Letters to the Editor
Court-awarded legal fees protect us all
Donald Allen in his Sept. 4 letter misdirects his concern over court-awarded attorney fees to the ACLU.
Negotiation is always our first course of action. The ACLU files lawsuits only as a last resort when the government refuses to correct an unconstitutional practice. Federal law provides attorneys fees as a check and balance on bad governance. If government has to pay for its abuses, public officials might act more responsibly in the future.
Attorney fees underwrite the costs of providing free legal services to the community statewide. The ACLU takes no government funds in order to independently fulfill its mission to defend the Bill of Rights and relies primarily on individual contributions.
We do not like to see taxpayer money spent needlessly. Direct your ire at government officials, for if they fulfilled their oath of office to uphold the Constitution, there would be no need for lawsuits or attorney fees.
Vanessa Y. Chong
Executive director, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai'i
Harris playing games with HPD dispatchers
It came as no surprise to me to see that Mayor Harris has once again put political gain before the public's safety in the latest HPD communications system fiasco. It is sad to see that he is now dragging the HPD's administration down with him.
On Aug. 28, in his zeal to "show off" the underutilized Kapolei Police Station, he caused an entire watch of overworked and understaffed dispatchers to be sent to an untested and unproven alternate communications center, where various hardware and software problems caused hundreds of calls for assistance from the public to be disconnected prior to being answered and many radio transmissions to be so garbled and unreadable as to endanger officers on the road. (On a recent news broadcast, a spokesperson for Verizon, the supplier of the phone system, was quoted as saying, "What we need to do right now is actually test each piece of equipment one by one.")
The initial response of communications division administrators was to blame 911 and HPD call takers for the problems (a common city defense mechanism, where those with the least power take the most blame).
Common sense tells even the most muddled-brained of us that when testing new technologies, back-ups (such as manning both the alternate and primary communications centers) should be in place in case something should go wrong during the test. But this was not done because of the massive shortage of trained dispatchers that the HPD has been facing — and has been trying to hide from the public for years — a problem that could become a much greater danger to our city than this over-budget and under-performing communications system.
C. Howard Fine
Governor can end state teacher crisis
The Hawai'i teacher crisis is now recognized at the federal level. Rep. Patsy Mink said, in so many words, that the teacher situation in Hawai'i has reached a crisis level, as the Department of Education is now hundreds of teachers short of the minimum manning of all K-12 classrooms.
Dr. Paul LeMahieu attributes the vacancy to two things: low salary and lack of support. He admits the ongoing contract dispute isn't helping.
The main purpose of the April teacher strike was to improve recruiting of new teachers and retention of older ones by improving salaries for teachers, primarily beginning teachers. The DOE is experiencing resignations instead of new recruits. Why? Because the governor continues to play word games with the contract agreed upon by all negotiators and ratified by the teachers in April.
I really don't know what the governor's problem is. I cannot believe it is the lack of money, as he claims. With the lengthy delays in paying the teachers at the new contract rates, and the interest gained on those dollars, there should be enough money now for the disputed bonus without added allocations. The $8.5 million left over from last year that the DOE was instructed to put back into the general fund would have covered the added cost. That makes it double the needed amount.
Mr. Governor, it appears that, at worst, you and your man, Davis Yogi, made a mistake. Own up to it and "pay the piper."
Don't make the public school system, the teachers and the keiki pay by your refusal to sign the teacher contract and start critically needed improvements. Please put them above your own ego.
Bernard Judson
Kapolei
Teacher shortage? No great mystery
Good grief — teacher shortage worse than expected, blares the headline.
So, the state DOE is short 437 teachers this year compared to last year's 164? How did that happen? If the employment of Hawai'i teachers were governed by a free-market economy, their wages would be skyrocketing right now via the principle of supply and demand.
So, half the vacancies are in special ed? Does the DOE have any inkling why? Is it aware that those teachers are leaving faster than they can be recruited because of the overwhelming workload with no additional compensation? Burdensome DOE paperwork and constantly changing requirements with no in-service training? Overloaded classrooms? Indifferent district offices that demand teachers hold meetings and develop individual educational plans even if the teacher is not familiar with the child?
It's too bad Congresswoman Patsy Mink had to waste her time trying to persuade educated people to quit their current jobs and become teachers. Why would I want to do that? Out of the goodness of my heart? I've got a college education, but I've also got a family to support — something $29,000 a year cannot do in Hawai'i.
Dean Masai
Get politics out of Felix compliance
Your editorials often repeat the need to be in compliance with federal law. The very heart of the court case is never written about. How far beyond federal law are service testing and the principles and standards of the Felix Consent Decree?
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act looks for "progress" in the Individualized Education Program. This is federal law, and everyone agrees that progress has been made. Students with mental health needs, or "Felix kids," are field-tested for school compliance. However, Judge David Ezra has accepted 85 percent passing on an assessment tool, which was created by his court monitor, Ivor Groves. This service testing tool includes parameters like responsible behavior, emotional well-being and parent support of students who have mental health needs.
It's a credit to the school system that almost two-thirds of the school complexes have passed this extremely high standard and court-controlled mandate. Rural communities with fewer resources find it difficult to meet 85 percent compliance. The difference between progress and 85 percent passing is the reason we are still in noncompliance in service testing. This should be grounds for appeal to a higher court.
In addition, the principles and standards set forth in the consent decree far exceed federal law. For example, people in the field are being asked to put all Individual Education Programs and all assessments on a Web site. The student profile has 184 data-entry points.
Teachers, administrators and parents at the school level care about the system and want success. Lawyers, techies and nonschool-level administrators who are disconnected from the workers in the field continue to make decisions being driven by Judge Ezra's rulings. More threats and more politics are not going to help.
Jim Wolfe
Public school advocate
Chief Donohue acted responsibly in case
Let Chief Lee Donohue do his job. To me, the chief acted quickly when the indictments came down and took immediate steps to suspend the responsibilities and commands of both Assistant Chief of Police Rafael Fajardo and Maj. Jeffrey Owens.
For someone to say the chief and his deputies should step down is completely absurd. The case is now with the prosecutor's office, and I'm sure they are going to stay within the scope of the law. Both officers, by law, are entitled to due process. Let's not forget it's the law that said, "A person is innocent until proven guilty."
I don't think it has changed. Enough is enough.
Boyd Andrade
Former police officer
Stop blaming those who customize cars
I am just about fed up with all the misleading and biased attention caused by the accident on Aug. 17.
Any vehicle, regardless of what make or model, can be dangerous in the wrong hands. It doesn't matter if the car is lowered, has a big spoiler or if it is a Honda. The fact that the HPD is all of a sudden "cracking down" on import enthusiasts sounds more like an attempt to divert unwanted media publicity from the food-theft scandal. The fact that the public has so wholeheartedly jumped on the bandwagon shows nothing but ignorance on its part.
It is my right to customize my vehicle, so long as it does not endanger anyone else. Just because I prefer a sports car as my mode of transportation does not mean I deserve to be tailed by every HPD cruiser on the island, waiting for me to do something illegal.
Which is more of a danger: a large SUV blocking your line of sight, driven by an inattentive driver on a cell phone, or the 20something-year-old driving his pride and joy on which he or she most likely spent thousands of dollars?
Is it fair to crucify the majority because of the actions of a few? Seems to me the authorities and the public have already deemed that those of us who do customize our vehicles are the plague of the roads.
John Hyytianinen
Kapolei
It's not just the young plaguing our roadways
There are a lot of kids out there racing, but I also see a lot of older people speeding, zig-zagging through traffic or trying to cut onto an on-ramp or off-ramp at the last minute.
I can't tell you how many times I have been passed by someone in their 30s or 40s going at least 75 to 80 mph on the freeway. How about the person who is constantly changing lanes to get ahead of everyone else, the very same guy who will come from behind you and change lanes to pass, then cut in front of you and take the very next right or left turn? Would you walk past everyone in line at your local supermarket and cut in line in front of everyone because you were late?
I think we all have to take some responsibility and drive with a little more aloha.
M. Nakasone
Old canoe makes beach area special
As a long-time resident of the Diamond Head area, I am deeply concerned regarding the action taken by the Kainalu cooperative residents to remove the canoe from the beach area fronting the property. In my mind, the residents are laying claim to a constantly changing line-in-the-sand and are jeopardizing the existence of one of Honolulu's only noncommercialized landmarks.
Having grown up as a neighbor to both the Kainalu apartments as well as the Thurston family, I understand the delicate balance that exists between the private residences and the public use of the adjoining beachfront, and I have been friendly with the "nuisance" that comes to the beach to share in the evening's sunset. To this all I can say is, "Eh, bruddah, dis is Hawai'i!" and think that somewhere the Kainalu residents have lost track of what it means to "live aloha."
To put this in perspective, I recently returned to Honolulu after 10 years of living the rat race in the Bay Area. Over the years, I never lost sight of an eventual return home to the warm waters and rolling surf off Diamond Head. The thoughts of teaching my children to surf and ride waves in a canoe as I did inspired my return.
Now my fiance and I come to this beach regularly, and I guess to the Kainalu residents we are the nuisance, and that's OK. A big part of what makes this place special is that old canoe. To many area locals, it is a history book filled with tradition, our memories and the hope for the future.
Greg M. Wood
America routinely turns away refugees
Examining the plight of the 460 castaways who were turned away from Australia recently, you pondered, in the Sept. 1 edition, what Washington would do if the same situation occurred in American waters. You concluded that Americans would not do the same, that the last of such ignominy occurred when Jews were turned back to Hitler in 1939.
On the contrary, your newspaper has reported that the U.S. government routinely turns away refugees. This is frequently done by returning refugees to the despotic regimes that they were fleeing: "Returned Guatemalan refugees massacred" (Advertiser, Oct. 12, 1995).
This collaboration with despots is compounded by fining noble seafarers $3,000 per refugee that they rescue and bring to U.S. shores: "$24,000 cruise ship fine for rescuing 8 Cubans" (Advertiser, Oct. 22, 1993). These inhumane policies have resulted in other seafarers turning a blind eye to desperate and courageous refugees who are dying at sea by storm, shark, piracy or starvation.
Two hundred years ago in America, it was legal and generally accepted for runaway slaves to be forcibly returned from Northern states to plantation masters in slave states. Americans today are appalled at such history.
Hopefully, Americans will soon become equally outraged at the practice of forcibly returning runaways to slave nation-states.
Ken Schoolland
Waipahu
