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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, September 20, 2001

Letters to the Editor

Building UH campus in Kapolei good move

Good news that UH President Evan Dobelle intends to build the West O'ahu campus in Kapolei — not on a remote hillside. A college will enliven Kapolei, the area will enrich students' education and campus activities will be more accessible to surrounding communities.

There's a transportation bonus, too: Locating in Kapolei will make UH-West O'ahu more accessible by express bus. Students riding the bus will decrease traffic and benefit the transit system by increasing patronage.

Congratulations, President Dobelle. Actions like yours demonstrate the meaning of "smart growth."

Robin Foster


Age, experience are critical driving factors

As a former insurance underwriter, I was appalled to learn from your Sept. 9 lead article ("Insurance firms use illegal criteria") that it is illegal for auto insurers in Hawai'i to use age or length of driving experience in setting premium rates.

These are both actuarially sound methods of rating risk — people who are very old or very young are several times more likely to cause accidents than the general population.

I can vouch for this from personal experience — I was a terrifying driver in my teens, reckless from a misplaced belief in my immortality.

My parents prudently yanked my driving privileges after I wrecked two Pintos, probably saving my life, though at the time I stewed over what I perceived as a gross miscarriage of justice.

So why, in this lengthy article, did your reporters not question the wisdom of making it illegal to rate auto insurance based on age or driving experience? Why didn't they question why the vast majority of drivers must subsidize the poor driving habits of the few?

Our Legislature introduces thousands of bills each year, most of them laden with mischief and bad ideas. When one of these bad ideas survives the gantlet of committee hearings and floor votes and becomes law, we should vigorously challenge it and get it taken off the books.

Jim Henshaw
Kailua


Rave scene article omitted drug warning

I was quite surprised to find an article in the Sept. 7 TGIF section that touts the virtues of "raves" and "ravers" without once mentioning a major aspect of the rave scene — drugs.

Certainly many people who go to raves are not drug users, but unfortunately some are. Recently there have been numerous media reports on raves and particularly on the drug Ecstasy. Use of Ecstasy is rising all over the United States, and certain actions indicate probable use.

The party described in the Sept. 7 article has all the components of a rave/drug scene: open late at night, no alcohol, patrons under age 21, glow sticks and pacifiers. Because Ecstasy is supposed to enhance the senses, many users wave glow sticks, suck on pacifiers and use face masks coated inside with Vicks Vaporub. Two main problems with Ecstasy: It is illegal and it is dangerous.

It is a crime to manufacture, distribute or use Ecstasy. Being illegal also means that users have no guarantee as to what is in the pill they take. It is psychologically addicting. The high it gives during use turns into depression, melancholy and short-term memory loss hours later. During use, it raises the user's body temperature; most users drink plenty of water. Those who do not become dehydrated and may die, like the young Marine we lost in July.

There is nothing wrong with finding great music and a fun crowd to hang out with, and clearly not everyone who goes to raves is using drugs. The Advertiser TGIF section is a great place to find fun. However, it is completely irresponsible to run a story about a rave club and never once mention the danger of drugs.

Kim Hinson
Waikele


Good planning went into city's bus plan

When I read Cliff Slater's Sept. 4 commentary about the city's bus rapid transit plan, I was intrigued. First, Slater muses on the blurred vision and poor planning of the city and its consultants. It appears to me that some good planning and vision went into the city's plan.

Behavioral studies on consumer choice (I've been involved in a few) show clearly that people want a seat on their commute vehicle, as near as possible to door-to-door service and low wait times. It appears that the BRT attempts to achieve these attributes.

It appears the system, as proposed, could achieve significant ridership increases using modern information technology to make the system even more attractive to users.

As to vision, if the city's plan is successful, it will probably be necessary to lower its overall costs in the future by replacing the central rubber-tired backbone of the system with a rapid rail system. Most professional transportation planners know that congestion management is a problem of transportation modes during peak demand periods.

This problem applied to commuters simply means that commuters have a simple choice every day: Do I take the congested roadway or a congested transit vehicle? Increasing congestion on one mode is not a solution to any transportation problem I've ever encountered.

Malcolm S. McLeod Jr.


Hawai'i Dental Board is not 'protectionist'

Ken Fasig, D.D.S., blames his failure to pass the Hawai'i Dental Board 17 years ago on the "protectionist practices" of an exam "notoriously designed to flunk any Mainland dentist."

I am one of hundreds of Mainland dentists licensed to practice dentistry in Hawai'i. I am from Minnesota and attended dental school in Nebraska and received my specialty training in Texas. I passed the Hawai'i Dental Board more than 20 years ago.

I disagree with Dr. Fasig's condemnation of a process that has been designed to provide the people of Hawai'i with dentists who strive for a higher level of dental care than do many states on the Mainland.

I also dispute Fasig's assertion that the current licensing process leads to higher prices for consumers. Dental fees in Hawai'i are not higher than many areas on the Mainland with favorable climates. However, the cost of providing quality dental services here is much higher, just as it is with everything in paradise.

Fasig's suggestion that reciprocity is the simple answer to complex healthcare problems has no basis in fact. Hawai'i's dentists now have mandatory continuing education requirements as a condition of relicensure, and methods for recertification are also being debated.

The primary goal of every professional organization is to uphold ethical behavior by its members, protect consumers from transient practitioners and provide consumers with the highest level of service possible.

George Wessberg, D.D.S.


Stolen flag is just one more offense

I hope the person who stole the flag flying in front of my house makes good use of it. I also hope that person was simply a common thief and not some freak who disagreed with my reason for flying it.

Of course, I should have known better than to take the risk. Since living here, my home has been broken into three times, my garden shed twice and five times guests parked outside my house have had their cars broken into. Lucky I live Hawai'i. Yeah, right.

Richard McMahon

• • •

Readers respond to terrorism attack

Criticism of president after attack unfounded

The column "Some leaders rose to occasion," in the Sunday, Sept. 16, issue of The Honolulu Advertiser, was inaccurate and petty in its criticism of President Bush for allegedly failing to display leadership during the early hours of last week's terrorist actions in New York and Washington, D.C.

On Sunday's special edition of NBC "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert, Vice President Dick Che-ney gave a detailed description of the actions taken by the Secret Service to protect the president as soon as reports of the unfolding tragedy were received at the White House. Following a predetermined plan to preserve and protect the leadership of our country, both the president and the vice president were placed under protective custody until terrorist activities could be assessed.

With the modern communication systems always available to the president, at no time was there any lack of his ability to reach not only the government's leaders but also the public.

Owen Miyamoto


The shortcomings of liberal thinking

The recent terrorist attack on the Pentagon and World Trade Center has illustrated the shortcomings of liberal thinking in America.

It is in fact liberal Americans who have led us to the point where sleeper agents are able to live in our communities, plot their evil acts and then carry them out, all the while protected by an interpretation of the Constitution that effectively negates the existence of our country.

Abraham Lincoln, arguably our greatest president, took immediate and effective action against the Southern terrorists who attempted to destroy America. He suspended habeus corpus and laid aside the niceties of liberal thinking. Thousands of arrests were made, and the nation was protected from an insidious element.

Certainly, President Bush should assume Lincoln's posture.

President Lincoln began the war as a most resolute and sarcastic agnostic. By war's end, he came to believe in a form of predestination, convinced God was asking America to repent for the sin of slavery.

Matthew M. O'Connell


Where's the clamor for Darwinism now?

I can't help but think back about six weeks ago when so many of Hawai'i's residents were so insistent on our public schools choosing evolution and rejecting creationism.

How many of you now are looking to "Darwin" for strength during this recent tragedy?

Jim Shyer
'Ewa


Congress failed us in attack resolution

After much hemming and hawing, Congress finally came out with a "resolution" that allows our president to take military action against any of the perpetrators of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.

But the resolution was a well-parsed exercise in congressional doublespeak. It's not an outright declaration of war, but it allows military action. It allows President Bush to punish the guilty, but without the benefits of an explicit declaration of war.

What was Congress' reason for crafting such an Orwellian document? Was it fear that Bush would lead us into another Vietnam a la the Tonkin Gulf Resolution?

I see this resolution as Congress' failure to properly address the situation.

Eric Terashima
Hilo


Eighth-grader had powerful message

Cheers to the eighth-grader from Kamehameha Middle School for the sanest, most insightful letter to the editor I have read in the several days since the World Trade Center horror exploded on our minds.

Of an indiscriminately violent response against innocent and guilty alike, she warns us, "This is racism. Period. Please, don't let us sink to their level."

Let's give Joy Kito-Hong an A-plus, and send her letter on to all the chest-thumping government planners in Washington.

Travis Summersgill


Travel agencies are also hard-hit

For the last few years and in recent months, airlines have been systematically reducing commissions they pay to travel agencies. Many of these agencies are in the process of closing or about to close due to this, and last week's tragedy will add the final nail to the coffin. Small businesses will have to shut down and lay off people.

Last week, many agencies had to help passengers to change their itineraries, rebook them in an effort to help the airlines, most without compensation. Now, the airlines are asking the government for subsidy.

My question is, who will help the small businesses? True, the airlines will suffer, but there are others just as deserving. Is it fair that they get left out?

Richard Lim