Although it's tempting to think fast track will expand economic opportunities, a presidential express train would by-pass consumers as well as labor, the environment and democracy itself.

If, as you argue, "no country will negotiate seriously with American trade representatives knowing that their trade agreement may be completely undone by senators," good. If they want the advantages of dealing with America, let them know how democratic freedom encourages enterprise, and why they have to deal with a country where the Constitution requires checks and balances precisely to curb such runaway presidential power.

Not only does fact track override the balancing wisdom of the Constitution, it is particularly undemocratic in favoring executive over closer-to-grass-roots congressional power. Are you willing to render the Senate powerless so that the president can sell our country's birthright for a mess of pottage?

Roxanne Fand
Kailua

Nonprofit organizations could offer answers

Cliff Slater, in his Aug. 7 Second Opinion column, refers to my letter of July 27 as evincing disdain for profit-making organizations and for profit-making as a proper motive for meeting human needs. Rather, I asked if profit-making is the only appropriate motive on which the privatization of services now rendered by government could be based.

I suggested that leaders of nonprofit organizations, of which many are as competently managed as profit-making businesses, could be consulted to provide input on how government services might be privatized. Yes, I must confess: I am a former YMCA director, a private school and private college administrator, and now an instructor in a private university — all in the nonprofit sector.

Thomas A. Huff

Paipo boards were introduced by king

I've been reading and hearing a lot of bad and good things about paipo boarding. Point Panic, where some paipo boards are used, should remain open to them. Rules should leave the Hawaiian heritage alone.

Paipo boards were introduced by King Kamehameha I in his battles. He would send out his spy warriors at night from his canoes; they would use this shield, which is about the size of a human torso (from neck to hip and not bigger than your shoulders in width). They would leap overboard and catch the surf in to shore to get information about their enemy's location.

J.K. Liu

Faculty are involved in important issues

Shame on columnist Lee Cataluna for implying that the University of Hawai'i science faculty emerge from their ivory towers only to tilt at windmills.

The proposal at the recent Board of Education meeting to teach creationism as an alternative theory to evolution was a serious threat to science education in Hawai'i. It passed through subcommittee review and was up for approval by the entire board. The hundreds of letters and e-mails, as well as the several hours of oral testimony at the meeting, convinced board members that their subcommittee erred in proposing this change to the science standards for our public schools.

As president of the Hawai'i Academy of Science, which oversees two annual meetings for science students (the State Science and Engineering Fair and the Pacific Symposium for Science and Sustainability), let me assure the public that many faculty from UH and other Hawai'i universities and scientists from government and industry donate their time generously in support of our K-12 public schools.

Certainly there are many areas where the community can help our public schools. Scientists commonly try to help where their skills and talents can be effectively utilized. Cataluna is correct that more help is needed for the infrastructure of our schools, but isn't what is taught in our schools of greatest importance?

Michael Garcia
UH professor of geology
President, Hawai'i Academy of Science

Creationism should be taught in schools

I am a Hawaiian, raised in Hawai'i but now living in Louisiana, and I was deeply saddened to see in print and hear over the news radio how Hawai'i is rejecting the teaching of creationism in Hawai'i schools. Why is this happening?

Why does Hawai'i constantly turn its back on the belief in God and his plan of creation when this is the belief that our very own monarchs such as Lili'uokalani believed in and wanted the Hawaiian people to believe in.

How many more insults and slaps in the face of God will Hawai'i put forth? As a popular radio announcer once said: "If you live your life as if there is no God, you'd better be right!"

John Santiago
Baton Rouge, La.

Neo-Darwinian theory leaves questions

Science is neutral — one can be Christian, Buddhist, Muslim or atheist and still engage in science. The Christian has the same data as the atheist, and so on.

Science, by its own definition, has dismissed the supernatural. Yet man has a soul, which is supernatural.

Neo-Darwinian theory has had 150 years, yet it still has no clue as to origins. This has led many scientists to wonder.

"Can you tell me anything about evolution?" asked Colin Patterson, chief paleontologist for the British Museum of Natural History.

Also, geneticist C.H. Waddington wrote, "The whole guts of evolution — which is how you come to have horses, tigers and things — there is a failure to solve the question of how they came into being in the first place" (Harpers Magazine, February 1971, p. 73).

Two books that should be read: "Not by Chance," by Lee Specter, and "Darwin's Black Box," by Michael Behe.

Paul E. Yoder, Ph.D.

Reapportionment team is seeking your input

The O'ahu Apportionment Advisory Council will be holding a series of public meetings on O'ahu during August. Advisory councils on other islands will be holding similar meetings. It is important that members of the public have an interest in reapportionment and attend and participate.

It is the role of the advisory councils to assist the 2001 Reapportionment Commission in educating the public about the process and providing valuable information regarding public concerns. These meetings are an important step in a process that will define state House, Senate and congressional districts for the next 10 years.

To say there will be a major redefining of district lines is an understatement. O'ahu residents may find that their traditional representatives and senators will not be on their ballots in 2002 since they are in a new district. District numbers will change, and residents may find they are placed in a district that includes, in the case of O'ahu, Kaua'i.

It is the goal of the O'ahu council to inform residents of the process, bring the 2001 reapportionment project staff to the people and listen to concerns.

Reapportionment and redistricting is not a closed process. Public input is not only sought but welcomed. Because there are statutory time limits, it is important that citizens make their views known.

Press releases will be issued informing the public of meeting dates and sites. It is the hope of the O'ahu council that the public will get involved in the process.

Someone said, "The only thing worse than not voting is not caring for whom you vote." The reapportionment and redistricting process needs an informed public to scrutinize the process and get involved.

Steve Goodenow
O'ahu Apportionment
Advisory Council member

Those teacher bonuses were earned at start

In order for a teacher to be certified in Hawai'i, one has to do in-service training by being a student teacher in one of Hawai'i's public schools. (Teacher certification requires approximately the same amount of time and credits that are required for a master's degree.)

The student teaching program at Chaminade cost me $2,700, in which I was enabled to teach full time at no cost to the state for six months. This is just part of the requirement for a professional degree that would allow a teacher to get a $1,100 bonus.

Also, if it costs half a billion dollars a year to pay teacher salaries and the teachers were on strike for a time that amounted to two pay periods this year, (approximately one-twelfth of half a billion dollars), where did that money go? It seems to me that there would be money to pay for four years of teacher bonuses instead of the two years ratified by public school teachers, or the demeaning and insulting offer of a one-year bonus made by the governor.

John Nippolt

Who typed in words 'each year' in contract?

At the risk of sounding terribly cynical about the teachers' contract gaffe, who physically word-processed the document that contained the "each year" wording?

Was it someone from the HSTA? If so, was he or she ordered to insert the wording to provoke this crisis, trying to squeeze a few million more from the state?

Someone should track down the actual person who made the error and ask.

Jim Henshaw
Kailua

Oh, for the days of yore and sensible football

I remember Camelot: watching a low-budget Rainbow football game on a cool evening that more than compensated for the hard, splintered bleachers at Honolulu Stadium. Ah, there were lovely cheerleaders daintily waving us through the joyful singing our our rousing "Oh you Rainbows, hats off to thee ... "

The price of admission was part of our nominal student activities fee. Transportation was a short walk from campus or hopping on and off HRT buses, a few steps from the stadium. Pre- and post-game meals and snacks were readily available throughout McCully and Mo'ili'ili. The best bags of boiled peanuts anywhere awaited fans at the gate.

Who would give up all of this for a trip to Kapolei into an expensive seat with a premium attached in the new 60,000-seat stadium where all the perks are designed for the moneybags in the sky boxes? What joy is there in traveling all the way to Kapolei for a conference game in our "PAC Eleven" on a Thursday at 10 a.m., ESPN time?

No, this is not Camelot, not even a pleasant night game on a weekend. But this is big-time football. Big business breeds big bucks and the necessary contempt it took to drop, unilaterally and unnecessarily, the name, colors and the meaning and memories attached to them by students, fans and alumni.

If there is anyone at UH with common sense and a heart, bring back the 'Bow to the football team. Not to do so would be to dismiss the past and those who lived it. Please relight the UH symbol of fact and lore.

Richard Y. Will

New Hawai'i prison: Park ship offshore

We all see the writing on the wall: Hawai'i inmates parceled out to Mainland prisons are having trouble and we may have to ship them all back here to serve out their sentences. Trouble is, there is not enough space for them.

Here we go again. Do we have to begin the process of locating a site for a new prison again, only to have any surrounding community say, "not in my back yard"? Think of all the time and money wasted on trying to find a solution to this situation we find ourselves in — once again.

Well, a solution is at hand. We get the federal government, through the Department of the Navy, to give the State of Hawai'i a large retired naval ship, which the state would park six miles away from our shores (try swimming that, pal). We wrap concertina wire around the ship with only a tunnel up the gangplank so nobody can jump overboard. Presto, one prison. All set up. Easy to run.

Maybe some little modifying costs, but no construction costs; already we save $20 million to $50 million.

I not only offer the state and the people of Hawai'i a solution to this problem but also the personnel to undertake such a venture. There are roughly 3,500 Vietnam veterans in Maui County alone. I propose to have this group of highly decorated and respected individuals run these prison ships.

William Stroud

Thanks for the effort in renaming airfield

I'd like to thank those who made the renaming of Dillingham Airfield to Kawaihapai Airfield a reality. Many thanks to Sen. Colleen Hanabusa and Rep. Michael Magaoay, who introduced the legislation to do so.

Also a heartfelt thanks to individuals and entities that contributed by sending supporting testimony or spiritual encouragement. This is part of a healing process that restores and revives Hawaiian cultural identity already in place prior to World War II when the U.S. military acquired land by executive order for military installations.

With forced evictions and desecration of cultural sites (including burials) and geographical and environmental features during the construction of the airfield, the land and its people had lost their identity until now. Kawaihapai is the ahupua'a's name and means "lifted waters," which honors Ke Akua, na kupuna and the 'aina.