Letters to the Editor
Elvis' contribution to ship was taken down
Thank you for remembering Elvis Presley's monumental benefit concert here to raise the necessary funds to help complete the building of the USS Arizona Memorial.
Charity was in Elvis' nature, and if he were still alive, he'd be right back here raising more money.
The Navy thanked Elvis and others who were responsible for the fund-raising with a large proclamation that stood on the memorial from 1961 until 1980. In1980, management of the memorial was assumed by the National Park Service and the proclamation was removed.
For 10 years, there was nothing on the memorial, and many visitors did not know that Elvis had come here to do the benefit.
After massive letter writing by Elvis fans, the Park Service reluctantly placed a small copy of the proclamation in the bookstore. We hope the National Park Service will receive new donations to expand the Shoreline Visitors Center. We also hope it will acknowledge those who help.
Charlie Ross
Elvis Fan Club of Hawai'i
HECO has no choice but to move forward
HECO would like to respond to Nancie Caraway's May 16 letter regarding our proposal to connect the northern and southern transmission corridors of O'ahu in order to prevent a major blackout in the future.
There is a lengthy public process to review HECO's Kamoku-Pukele alignment. HECO's proposal is a balanced approach: underground the transmission lines in the more populated areas and go overhead in the mountains, replacing existing shorter poles.
The details for this proposal, as well as the alternatives, are described in a thorough environmental impact study. At the Board of Land and Natural Resources hearing, and going forward in the planning process, differing points of view on issues are welcome.
With respect to alternative technologies, Hawai'i is a national leader in the use of renewable energy. But if HECO were to try to build generation in the areas served by the proposed line, the financial impact to all customers and the land requirements in these areas would be enormous.
Where would we place the hundreds of windmills and square miles of photovoltaic cells? Aside from rooftops for residential solar panels, the only probable sites available are on mountain ridges and mountainsides. If not these technologies, then the alternative is to place fossil fuel generation units on the customer's site.
Furthermore, in the same newspaper as Caraway's letter was a news story with the headline, "Californians may see 15 hours a week of blackouts." As was stated by Kurt Yeager of the Electric Power Research Institute at the BLNR hearing on the proposed line, "The California energy crisis is a real-life example of what happens when the installation of electric system infrastructure is discouraged or halted because of shortsighted policies, however well-intentioned."
Kerstan Wong
Project manager, HECO
Beaches, parks should be smoke-free areas
To our legislators: All of our beautiful beaches except Hanauma Bay are turning into an ashtray. When are you going to do something healthy for the 85 percent-plus nonsmoking public?
Littering of cigarette butts is allowed at our beaches, parks, bus stops and other public facilities. When is it going to stop?
Alvin Wong
Pearl City
'Beautification' project for Kailua isn't beauty
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but installing a 10-foot median strip with monkey pod trees in the middle of the main street in the center of Kailua town is not very beautiful.
Beauty is having free-flowing traffic in the center of town where the public and emergency vehicles can traverse without major hindrances or loss of parking spaces.
Councilman Duke Bainum, chairman of the City Council Transportation Committee, wrote to me that he relied on the guidance of Councilmen Steve Holmes and John Henry Felix. Bainum also wrote that the project has the support of a number of community organizations, including the Urban Design Task Force, the Lani-Kailua Outdoor Circle and the Kailua Vision Team. For your information, that is basically the same people wearing the same colors, but different hats.
The Kailua Neighborhood Board voted the plan down twice. If 10,000 people bothered to vote for the existence of a neighborhood board, then how come a small group of people, all of a sudden, can claim to be expressing the majority point of view in Kailua? What happened to the democratic process?
My job is done by bringing this pitiful project to the attention of the public. Your job is to call or write the mayor's office and Holmes and Felix and leave notice that you think this "beautification project" stinks. Tell them to please leave our town center uncluttered and unfettered.
If you don't, then you justly deserve what you are getting. Don't complain after the fact.
Knud Lindgard
Kailua
Scenic view spoiled by chain-link fence
On a recent visit to the scenic lookout just north of Hilo, which showcased what used to be one of the grandest vistas in all of Hawai'i with views from Puna, across Hilo Bay and up north toward the Hamakua Coast, I was appalled to find the view was blocked by a five-foot-high chain-link fence surrounding the entire lookout.
I find it incomprehensible that even the most narrow-minded, unimaginative state or county bureaucrat could have imagined that this addition would improve the experience of visiting this scenic spot.
If safety and liability were the overriding concerns, couldn't something less intrusive and more aesthetically compatible have been built? Or am I expecting too much from the people who make these decisions?
The frustrating thing is that the taxpayers had to pay for this.
R. Alder
Hilo
More than the elderly need close scrutiny
An article in the May 8 edition by Rod Ohira prompted me to write this letter. It seems that a local attorney, Richard "Rick" Fried, states he would like to have all adults 72 years and older be required to take a complete driver's test. He mentioned that these adults should have to go back every two years instead of every six years to take an eye test, which I believe is constricting enough.
I retired in 1994 from my job of 43 years here in Hawai'i that required I use my car. Upon retirement, I went back to work part-time and am still employed delivering automobile parts for one of our leading parts stores. I have been awarded two safe-driving awards from this company.
I drive 20 hours per week (10 hours per day) and am on the road the majority of the time. I have seen motorists cut in and out of traffic, not stop for people in a crosswalk, make illegal turns, hit cars in parking lots and leave, talk on cellular telephones while driving with one hand, go through red lights, etc. The majority of these drivers are young to middle-age adults.
I received my driver's license when I was 21 and have never been in a car accident. I did receive one ticket when I was 22 years old for driving 35 in a 25-mph zone. I am happy to say that I am 72 years old and I am doing just great.
I will agree with Dennis Kamimura, city Motor Vehicles and Licensing Division administrator, when he said it should be a family decision to let a family member drive after he or she has reached a certain age. Most elderly adults know themselves when it is time to retire from driving.
Donald E. Secor
Kailua
Two good reasons for adopting older dogs
I was very moved by the May 18 letter from Michael Teehan concerning the plight of old dogs.
Having worked as a volunteer at the Humane Society helping people looking to adopt dogs, I was saddened that most of them wanted a puppy.
The kennels were full of older, full-grown dogs suffering terribly from the lack of human contact. I tried my best to comfort them and tried to get potential adopters to look at the older dogs in the cages.
I would ask anyone interested in going to the Humane Society to adopt a dog to look at the full-grown dogs for two very good reasons. First, you are looking at the dog you will have. A puppy can grow into a very different dog than you see, regardless of its "cuteness." You can see the personality of the full-grown dog.
Second, you must know that someone else will adopt the puppy, but the full-grown dog stands the real possibility of being euthanized.
Thank you, Mr. Teehan, for your wonderful tribute to the older dog. I will think of it every time I hold my 13-year-old poodle and feel the bond that will never end until perhaps death separates us and then maybe it will continue in "doggie (and human) heaven."
Bob Schwalbaum
'Certified' teacher doesn't mean effective
Your May 11 editorial, "A certified teacher in every classroom," wherein you conclude that certified teachers should not be allowed to leave the classroom for nonteaching DOE positions until "there's a certified teacher in front of every blackboard," was disturbing.
The HSTA mantra you have adopted sounds good and implies that a certified teacher is a competent, effective one. But everyone who stops to think and observe a bit knows that there are many certified teachers who are incompetent or worse.
In fact, based on knowledge gained while getting a master's degree in education from Columbia University Teachers College, I would speculate that some of the requirements for "certification" might actually be destructive of teaching effectiveness.
It is just possible that the "certified" teachers in administration were moved there as a kind of damage control to keep them out of the classroom. Should that be so, the last thing we would want is to move them back to mess up our children.
Certified does not mean effective. What we should be demanding are positive results with children. Focusing on some often-silly requirements for "certification" instead of looking for children to becoming productive, responsible adults is very fuzzy thinking.
We have come to except that from the HSTA. Are you now its rubber stamp?
Richard O. Rowland
Chairman, Legislative Coalition, Small Business Hawai'i
There's more behind success story
The recent sale of Digital Island to Cable and Wireless Plc marks the end of an important local technology business story that began in 1994 and will likely influence the local technology sector in the years to come. But there's more behind this story.
Throughout Digital Island's existence, the local media focused on the state's investment in the company, often giving readers the impression it was a direct investment. In reality, the state's investment was indirect since the state was a limited partner in HMS Hawai'i, a local venture capital firm that made the direct investment.
The difference is important because it distinguishes what is good, visionary and pragmatic public policy from something else. In the early 1990s, a few farsighted leaders recognized that we need to have a viable, locally oriented venture capital industry in order to launch successful new companies in Hawai'i.
Under the leadership of Sen. David Ige, the state created the Hawai'i Strategic Development Corporation (HSDC) to help create a local, privately operated venture capital industry. HSDC made the wise choice to invest in local venture funds as a limited partner, and the fund managers leveraged state funds by attracting private sector investment. The actual investment decisions were left to professional fund managers, whose ultimate long-term success would rest on the returns their funds made.
The state's policy paid off in terms much greater than what the state realized from the sale of Digital Island stock. There are at least five active venture capital funds at work in Hawai'i today investing in a wide range of other promising companies in Hawai'i.
The cumulative amount of venture capital invested in Hawai'i companies since the early 1990s recently topped $500 million. While not all of this is directly due to HSDC, most would agree it played a very important catalyst role in this outcome.
Finally, before we complete the last chapter of Digital Island's existence, we shouldn't overlook that it created about 40 new jobs in Hawai'i (corporate press releases indicate no downsizing is planned), validated Hawai'i as a hub for commercial Internet services, gave a local venture capital firm extremely valuable experience with a company that went all the way through an initial public offering, and firmly established the entrepreneurial talents of founder Ron Higgins, who continues to work with and invest in local entrepreneurs.
The state certainly got a $2.85 million return on its initial investment of $450,000 in Digital Island, and much, much more.
Keith Mattson
Director, University Connections, University of Hawai'i
