Letters to the Editor
Inouye, Akaka should vote for Bush nominees
Sens. Inouye and Akaka have real power to quickly fill the federal judicial vacancies in Hawai'i.
Unlike the Clinton years when their two votes for Clinton judicial nominees couldn't make a difference to give Senate approval, our Hawai'i senators are now in the majority and the Republican minority will surely vote for President Bush's nominees.
Rick Clifton's nomination to the Ninth Circuit is the first opportunity. Everyone who has practiced with or against Clifton knows he is an excellent nominee and completely qualified for the position. Clifton is well-known in Hawai'i's judicial and political circles, so we know that Inouye and Akaka know he is completely qualified.
Apparently our senators weren't extended the usual protocol by Bush before he announced Clifton's nomination. Inouye has said he wants to know why, "for the record." As long as Bush makes excellent nominations, I ask our senators to make "the record" quickly and get the judicial vacancies filled. We can't delay until there is a new president.
Gary G. Grimmer
Attorney, Kailua
Biotechnology isn't a devil but a savior
I appreciate your coverage of the biotechnology conference in San Diego. The thing that puzzles me about the protesters at the conference and the previous seed saboteurs in Hawai'i is: Aren't these the same people who have "food not bombs" bumper stickers?
Building better rice is actually the type of science they request, right? Maybe they would rather see those biotech scientists return to designing better bioweapons.
Agreed, there are concerns regarding the use of genetically engineered crops, and they should be tested prior to field use or human consumption. Based on the timetables outlined in the news, biotechnology firms are being sensitive to the issues of cross-pollination and are being appropriately cautious.
As for being safe to eat, it seems to me that placing a few daffodil genes into rice's DNA will not change rice too much or create toxic rice.
Biojustice says the cure for hunger should not come from big agribusiness. Where should it come from? How many Peace Corps volunteers would it take to spread the gospel of crop diversification and organic farming techniques?
The people of the world want to develop. If biotechnology can help nutritiously feed them, allowing them to concentrate on their next need, great. Let's not eliminate genetic seed engineering simply due to a fear of science — it's engineered to nourish, not destroy.
Jim Hayes
U.S. already pays state for education
As a military spouse with a child enrolled in public school, I found Carol Aiken's June 27 letter interesting.
While some military people do advocate establishing Department of Defense schools in Hawai'i, it isn't going to happen. There are only a handful of DOD school systems left in the continental United States, and it is unlikely the DOD is going to increase its burden of educating military children.
Hawai'i's Department of Education would actually lose quite a bit of money in the form of Federal Impact Aid if a DOD school system were instituted. For every dollar the federal government gives to the Hawai'i school district in impact aid, the state government takes away.
The intent of impact aid is to make up for the loss of property taxes and tax revenue by adding to the state coffers. Instead, in Hawai'i, it has been a sleight-of-hand substitution. This is one of the many frustrating situations Dr. Paul LeMahieu addressed when he spoke to the Hale Kula PTA last month.
I wish I could say he spoke to a packed house of interested, involved parents, but it was not so. Perceived lack of power is another excuse not to get involved in our children's schooling.
There are plenty of organizations that enable parents to exercise control at the school level, such as PTA, SCBM (School/Community-Based Management) or simply volunteering in your child's classroom.
As far as getting the "kind of education military children deserve," I'm not quite sure how that would be any different from the education a child from, say, 'Aiea deserves.
Kathleen Heidecker
Official litter exists on O'ahu's freeways
Litter is everywhere.
An example is the H-3 Freeway. There are over a dozen orange signs erected by the state on or near the windward portion of the freeway alerting motorists to projects, one dated January 2000. There are two signs near Kamehameha Highway proclaiming "End Roadwork," and another 100 yards away telling of a project to start in July 2000.
I drive the freeway regularly, and I have to assume Department of Transportation employees do so also. Why is it that those DOT employees don't tell their supervisors and have the trash removed?
Another example exists on Nimitz Highway near the airport: two signs alerting drivers to a project to have begun last year and two more reminding us of the project a few yards away.
I drove the entire length of Nimitz under the freeway and saw that work had been done, but none was in progress. Whose mess is that and why won't they clean it up?
How many other examples of official litter exist on the island?
Please clean up after yourselves.
Bob Hurd
Listen to the experts and forget gambling
Tom Aki roundly criticizes an editorial stand against gambling and speaks as if he is an authority on its benefits to the economy. He faults our lawmakers for not getting busy and approving such an obvious benefit to the economy.
The real authorities on the subject are the sociologists, and they have recommended against it and give valid reasons. I hope that for once our fearless leaders are listening to the experts and that is the reason they are dragging their feet on voting on it.
Ted Chernin
Pearl City
It's time we upgrade how we create energy
Regarding the June 24 Advertiser article "Utility rates sock Hawai'i" by Frank Cho: The State of Hawai'i has an addiction to fossil fuel for energy that has to be addressed.
Our model of energy production has changed little from the 19th century, when it was first developed. There are still few large power plants producing electricity connected to hundreds of thousands of consumers via transmission lines.
It was OK to use 19th-century technology in the 20th century. However, as we enter the 21st century, it's time we switched to 20th-century technology. For Hawai'i to be oil-free for energy, we as citizens must ask our elected officials to help wean our state from its dependency on 19th-century technology. By 2010, all government buildings and facilities should be producing 150 percent of their needed electricity. Schools, police stations and fire stations could, with current technology, run on a combination of photoelectric panels, hydrogen fuel cells, batteries and sine wave inverters.
A sustainable goal for HECO and Hawai'i would be to have by 2010 contracts with hospitals, hotels and resorts to switch to hydrogen fuel cells. If we combine that with 5,000 private homes here on O'ahu outfitted with 50,000 watts of photoelectric panels covering their roofs and connected to the grid, we would be making a good start.
By 2020, HECO could have 10,000 private homes all over O'ahu outfitted with 50,000 watts of photoelectric panels, batteries and inverters. On a sunny day, HECO could be producing 500 megawatts of electricity without burning one drop of oil.
I would like to see T. Michael May, the president and CEO of HECO, direct our public utility into being a true leader in oil-free energy that Hawai'i's children and grandchildren need.
John J. Bauer
Teachers must have contract before fall
Regarding the June 19 article "Teachers may not get bonus on time" and the dispute over the 3 percent bonus for a professional diploma or a master's degree: Gov. Cayetano states that the Department of Education "simply did not have the information" in terms of developing the number of people who would be qualified for that bonus. I find this implausible.
For the past 14 years, the DOE has paid me my teaching salary based on my transcripts of earned educational credits. HSTA does not issue my paycheck. How can the DOE possibly account for its payroll when it doesn't know who it is paying for what?
I think this state has a much bigger problem on its hands if in fact what Cayetano says is true. Incompetence at best.
I also find it ironic that the DOE has recognized my professional diploma from San Jose State University for the past 14 years that I have taught in Hawai'i and now has decided that it isn't valid since it wasn't earned at the University of Hawai'i. This is a disservice to every institution in this country, and it is another step backward in efforts to recruit qualified teachers from the Mainland to help bolster this beleaguered public education system in Hawai'i. I'm perplexed that the governor does not make the connection.
My fellow teachers, we must once again make a stand if the teachers and the education of the children of Hawai'i are ever going to get out of this quagmire. We must vote "No" to delaying the implementation of this contract. We must not return to the classroom next school year without a signed contract because we cannot rely on Cayetano to keep his word.
Brenda Bunting
Teacher
Kahuku High and Intermediate School
Natural purification will fight contamination
We read with great interest your June 14 article "Water at Kunia still polluted after 21 years" by Jan TenBruggencate.
Trace amounts of the soil fumigants DBCP and EDB were first detected in Kunia well water in 1980. Since then, the persistence and transport of these chemicals in Hawai'i soils and underlying basal rock have been extensively studied by researchers at the Water Resources Research Center at UH-Manoa and elsewhere.
These studies revealed that the persistence and transport of the chemicals are largely determined by four interrelated natural processes: percolation, volatilization, degradation and sorption.
The studies predict that these chemicals will eventually flush out of the soil and groundwater in tens of years without any costly cleanup or remediation efforts on our part.
Nobody can predict exactly how long this flushing will take; however, we feel that any future cleanup plan should take this natural purification into account. It might be desirable to reassess the progress of the natural flushing prior to launching an expensive cleanup.
Clark C.K. Liu
Philip S. Moravcik
UH-Manoa
Don't forget the error of Henry Peters' way
The headline on Bob Dye's June 17 commentary was misleading. Henry Peters was not "ousted"; he voluntarily resigned on the eve of a trial that would have proven for a third time that Peters violated Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop's sacred trust.
I assume that the judges that Peters called "corrupt" were the two courageous state court judges who temporarily removed him as a trustee because he:
• Took thousands of dollars of compensation from the trust in violation of court orders.
• Imprudently invested $20 million in trust assets.
• Imperiled the tax-exempt status of the trust.
• Reneged on his promise to the court and attorney general to implement a CEO form of governance.
• Accumulated, rather than expended, $335 million that the princess intended to spend on education of Hawaiian children.
If Henry Peters is "roaring back," as the article suggests, it comes only after he has laughed all the way to the bank — with money that should have gone to the trust beneficiaries.
Hugh R. Jones
Kane'ohe
Stonebraker's critics are being outlandish
The U.S. and Hawai'i constitutions are clear that the government must not "establish" a religion. This, however, is often misinterpreted by anti-religious groups as "no religious persons can duly serve the government."
Mitch Kahle and his Hawai'i Citizens for the Separation of State and Church group illustrate this point well.
William "Bud" Stonebraker represents my House district and he also happens to be an assistant pastor. Kahle's group has filed a number of complaints against Rep. Stonebraker with the Ethics Commission without basis.
Recently, Kahle held a press conference on Stonebraker's alleged misuse of his office phone when he made a few calls concerning a baccalaureate service in honor of Kaiser High School's Class of 2001. What is wrong with that? Stonebraker was merely responding to the needs of his constituents and he did so by making a few calls. Any good legislator would do the same.
Kahle's group seems to be so fixated on Stonebraker's faith in God they would make any outlandish arguments to discredit him.
Georgina Kwan
Let dad get revenge
An easy solution to the controversy surrounding changing the age of consent would be to change the penalty for shooting a man who has his way with a 14-year-old to a $50 fine.
Paul Hanke
