Burris is correct that the agreement to add seven school days and increase teacher pay by 17 percent was indeed a "victory." It was a victory for Hawai'i's children, who had the shortest school year in the country, and a victory for our public-school teachers, who deserved a raise.

Says Ng, "In my book, working seven extra days and being paid for them is no raise. It is compensation for days worked." Even with the extra compensation for extra days worked, it still amounts to about a 14 percent increase in pay.

In fact, from 1989 to 1999, the average teacher salary increased by 39 percent. Considering the state's economy was in a virtual recession - many small-business owners lost everything, and employees in the private sector often made wage concessions or were laid off - it illustrates that Hawai'i is making real progress in compensating teachers.

Our teachers are now the 18th highest paid in the nation. With the state's new offer, Hawai'i teachers would rise to be the 11th highest paid. And just around the corner this summer, we begin negotiations for the next round of contracts.

Jackie Kido
Director of Communications, Office of the Governor

Check out tragedies that gambling's brought

I am a retired sociologist who has written many articles and books about social problems. Gambling clearly is a primary problem because it produces numerous other serious problems every place it is legal.

Those who benefit from "gaming" ignore its harmful effects. Here are just a few of the many gambling-connected tragedies:

• Las Vegas is No. 1 nationally in suicides, women killed by men, gambling addictions, divorce and high school dropouts. It is No. 3 in bankruptcies and abortions; No. 4 in rapes, out-of-wedlock births and alcohol-related deaths; No. 5 in crimes; No. 6 in locked-up prisoners; No. 50 in voter participation.

• For children, legalized gambling would be attractive and destructive. In Atlantic City, 64 percent of the students of a high school had gambled at local casinos.

• Despite a Massachusetts law prohibiting the purchase of lottery tickets by those under age 18, a state survey found that 47 percent of seventh-grade children had bought lottery tickets.

• The Iowa Department of Human Services has reported an enormous rise in adolescent gambling addiction since the state's legalization of casinos.

If you don't want those terrible things to happen here, tell your legislators that you oppose legalized gambling in Hawai'i.

Jerome G. Manis

Goodwill, Hawai'i style, on the Wai'anae Coast

Thick gray smoke billowed from the back of my rented motorcycle on the extreme west side of O'ahu. Was I in a bad area for a tourist to get stranded? Certainly not, because of the people.

Within five minutes of stopping at Makua Beach, a man named Kellen stopped. He gave me a ride, let me use his cell phone and gave me three quarts of oil. I had $11 in my pockets, and when I tried to give him $10, he would have nothing of it.

While he was following me back to Honolulu, I thought about the people I've helped back in the forests of California where I live. I wasn't used to being the one who's being rescued. It felt good; I felt safe and well taken care of.

Had I made people feel this way when they ran into trouble in my neighborhood? I left Hawai'i energized from a great trip and had met some generous folks.

Try to spread goodwill wherever you go, and it will come around to you.

Thank you, Kellen.

Ray Cooper
Petaluma, Calif.

Hawaiians denied their shot at wealth

I deeply appreciate the freedom of being an American, and I also am proud to be Hawaiian. The rhetoric on equality for all in Hawai'i, and not any single racial group, is heating up. The divisiveness is palpable.

In 1893, the Hawaiians were "new-borns" to the then-modern society. In the path of the juggernaut of international colonialism, businessmen, among others, understood the historical, financial and political ramifications to owning and controlling land. The land was either bought or confiscated with American money or power. The Hawaiians had only a dollar three eighty (nothing).

The best land with the sweetest water was taken in one way or another from the Hawaiians, and with it went their potential for wealth and power and perhaps their freedom to become what they wanted to become. Hawai'i could have been controlled by any of a number of nations in 1893, but it was the United States, and Hawaiians today are asking for that great American right of equality for wealth and power based on their land.

Mike Vierra
Kula, Maui

She's no Hawaiian

Sandra Puanani Burgess should stop calling herself Hawaiian if she has joined the life mission of her husband, Bill Burgess, in invalidating every other Hawaiian who does not agree with them.

A. Frenchy DeSoto
Wai'anae

Hirono quote shows she's out of touch

I was appalled and somewhat offended by a quote attributed to Mazie Hirono in Bob Dye's Feb. 25 commentary concerning her uphill battle in the next governor's race.

In thanking her mother for bringing her here from Japan, Mazie is quoted as saying, "If she hadn't, I'd now be the dutiful wife of a rice farmer doing the washing in a pond." 

Having come from Japan myself, I am appalled that our lieutenant governor thinks rice farmers in Japan are poor and that their wives do their washing in a pond. 

Also, as a former full-time homemaker, mother of three daughters and now a full-time artist, I also detect a Hillary-like condescending attitude about women who are full-time wives and mothers. We can only hope that Mazie understands the real world here in Hawai'i better than she does Japan.

For someone who apparently takes pride in being an Asian American, Mazie needs to be better informed and demonstrate more sensitivity to the values represented by the many diverse Asian cultures that now exist among us in the United States. 

Hiroko Ono
Kane'ohe

Don't blame our pure water for cavities

In response to the commercial that has been airing touting the "benefits" of fluoridated water, I would just like to say, with all due respect to Mrs. Cayetano, that blaming our pure, nonfluoridated water for our children's cavities is not only irresponsible, it is completely ridiculous.

We do not "owe it to our children" to contaminate their water with a substance that, when added to toothpaste, makes toothpaste a drug, thus warranting a warning label.

We owe it to our children to teach them good oral hygiene. We owe it to our children to monitor the foods they eat. We owe it to our children to be good parents. If parents want their children to have the "benefits" of fluoride, all they have to do is have their children brush with fluoridated toothpaste, under their close supervision, as the need may be.

There is no FDA approval of fluoride being safe or effective. Should we be administering drugs like this to our children via our drinking water? I am sure that upon further examination of this issue, the majority would say no.

Sarah Foust

What else should we ban along with fireworks?

Fireworks are dangerous when irresponsible people use them. Because of their misuse, some believe fireworks should be banned in Hawai'i. But what else should we also ban because of misuse?

Perhaps cars should be banned due to careless drivers and high-speed macho maneuvers by irresponsible people. How about banning the sale of intoxicating beverages? They are known to kill and wreck the lives of families. Consider banning handguns and rifles - they are frequently used to kill and disable people for life. Should we also ban cigarettes? They, too, kill and cause people to suffer throughout their lifetime.

Since people lose their lives enjoying surfing and other beach activities, should we ban people from using beaches? It seems we have a lot of small-aircraft crashes in Hawai'i resulting in loss of life. Should we ban small aircraft from Hawai'i's skies?

Respiratory problems? Wishfully, we could put caps on volcanoes so the sulfur fumes would not harm our eyes.

Obviously, the list of things we might ban could become rather extensive. But in honesty, we should weigh the use of fireworks two or three days each year against all of the other human activities we tend to ignore in terms of possible hurt. The only way people are injured by fireworks is through uncontrollable manufacturing problems and irresponsible users.

Let's keep active our cultural traditions unique to Hawai'i, but work toward educating a more responsible citizenry. (No. I do not use fireworks.)

Leon H. Burton

Why spend $900,000 on beach facilities?

You gotta be kidding me. Almost $900,000 for buildings that have no walls, no bathrooms.

The canoe halau are a welcome addition to the Kailua Beach Park, but it looks as if all you need is a roofing, concrete and electrical contractor to complete that job, and even an overbid shouldn't come in over $200,000.

Where did the money go?

Larry Williams

How much more must we give?

So how do you figure? Can anyone do simple arithmetic anymore? I should strike to earn a 20 percent raise over four years?

If I strike for one month, the state saves 10 percent of my salary, based on 10 months pay. A two-month strike means the governor saves 20 percent of my salary to pay me my 20 percent raise over four years.

If we strike for two months, he banks minimally 13,000 teachers times $3,000 equals $39 million times two months equals $78 million. And what will he give us back? Ten percent? Then he saves $39 million for the state. Why do I have to pay myself a raise and go into debt for a mortgage, car payment, Visa to do so?

I already buy the chapter books, pencils, composition books, incentives, and you want me to strike to have a raise? Do the math. We will end up paying ourselves our raise and still have to buy the supplies to do the job to the level the state demands. The truth is, the governor and the Legislature don't care and want us to strike.

I stay in the job for the kids, in spite of students swearing, their violent and angry behavior in the classroom and their apathy. If I don't give a damn, who will? Not the union, not the state. It's for sure our kids in the country don't count. We struggle for every gain against all odds, both social and economic. I'll die trying for the kids, not the DOE. Is anyone else concerned with the future of education for these children?

They want us to teach to the standards. I have a unit going, and the books necessary were not purchased and, in fact, most are not even available. We have to invent materials to meet the standards using the America's Choice instructional models. We spend hours training, doing the instruction, and the support materials are not in place. Then we have no money for the books. I need it. The kids need it. I buy it. Teachers Band-Aid instruction to make education succeed. As teachers, we spend thousands of dollars of our own money.

I want to see the governor and HSTA staff do our jobs for a month. Let someone in the Legislature take my place for a week. Go ahead. What would you do the job for? Don't forget you have to meet the state standards and it's not "fill in the blanks, please." I am a certified teacher who took over after a teacher who had a law degree gave up after the kids destroyed her.

Do the math. Striking doesn't give us anything. Instead we should storm the Capitol every time the Legislature promotes its raise structure and the governor provides increases for his favored few. We teachers should storm the Capitol and fill it with stones and boulders so they know we're out there and they will have to deal with us.

If we bring enough rocks, they might get the message. Striking is not the option because they make money off us. How much more do we have to give?