Letters to the editor

We can be heroes right here at home

I, too, am a social worker and a mental health services provider. Still, reading Ken Lee's poignant and very personal account of his 10 days as a Ground Zero disaster volunteer (Advertiser, Sept. 30) left me breathless, speechless and immensely touched.

What seemed so distant and beyond comprehension so far away on Staten Island became very real through the eyes and emotions of Red Cross volunteer Lee. Imagine the impact on little children exposed to death and destruction as a way of life in many parts of the world. Imagine being old and disabled and dependent, and afraid of losing those who are caring for you as they are called to rescue others. Imagine having to go in after death and destruction to clean and clear and start again. Imagine all those people. I can now imagine.

Ken is right. We can be heroes in our hometown by helping those in need, caring for and about each other, living our lives with aloha.

Joanne L. Lundstrom
Executive Director, Mental Health Kokua

Flying flag at palace was not demeaning

The Friends of 'Iolani Palace, in deciding to display the U.S. flag, did nothing that was insulting or demeaning to the kanaka maoli. Nor could their action have compromised efforts to establish Hawaiian sovereignty.

Many sovereign nations, notably the United Kingdom, played the Star-Spangled Banner and displayed the U.S. flag in place of or in addition to their own.

The Friends of 'Iolani Palace were only acting in the same way. Their dignified show of support for America in this case has done more to enhance the prestige of Hawai'i than the petty anti-Americanism of some people.

Joseph Stevenson

Using the unemployed as teachers bad idea

On Sept. 26, The Advertiser endorsed Gov. Cayetano's brilliant suggestion that Hawai'i could solve its teacher shortage by using recently laid-off workers.

I spent six years in college earning a master's degree in education. In my fourth year of teaching, I finally grasped the subtleties of the second-grade curriculum and developed my classroom management skills to the point where I considered myself a "reasonable" teacher. The parents of my students thought I was a very good teacher that year, but I did not think of myself as a good teacher until my 10th year in the classroom.

Now you are suggesting that people waltz from the unemployment office to the classroom, the Department of Education waves a magic wand and Hawai'i alleviates the teacher shortage.

I'll bet such a shrewd proposal could benefit our state in other areas as well. We have a nursing shortage. Why don't we license the unemployed as nurses? How hard can it be to take someone's temperature? We have a shortage of heart surgeons: Let's turn the laid-off workers into doctors.

Hawai'i has a shortage of qualified newspaper editors. Let's give the unemployed a chance to be editorial page writers. They could certainly do as well as you folks did on Sept. 16.

John Walsh
Maui District Resource Teacher

Let's figure out how to help unemployed

Thumbs up to the University of Hawai'i's community colleges and its Employment Training Center for offering free tuition to all, and their college-age children, who get laid off as a result of the economic fallout from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Other ideas that Hawai'i government officials may consider to help laid-off workers are: reduced bus fares, free parking meter coins, discounted driver's license renewals, lowered business licenses, human resource counseling, reduced state taxes, food stamps and decreased waiting time for initial unemployment checks.

Local businesses that provide discounts to these unemployed workers will not only enhance their image and increase their revenues, but also help strengthen the economy. Hotels and restaurants could offer their facilities for major events, such as family and school reunions, birthdays, business meetings and other large gatherings. The Convention Center could provide airfare incentives and discounted space.

The unemployed may provide their expertise to other laid-off workers at discount prices, and we can all barter. Let's pull together and look for creative ways to improve and survive.

Carole A. Bruno

Our coming together shows our strength

I'm now aware of a much less-publicized rebirthing of the basic bonding of ourselves these past weeks:

• A flag on the 7-year-old's bike. I said, "How are you?" We talked for a while.
• The shaka from a police officer straightening a flag on the antenna as I passed the security checkpoint to work. We didn't say anything. Didn't have to.
• Flags staffed on the neighbors' home where none flew before, except for July Fourth.
• A honk and a thumbs-up driving past my VET-plated car on the H-1.
• Noticed a man on the Ka Uka H-2 overpass waving his flag at the traffic below and smiling.

These, like a million other spooled threads across this great country, intertwining as one. This is our strength.

Dick Allen
Mililani

Reports of airport snafus are hogwash

In the last five days, I've flown 8,944 miles between here and Chicago. I experienced a near-empty flight outbound and a near-full flight on the return. Airport security was firm, friendly and reassuring. Except for a fog delay in Chicago, everything was on time.

I did not experience delays, long lines at security, body searches or unpleasantness. My trip took me through several airports, and all were much the same as I remember them last month — a few changes but nothing earth-shattering.

But the media have been reporting horrendous changes and horror stories of long delays, empty flights, overwhelming passenger fear and an economy crippled by this fear. On the last item they're correct.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was right, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." I'll be on three air excursions to the Midwest in the next 40 days. Fear won't stop me. And neither will a media that seems bent on making the story, as opposed to reporting the story.

On the very day I passed through the Minneapolis airport, I heard a network report two-hour delays there. Hogwash!

We're returning to normal. The public has already figured out it's safe to fly. It's about time the media got on board as well with some boring facts, not flashy fiction.

Brother Greg O'Donnell
President and CEO, Damien Memorial High School

Major cruise lines offer us opportunity

Many of the major cruise lines have cancelled their Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Indian Ocean cruises in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks. One has even gone bankrupt.

In order to soak up excess capacity, these companies are frantically trying to redeploy their fleets to locations that can provide attractive, yet secure, cruising. Hawai'i could be such a location.

In order to develop this concept, it would be necessary to suspend or repeal federal laws that currently bar foreign-flag vessels from serving interisland ports on a continuing basis. Successfully marketing Hawai'i as a secure cruising area would not only give airlines, hotels and retailers an immediate boost, it would significantly expand all tourism and the economy in general.

I am hopeful that the urgency of the current situation as well as the practical implications of this plan will be self-evident to those who have stood in the way of progress in the past. So far, I have seen nothing but silly ideas proposed to prop up the state's economy. Let's get on with something that will really make a difference.

Jack M. Schmidt Jr.
Kailua

Racial profiling story illuminates ignorance

Bravo to you, Tanya Bricking, and your editors for the prominence given your piece on racial profiling.

I am American of Indian descent, and for the first time in my life, I have received unwelcoming stares. The comment of the shopper in Office Depot toward the sikh that "you guys all look alike" illuminates the ignorance of many Americans regarding their knowledge and understanding of different cultures and religions.

The fact that the shopper thinks that Afghans are the "bad guys" and not the Saudi Arabian-born Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida, many of whom are not even Afghan, illuminates a lack of understanding of who the enemies are. It is ignorance that is fueling hatred, and I feel that the news media have played some part in proliferating the racism and lack of understanding by choosing to characterize the reasons for the hatred toward America in simplistic terms, e.g., resentment toward our freedom, our democracy.

Only now are the media reporting some of the reasons of the hatred and resentment related to our foreign policy, such as the fact that America abandoned rebel fighters in Afghanistan whom we supported with arms in 1980 in our fight against communism; the fact that we give blanket support to Israel; the fact that we have placed military forces to protect our oil interests in Saudi Arabia.

I also feel that the lack of prominence and coverage of world events prior to the events of Sept. 11 has added to our collective geographic and cultural ignorance. I knew from monitoring the State Department Web site (because of travel to the region) of terrorist threats by bin Laden in Indonesia two months prior to the World Trade Center attack. Why didn't the media report on these warnings?

Susan Howard

We should subsidize Aloha, Hawaiian flights

Our potential tourists are reluctant to fly. If we can convince them to get on the planes, everything else will be business as usual. So let's zero in on selling them to get on these flights.

How? Cost incentives, like $199 round-trip fares. Can the airlines afford that price? No, we need to spend our state tourist dollar promotion fund to subsidize them.

One scenario: Give Aloha and Hawaiian enough money to cover the costs of their Mainland routes providing they fly a full Mainland schedule at $199 fares and rehire as many furloughed employees as reasonable. Then negotiate with United and American to see what they can do for some state considerations.

Without the planes bringing in visitors, we are in trouble. Hawai'i is a proven favorite destination. We don't need to sell Hawai'i — we need to sell air travel and do it now.

Jack Robinson

More construction won't solve problem

Say it isn't so: Would our governor use the events of Sept. 11 to justify awarding a billion dollars of nonbid construction contracts, driving the state's debt to dangerous levels?

Digging holes, pouring concrete and nailing wood together will not bring tourists back to Hawai'i.

Tyler Chong