Letters to the Editor
Full accounting needed on Ka Iwi transaction
Ka Iwi shoreline and 300 additional acres are being bought by the state through "friendly" condemnation for $13 million. Kaiser Permanente will get $5 million and Kamehameha Schools will get the remaining $8 million.
I congratulate the state. It has greatly improved its negotiating skills since the teachers and professors strikes of a few months ago. The teachers got almost everything they wanted, but it took tough negotiating and strikes.
This time Kamehameha Schools originally wanted $80 million for the same property, with nothing going to Kaiser. Without any kind of struggle, the state convinced Kamehameha Schools to capitulate and to be "public-spirited" and give up 90 percent of their asking price without any resistance.
When I fought leasehold conversion, the Kamehameha Schools alumni stood alongside me and with the spirit of i mua (forward), joined in the battle and we prevailed.
This time the word hamau (keep quiet) seems to prevail.
I would expect the alumni to be 'eleu (alert) and ask for a full accounting of the transaction from the trustees. A $72 million difference should be explained.
I think Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop and her legacy deserve that.
Mike Crozier
Former senator, Kapolei
HECO leads the state in promoting efficiency
Jeremy Lam's June 28 letter badly confuses important facts about energy. To clarify:
• HECO leads the state in promoting energy efficiency. Our energy-efficiency programs get real results by rewarding residential and business customers for installing equipment like solar water heating and energy-efficient lighting.
From 1996-2005, our actions will defer the need for 46 million watts of peak power, the equivalent of a small power plant. An independent survey ranks Hawai'i as No. 1 in the country in energy efficiency based on per capita use.Ê
• HECO has actively supported the state renewable-energy tax credit and will fight for it again next legislative session. Armchair critics should join in the effort, as the tax expires in 2003. The local renewable-energy industry needs this measure to succeed.
• Similarly, we supported a net-energy-metering bill, which passed this last legislative session. The bill, which supports renewable-energy generators, just became law, and we're helping to implement it now.
• HECO took the initiative to develop a cost-sharing program for overhead distribution lines in neighborhoods. Everyone agrees it would be aesthetically preferable for electric, phone and TV cable lines to be underground. The question is how to pay for it — thus, our cost-sharing solution. The suggestion that we "introduce legislation to acquire funds to underground all utility lines in the state" sounds like a proposal to increase taxes. We don't support that.
• Finally, we reject the suggestion that O'ahu follow California's direction in energy policy. The safety and security of the people of Hawai'i depend on sound planning for reliable power at a fair cost. California is not our model.
Bill Bonnet
Vice President, Government and Community Affairs, HECO
Methinks Henry Peters protests way too much
If I didn't know any better, I would swear that your July 2 op-ed piece by Henry Peters was a brilliant piece of satire.
The man who is now complaining about Hawai'i State/Bishop Estate "payback time" is the same man who, for many years, served simultaneously as a Bishop Estate trustee and speaker of the House in the state Legislature, insisting that holding both posts involved no conflict of interest.
We must be very short on memory or long on forgiveness if we take seriously anything Henry Peters says.
John Wythe White
Hale'iwa
Poor driving habits are due to poor rules
Although I have lived here almost 25 years, I still have not gotten used to Hawai'i's driving patterns: speeding up at an intersection when the light is already yellow and then proceeding across multiple lanes of traffic that expect to go since the light is green; not pulling over for emergency vehicles; crossing the solid-lane line; not putting on a left-turn signal until halfway through the intersection.
And then I figured it out when I went to get my driver's license renewed recently.
Unlike North Carolina, where I learned to drive and was required by law to take driver's training in school, including classroom instruction, mobile unit (a simulator) and "behind-the-wheel," most people in Hawai'i have not taken a driver-training course before initially getting their licenses; now they don't have to take a test to renew their licenses, so they cannot even be reminded of the safe-driving laws they never learned in the first place.
Elissa Josephsohn
Car insurance must become higher priority
How would you like to drive daily in traffic where the number of vehicles is about 30 percent less than normal? And how would you also like to pay lower automobile insurance premiums?
The local media have often said the national average for uninsured motorists is close to 25 percent, but in Hawai'i it is closer to 30 percent. Our Police Department is short several hundred people, so it has to use its resources on higher priorities. The city's Division of Motor Vehicles and Licensing is also short of personnel due to budget constraints and consequently does not have the resources to check for insurance during either initial or annual registration.
Imagine the likelihood of fewer people getting injured or killed in accidents due to fewer vehicles on the road or road rage occurring to a lesser extent. You could either sleep longer or do other things since the time saved with much less traffic would be undeniable.
So what's with the politics? Well, some former drivers would be very unhappy since they would have to seek other sources of transportation and they would complain to their elected politician(s); but how many of them actually vote? Some business people would also complain due to the reduction in business, whether it be financing, car sales or repairs. Now these people have money and usually vote.
So will our dream ever happen? It's all a matter of resources and politics. It won't happen until it becomes a much, much higher priority than it is today.
Donald Mack
'Aiea
$670,000 for signs could be better spent
It was inspiring to read about Iris Gonzales and her efforts to raise $5,000 for her biotechnology course at Kahuku High School. Did you purposely position the article about the signs directly below it?
Talk about unnecessary: $670,000 to identify 'Aina Haina, Kuli'ou'ou and Hawai'i Kai, three of our more affluent island areas.
Does this tell you how important education is in our state?
Kevin and Susan Mulkern
Manufactured 'enemy' no excuse for Makua
The move to permanently halt U.S. military training on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques was morally correct and a indirect reaction to increasing public distrust of military affairs. This distrust is not lost on Makua Valley.
The inadequate environmental assessment conducted there, in lieu of a comprehensive EIS needed, has failed to convince many that the military would be "stewards" of the environment.
Brig. Gen. Karl Eikenberry writes in his May 20 piece that the bottom line for use of Makua is for the Army to be "trained and ready to fight and to win." This is "a matter of life or death." So who might now be the U.S. "enemy"?
Let's not forget that Iraq became the "enemy" almost overnight after being an American ally for eight long years in its war with Iran. Let's not forget that the war with our "enemy," Vietnam, had tremendous negative consequences. All signs now indicate that China is to be the next "enemy." Well, you don't fight a war with China unless you want 10 Vietnams on your hands.
Eikenberry's rhetoric about "safety" and "combat readiness" is truly "a matter of life or death" for the many who will die in the name of the next manufactured "enemy."
Tony Castanha
Selection of Dobelle was simply a reward
As a long-time educator in California and Hawai'i, I had been somewhat confused over the hiring circumstances of the new University of Hawai'i president, Evan Dobelle. The fact that his most recent academic leadership experience was as the president of a community college in California, then a small private liberal arts college in Connecticut, hardly seemed the ideal background for a large research university such as UH.
It had occurred to me that there was no doubt many qualified top administrators in the University of California system and other similarly large public research universities who would have been more suitable. However, in reading an article on Dobelle's career, I learned that from 1978-1981, he had been the chief financial officer and treasurer for the Democratic National Committee, as well as being the national finance chairman for the Democratic Party and President Jimmy Carter.
Suddenly, all became clear: the almost doubling of the salary from what President Kenneth Mortimer was paid, the secrecy involved in the hiring and salary-increase process, etc. It was simply Hawai'i state politics as usual. The Democratic machine was rewarding the former "bagman" for the national Democratic Party.
William Kester
Kula, Maui
Why can't homeowner also protect property?
Regarding your June 29 editorial, "Beach protection, a serious issue here": I'm all for using $250,000 of federal money to protect Waikiki Beach for the wealthy hotel owners — as you say, "as a civil defense buffer against storm damage."
But how come ordinary homeowners are not allowed by the city Department of Permitting and Planning to protect their beach property even with their own money?
Ralph Larson
Hau'ula
Let them have their memories of big game
My Boy Scout troop was unusual in that we had members who were in high school down to me (I was in the fifth grade). The patrols played each other in intramural sports.
During the last game of the baseball season, my patrol was to play the patrol that had already clinched the championship by a wide margin. We were the last-place team. The other team had the older guys, the bigger guys, the stronger guys, the "better guys." Going into the final inning, we had amazingly fashioned a small lead. They cut the lead to one run and had the bases loaded with two out. I was a shortstop.
Bang! A line shot not two feet off the ground. My body reacted instinctively. Both my hands went out to my sides. Without taking a step, the ball hit my bare left hand (I had no glove) and I caught it. As the team ran in, yelling and screaming, Clyde, our pitcher, looked at me and said, "You didn't even see it, did you?" My one-word reply was, "Nope."
This was the last play of the last inning of an insignificant game. I don't remember anything about the season. Not even the guy who hit the ball. I remember the catch. I remember Clyde. After 43 years, I believe Clyde spoke so that I would remember.
When people remember Chris Fuamatu-Maafala as a high school football player, they will remember him as a champion. Tough, fast, yards gained, touchdowns, games won. A great guy, person, athlete.
I also think about the thousands of memories he created. How many guys tackled him and can now boast to their friends, families, children, "You see that Steeler running back? I took him down once."
By luck or by skill, they will remember the hit, the grab, the mountain of a man who fell to the earth because they stood their ground. Even if they were knocked on their butts by him and didn't make the tackle, they will boast, "You see that Steeler running back? I played against him."
A single insignificant encounter in an insignificant game somewhere in time. A significant memory in someone's life, nonetheless.
Let them have their memories. Let them play.
Tony Matsushige
Mililani Town
