Letters to the Editor
Mirikitani's only 'right' is to quit the council
The arrogance of Romy Cochola to defend the right of Andy Mirikitani to remain in office until his sentencing is completed.
How about Mirikitani doing the right and honorable thing by resigning? What about the rights of his constituents to expect effective representation?
The law giving him the "right" to remain in office was written by politicians for politicians.
We now have a councilman convicted of six felony counts, another guilty of campaign spending violations, one of leaving the scene of an accident, another of bending a zoning ordinance to suit his interest and another of reportedly falsifying his academic record. Do we really need to ask if there is public indifference?
Romy, how about restoring some dignity to the City Council? Advise the fallen councilman to resign immediately and lose the T-shirt and gold chain.
Steve Chang
Mirikitani certainly 'cleaned up' his district
Gee, how ironic. Here we have a councilman who has spent an incredible amount of energy trying to "clean up" his district by attempting to remove strip bars, hostess bars and pornography shops. These thing are, after all, such a bane on our society.
Now he is convicted of extortion, wire fraud, theft, bribery and witness tampering. Perhaps he should have spent more time in strip bars, hostess bars or viewing pornographic movies.
Jean-Jacques Dicker
Felons shouldn't be allowed to serve
Officeholders found guilty of felonies should be removed from office on the day of the verdict.
If the law allows an officeholder to remain in place for five months while he awaits sentencing, the law needs to be changed.
Andy Mirikitani is a convicted felon, regardless of future appeals or final sentencing. It should not be up to him whether he resigns before a judge finalizes the jury verdict. He is a felon today. Get him out.
Walter Zaharevitz
It's time for the ILH to adopt parity system
One can understand the frustration and embarrassment of the football players and the Damien High School community. One can also appreciate the school administrators' genuine concern for the athletes' well-being, which was motivated by the lack of parity in the ILH.
But to suggest that Damien fold its football program is an insult and misjudgment of character. These athletes participate just as hard as any of the marquee programs around town under far more challenging conditions and with limited resources.
A few years ago, the OIA addressed the issue of parity in its league by creating divisions based on the previous year's final win/loss record. It's time that the ILH adopt a similar system and soon.
I understand there is more at stake than dismantling a league, but until other programs reach the highly powered and competitive nature that St. Louis and Kamehameha have, forfeitures will become common in the ILH.
You can't fault these two programs for their success, but the system should be faulted. The ILH can no longer take the easier-said-than-done approach to this complex issue, and should bridge relationships with the OIA to form one league with divisions based on win/loss records to balance the competition.
Ed Saunders
Kailua
Expect resistance to clearing freeways
Ditto to Larry Mark's June 23 letter about the HPD closing freeways.
I must agree that it is ludicrous to close freeways — or multi-lanes of a freeway, for that matter — in the manner that seems to be routine here on O'ahu. Yes, in California the pictures are taken, measurements made and the wrecked cars dragged out of the way as fast as possible.
The problem we have now, though, is that the odds are good that we will have an attitude from the HPD that says "we don't care how they do it elsewhere, this is how it's done here" and nothing will change.
There is always hope, though. Let us be wrong. Please.
Richard Poalillo
Kailua
Let's have real story on Kailua median strip
A well-informed public is a prerequisite for any official decision on public construction and works that may or may not be agreeable to the general population.
At the recent "Kailua Vision" team meeting, many people were concerned about the wisdom of constructing the median strip on Kailua Road. So far a petition of several hundred signatures has been collected in the hub of Kailua from citizens and businesses that decry for various reasons the construction of the median strip as a "beautification project."
I have learned that there is a new post-contract configuration of the strip, which was never presented to the public in the same manner that the call for an expanded Vision Team meeting was. The new median strip concept now allows all turns to and from the businesses on Kailua Road in the same manner as today, the only difference being that the left turn from the Bank of Hawaii exit has been eliminated. If this is indeed so, then crossing the "new" truncated strip is now reduced to be a mere obstacle course, with limited visibility because of the seven monkeypod trees.
It behooves the authorities to properly present the current contemplated construction at a full public meeting to lay the matter to rest once and for all. The public and critics deserve nothing less.
Knud Lindgard
Kailua
Schoolyard theft gave children sad lesson
Shame on you, whoever you are who stole those toys from our children, our future.
My daughter goes toBarbers Point Headstart and cried when I had to explain to her that some bad people took the toys that she loved to play with. Have you no bad feelings about what you have done? May this eat away at your heart and mind to think that you took the fun out of these children's lives for a week.
To all of you who stood tall and came to the aid of our children by donating your hard-earned money and time, I send heartfelt love and so does my daughter. Thanks to you, there will be toys for her and her friends to share.
And to those who stole the toys, think of what kind of lesson you have just taught our children. How sad.
Deanna Aiko
'Ewa Beach
Change is needed in public school system
I appreciate knowing we teachers are not the lowest paid in the nation, which I thought we were. I do recall an article in each of the daily newspapers regarding Hawai'i public school teachers being the "18th-highest-paid in the nation" and quoting the governor's office statement that "it was an honest mistake."
In any case, paying me $19,000 a year after taxes with a master's degree in the area in which I teach, having difficulty finding money to buy playground equipment and make repairs, and on and on, demand some sort of change in the status quo.
The Department of Education has too many employees, and this tends to slow both regular and special-education procedures and even implementation of good new ideas.
Let's go forward, trusting each group is doing the best it can, and keep the idea of making changes on the table. Teachers will be ecstatic, and stay in the profession, when they are respected. The way that is shown is by paying them well, not pulling back when the costs are higher (you have a higher qualified workforce) than you knew. Quite probably Hawai'i pays folks with master's degrees less than any other state.
Nandarani Evans
Kalihi-Waena Elementary School
Foreign languages critical for students
Proficiency in the Hawaiian language is great and has merit for the study of Hawaiian history and culture, but not for the economic well-being of the future of today's children in Hawai'i.
It may indeed be beneficial for students to enhance their vocabulary and English grammar. However, students who have aspirations for professional careers through advanced education here or on the Mainland should concentrate their efforts in acquiring proficiency in languages other than Hawaiian, i.e., French, German, Spanish, Russian, Chinese or Japanese.
Most universities will have a prerequisite for one or two foreign languages, depending on the student's course major for undergraduate and certainly for graduate degrees, which will include those languages mentioned above.
Toshio Chinen
Pearl City
Alternate energy is no panacea
Every few days you print a letter about the "monopolistic, head-in-the-sand" Hawaiian Electric Co. The writers think that — if only that bad old HECO would get out of the way — we could be experiencing the delights of all kinds of cheap and clean alternate energy.
I think it's a shame, and it seems common across the country, that the public begins to think of its electric supplier as the enemy. HECO is certainly not perfect, but it is just doing what we the public "hired" it to do. It provides us with dependable electric power, at prices that are regulated by our government. And may I say that I have never been employed by HECO?
Starting in the late '70s, I was a project manager for various alternate-power projects in Hawai'i, notably ocean thermal energy conversion. We were involved in windmills, geothermal, wave energy and others. The research and development was strongly supported, then and now, by Sen. Daniel Inouye.
We learned a lot, including the fact that many of these alternate technologies are possible and doable, but nowhere near the cost of our boring old oil and coal-powered plants. And so today's alternate energy technologies won't happen until the public stands up and says "Please send us higher electric bills!"
In some cases, the government has picked up the higher costs, e.g., giving tax credits to photovoltaic "solar power" and windmills. But these sources aren't going to make a dent in the 1,300 megawatts or so that HECO provides to O'ahu.
There are other problems: A windmill field can sound like a fleet of helicopters going "whumpwhumpwhump." Want that in your backyard? But the wind doesn't always want to play, and the sun doesn't always shine. And where would we find the vast empty acres to put up enough windmills? And the ocean is going to beat on anything we put into it, every 10 seconds, 24 hours a day — a huge design problem.
Geothermal looked very good, and is quietly doing very well on the Big Island, but vocal minorities said "no undersea cable to Oahu," where the people and the need for power are located. HECO got involved in trying to make geothermal work, and then it got squashed. Maybe HECO is justified if it is a little shy about getting too far out in front on alternate energy.
Those "vocal minorities" will be heard very quickly when we start looking for a few square miles of land to cover with windmills or photovoltaic panels, or a stretch of coastline for a wave-energy plant.
Lately, the idea of "decentralized power plants" seems to be getting popular; but nobody mentions all the oil or propane gas trucks that would be added to the highways to feed lots of small, inefficient plants.
The other side of this is that we want to fully support continued R&D of all these alternate technologies, because that's the only way they will someday become economically possible. Fuel cells and hydrogen look to be promising technologies. In order to get funding for R&D, we talk up the possibilities and advantages, and unfortunately we raise expectations among the public, who come to believe that all these things could happen today if it weren't for that big bad HECO.
Alternative energy is too expensive today, or not ready, or too controversial, or in some cases just not workable on a big enough scale. The expertise to make alternative energy happen is here, at the University of Hawai'i and in fact at HECO. If we cast HECO as the villain, we take away a resource that could help it happen when it is economically possible.
I hope the governor will take notice of the frustration of these letter writers and take steps to educate the public about the reality of alternate energy. It will not help us to set up the electric company as the bad guy here, which will only slow our progress to new energy sources.
Frank McHale
