Letters to the Editor
Gambling opposition shows small thinking
The last sentence of the June 12 editorial about gambling is illusion. It reads, "The odds are it won't do that much good for us anyway," referring to gambling in Hawai'i.
This is such small-minded thinking, which so many people here in Hawai'i have. Obviously, these people who have such narrow-minded views of growth are not business-oriented. This state is one of the last to realize that it needs to operate in a businesslike manner. Without that climate in state government, this state will never pull out of the economic slump it is in.
Gambling will undoubtedly move Hawai'i into a stronger business climate and will further the state's economic development. It will always be a choice for any individual here in Hawai'i to take part in the gambling casinos or not, but I can tell you that any islander who has been lashing out against gambling in the state will surely take their visiting guest there at least once or twice.
When can we start holding our politicians accountable for such poor administration business practices and poor leadership?
Tom Aki
History should haunt Japan, not the U.S.
So that history will not repeat itself, it should never be forgotten by anyone.
Dec. 7, 1941, the Bataan death march, the Korean comfort women, the rape of Nanking and the dropping of the atomic bombs. These historical events, all the results of actions taken by the Japanese, should be recorded truthfully in their history books.
It should be remembered that the triggers on the atomic bombs were pulled by the Japanese on Dec. 7; they alone are responsible for the destruction and deaths in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
History should haunt Japan, not the United States.
Robert Anderson
Felix decree monitor is overstepping authority
Your May 6 article by Alice Keesing, "Felix monitor urges limits on Legislature," piques my interest. Dr. Ivor Groves' role in the Felix Consent Decree is blurred beyond recognition from original description.
State Auditor Marion Higa did us a great service by examining and exposing the Felix monitor's conflicting roles.
When the monitor also mandates program selection and development, great potential exists to broker programs and to base compliance measurement, not on federal law compliance but on compliance with implementing recommended programs. There is further motivation to window-dress for paper compliance and to exert pressure to continue failing programs.
Groves now seeks to limit legislative investigation into public concerns. This clearly exceeds both his and the court's authority. This has happened before. When Groves and others sought to abolish the State Children's Council, they inappropriately limited free speech and public information access. Groves apparently believes his is the only important voice.
Plaintiff attorneys argue correctly to limit the monitor's role strictly to measuring legal compliance. Courts examine facts and laws and issue orders to ensure compliance. Retaining experts to monitor legal compliance is within the court's purview. Appointing consultants to mandate methods, however, exceeds its authority.
Steve Bowen
Special-needs parent
Mayor Harris has not endorsed candidates
A recent Advertiser column on Duke Bainum stated that I had endorsed Duke for mayor and Jon Yoshimura for lieutenant governor.
While I have the utmost personal and professional respect for them and they both have excellent records of public service, I have not endorsed any candidates in the 2002 races.
Mayor Jeremy Harris
City and County of Honolulu
Hollywood contributes to illegal street racing
Recent tragic traffic accidents bring to light a sad reality: If tobacco companies market death to our youth with cigarettes, film companies do the same with movies like "The Fast and the Furious."
The movie seems to glamorize the illegal street racing of cars modified into high-tech rubber-burning rockets. Speeding is not a movie, and that's not a video game through that windshield. Reality will brutally make that apparent when flesh meets pavement at 100 mph.
We need to educate, not entertain, our young drivers about the perils of street racing. There is a place for the thrill and excitement of speed and competition; it's just not on our streets.
B. Fujita
Legislature missed chance for change
Sen. Fred Hemmings tried to get the Legislature during the special session to push forward with an agenda for change that included overriding the governor's veto of many bills that were approved unanimously in both houses during the 21st legislative session.
The need for change is immediate. By waiting till next year, the legislators may have missed another significant chance to enact true systemic change in Hawai'i.
We may be back in a recession with the collapse of Silicon Valley and the depressed stock market. Lest we forget, we depend on tourism for our economic survival, and discretionary spending is the first to fall.
Brian Young
Hanauma plan fiasco was indeed an 'error'
I read with interest Robbie Dingeman's May 23 article pertaining to the Hanauma Bay education center. The project reminds me of the State of Hawai'i's recent baseball stadium project of several years past. As construction was nearing completion, it was found that spectators seated in the stands could not see the pitcher, the batter or the close-in infield, if the playing field was finally graded out at the elevation called for in the construction plans.
One would think that other public agencies might learn from the state's fiasco and not let similar situations develop.
In both instances the problem is a line-of-sight situation. Any freshman engineering or architectural student, after 20 minutes of instruction, could prepare line-of-sight drawings ensuring the playing field is visible in the case of the University of Hawai'i's baseball stadium, or invisible in the case of the city's Hanauma Bay education center project.
As quoted in Dingeman's article, "It's not an error at all," said Mayor Harris. This statement is so much hogwash.
The time to modify the grade level for the building, as well as the elevation and the physical appearance of the berm screening the building, would have been during the planning stage for the project, well before construction drawings were finalized and the construction contract awarded.
Walter L. Winegar
Author says book review missed point
As a writer who grew up in Hawai'i and still lives here for part of the year, I was dismayed that The Advertiser chose to run such an inaccurate review of my book, "The Virgin of Bennington."
It places my memoir in New Hampshire (Bennington College is in Vermont) and favors character assassination over telling people what the book is about.
There's no mention of the recent American literary history I discuss, the in-schools program and encounters with other writers, including W.H. Auden, Jim Carroll, June Jordan, Galway Kinnell, Stanley Kunitz, Denise Levertov, James Merrill, Adrienne Rich, Patti Smith, William Stafford and James Wright.
If you need to use reprints from Mainland publications, your readers would have been better served had you used one of the fair-minded, balanced and, above all, informative reviews of my book from the New York Times Book Review, New York Observer, Newsday, Providence Journal, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Portland Oregonian, San Francisco Chronicle, Booklist or Publisher's Weekly.
Kathleen Norris
What energy crisis? Check out hydrogen
We're surrounded by an ocean of free energy.
On Maui, Kahunu Gardens is installing a fuel cell electrical generating system. The folks there will be using solar power to extract hydrogen from water. The hydrogen will be used to operate a fuel cell that will generate all of their electrical requirements. They will never have another electric bill.
Fuel cell technology is proven and available. As a matter of fact, there are fuel cell-powered buses in Europe, exhausting water instead of big black smokescreens.
I find it ironic that a botanical garden should be so far ahead of our county, state and federal research and development departments. But I guess they're still busy studying and researching whether there might be any practical applications for the wheel.
Ray W. Lauchis
Kawaihae, Big Island
Income distribution isn't government role
To quote from your May 7 editorial: "But it is a fact that income distribution patterns remain unequal in this country. This tax bill will only make the situation worse."
Income distribution patterns? Sounds like the result of a government program where some bureaucrat determines who should earn what. Why don't you socialists at The Advertiser lose your utopian mind-set?
The government is not and should not be in the business of redistributing income. Nor do the people work for the government.
We pay taxes to pay for common services that only the government can provide, such as national defense, but when the costs of services fall below the amount of taxes the government takes — which is the definition of "surplus" — then the surplus should be returned to the people who paid it in the first place. And then the government should not paint a tax cut or refund as a "favor."
James Ko
'Collateral damage'
Why all the fuss about McVeigh's execution?
To use his own words, it is only collateral damage.
Bruce Hunt
New plan affects only future employees
The state has not broken any promises to public employees, as Earl Arakaki in his May 29 letter believes.
First, the Employee Retirement System is a defined benefit plan program that provides and will continue to provide all retirees with the same level of benefits, with no diminishment, that they were promised. In fact, the state Constitution guarantees these levels of benefits.
Second, the recent establishment of the Hawai'i Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust fund (Employer-Union Trust) represents a responsible, reasonable action to balance the control of spiraling health benefit costs and the preservation of the types of benefits currently familiar to public employees and retirees.
Hawai'i public employees have one of the most generous health benefit plan offerings for retirees in the country. Under the current health program, benefits are offered without regard to cost. Without structural changes to the way these benefits are delivered, these costs have the potential to break the bank and jeopardize health coverage for state employees and retirees in the future.
Plan offerings and delivery may differ, as cost will be a factor in determining plan designs. However, current retirees and most employees hired before June 30, 2001, who subsequently retire will still be eligible for standard single and family plans, which the employers' contribution will fully cover.
A benefit reduction only affects future employees hired after June 30, 2001, who subsequently retire, in that the state will only contribute toward the cost of the retiree, with survivor benefits set at one-half of the employee's benefits.
Like the Social Security program, changes were needed to ensure that future benefits would be continued and preserved without drastic action that could completely alter the current benefit structure.
The new Employer-Union Trust will allow the state and counties to continue to deliver affordable, quality care for their employees and retirees long into the future.
Neal Miyahira
Director of Finance, Department of Budget and Finance
