions of creation of the world, to be sure I give the subject balanced coverage in introductory biological sciences.
I am also going to tell my students that the size and age of the universe is suspect; that the speed of light is not a universal constant; that the basic geological principles, and even plate tectonics, are suspect; that the Hawaiian Island chain couldn't possibly be the result of the Pacific Plate moving northwesterly over a hot spot; that all of nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry are suspect because radioactive half-lives can't possibly be billions of years in time.
John C.N. Shen
Honolulu Community College
Creationists argue by misrepresentation
Now that religious creationists have attained a critical mass on the Board of Education, they reveal a plan to foist anti-scientific religious views on school kids using public tax dollars.
Their argument is the typical one seen on the Mainland: They argue by misrepresentation that evolution has no basis in fact and is just a "theory" as much as your Uncle Charlie's uninformed opinions. They also like to say that creationism is scientific. They even wish to deny aspects of physics and chemistry that underlie evidence of the Earth's age.
But creationism is not scientific, and evolution is supported by decades of scientific studies. Judges have repeatedly struck down laws that mandate the teaching of creationism in science classes on the Mainland as these laws are an obvious but devious way of making the state an agent of a particular religion.
This is what happens when foolish people gain seats on the BOE — they sometimes want to make students believe the same kinds of personal religious beliefs they believe in.
Just what we need — more erosion of content in schools, using our tax dollars.
Daniel Chung
Teaching creationism doesn't make sense
Our public schools rank 50th in the country by any measure you care to apply, and our leaders are seriously suggesting that creationism be studied?
What's next? Astrology? Alchemy? New thoughts on the Fountain of Youth?
If this were not so poignant, it would be laughable, but remember, we're paying for this kind of leadership and our kids are the ones who are suffering.
Pamela Magee
Just the facts, ma'am
BOE member Denise Matsumoto is technically correct that "evolution hasn't been validated by any concrete evidence." Scientists prefer to call all that stuff they've dug up "fossils," not "concrete."
Jim Henshaw
Kailua
