Letters to the Editor
New UH president must shift priorities
The first priority of the new UH president must be to reverse the University of Hawai'i's catastrophic free-fall in national rankings.
The reason it now ranks below most other universities is obvious. In reaction to budget cuts, the Mortimer administration starved the School of Arts and Sciences, the core of the undergraduate program. It diverted funds to bells and whistles such as sports teams and mice-cloning labs, without seeming to care that every program associated with UH, excellent or not, is now associated with a third-rate institution.
Mortimer's real legacy is a nice facade built on a crumbling foundation. Although it is tempting to blame him for this catastrophe, he did exactly what he was hired to do. The real blame should fall on the Board of Regents and on the person who appointed them, Ben Cayetano. Perhaps a more enlightened governor in a couple of years will appoint a Board of Regents actually made up of educators.
Doesn't it make more sense for the new president, as his first priority, to fund a core liberal arts curriculum that is ranked in the first tier, among the best in the nation? Local families could then send their children to the institution their taxes pay for, instead of turning around and paying once more for their children to attend Mainland universities. Even after years of budget cuts, UH could still fund a first-rate liberal arts core, fund a few areas of excellence on the graduate level, and even eliminate the embarrassing $160 million repair backlog. Just cut the fat.
Jan Becket
Legal maneuvering must be resisted
It is my understanding that state Attorney General Earl Anzai is planning to file a petition in Land Court aimed at reversing the clause in Mrs. Irwin Fagan's will that states in plain English that it "requires the return of the gift of the land to her family should it be used for any other purpose other than a park."
As if this is not bad enough, he also will attempt to reverse Irwin Park's designation as a state registered historical place.
All this so a parking garage can be built. Yikes! Who let the dogs out?
My family, my friends and I are "mad as hell and we won't take it anymore." Shame on Anzai and his buddy, David Louie, chairman of the Aloha Tower Development Corporation and the force behind this ridiculous scheme.
No more beautiful monkeypods should be destroyed nor one more inch of concrete poured anywhere near downtown Honolulu. Both visitors and locals are not here to see concrete — we all want to enjoy a beautiful, green Hawai'i.
I hope more folks will join in supporting Sen. Rod Tam as well as The Outdoor Circle in fighting this battle; I intend to be on the front line.
Victoria Cannon
Hawai'i prisoners must stick together
I have to agree with Wendy Kimura-Dixon regarding Mainland prisons and gang breeding. People from Hawai'i will tend to stick together in the face of unfamiliarity. This is true for a lot of cultures.
I can understand why local guys from Hawai'i need to gang up. It's not easy being from Hawai'i and thrown into a different world. Mainlanders don't know what to call or expect from you, so they treat you with uncertainty. Going to Idaho in 1978 for my military duty, I was blamed for the attack on Pearl Harbor. I was only 18 years old. Try being an East O'ahu Japanese kid in a red-necked town in an Arian Nation state.
You tend to want to hang out with familiarity no matter who dat buggah is.
These local guys in Mainland prisons are only trying to maintain their identity in an unfamiliar place. They tell stories of "kid time" in Hawai'i, checking out their favorite surf or fishing spot, cruising town, whatever their memories have — oh, yeah, remember that cute chick at Long's Kahala?
I have no pity for their crimes, but I do understand that braddahs gotta stick together. One thing for sure, when these guys come home from the Mainland, they are going to appreciate Hawai'i better outside the prison cells than inside, and maybe that'll be enough incentive to stay out of trouble.
Craig Watanabe
State should take Felix case to a higher court
Once again the attorneys in the Felix Consent Decree case are attempting to squash the people's right to know how and where their money is being spent.
Judge David Ezra should not quash the subpoena of anyone when it comes to the taxpayers' business. The state should take the case to a higher court. Since when did Ezra get elected "king of the land"?
Mark Trexler
Waialua
America responded with its heart and honor intact
As I saw the attack on the World Trade Center in the news, I kept thinking, "This can't be real." Movies have inundated me with special effects that boggle the mind, but unlike a movie, I didn't get to walk out of the theater and get on with my life.
I expected Sept. 11 to pretty much replicate Sept. 10, a false assumption. As I watched lives end without warning, I realized that I shouldn't assume there will be a tomorrow.
I should love better. I should pray more. Death puts life into perspective. On Sept. 10, there was bickering in Congress; there was mistrust of police; political correctness was the almighty "god"; prayer in school was a divisive act.
Not so on Sept. 11. Death puts life into perspective. I have always been proud to be an American, proud of our national heritage, proud to sing the "Star Spangled Banner," proud that we "became" Americans by believing that freedom was worth fighting for, worth dying for.
We believe in God, and we believe in a higher calling or purpose than our own comfort and ease. We believe in each other. In the aftermath of the attack, the senseless destruction and death brought tears to my eyes, and my throat choked with grief when I saw the pain as I heard these fellow Americans entwine the fingers of their souls around the hope that their son, daughter, sister or husband would be found alive.
It has been more than two weeks now, and "rescue" stepped aside to its sister, "recovery." But through it all, I have seen America respond with its heart and its honor intact. For America is Americans, reaching out, helping another with no regard for the "self" that was so important on Sept. 10. America is giving our best to each other.
Our future is changed forever, yet I look forward with the optimism and understanding that who we are is greater than our worst enemy. We have been wounded but not defeated.
God bless America, land that I love.
Stephanie Suzuki
Kailua
Cayetano's vision is far-reaching
Anyone reading Bob Dye's woeful plea for a "governor with a global vision" may be tempted to ask where Dye has been hiding the past seven years (Focus, Sept. 23).
During that time, Gov. Ben Cayetano has significantly elevated Hawai'i's reputation as an incomparable location for international policy gatherings, business travel and a center for the people of the world to gather in order to learn, to teach, to work and to heal.
Last May, Hawai'i hosted the prestigious Asian Development Bank meeting, which brought together more than 3,000 participants from every region in the world, including finance ministers, high-level commercial bankers and more. As one Honolulu daily newspaper observed: "The peaceful gathering of more than 3,000 delegates to the Asian Development Bank gives a boost to Governor Cayetano's goal of transforming Hawai'i into a major meeting place for Asia and the Pacific."
The year prior, business executives from throughout the Pacific region came to Hawai'i for the Pacific Basin Economic Council meeting, an event of far-reaching consequence for stimulating new economic investment. A year earlier, Gov. Cayetano led a bid to attract a gathering of the World Trade Organization, an effort that resulted in our coming in a close second to Seattle.
The governor has also championed Hawai'i's emergence as the Health Care Center of the Pacific. He is one of the key figures behind the state's growing status as a world-class center for state-of-the-art medical services and expertise. And it was Cayetano who directed additional funding for two years to support the UH School of Business, focusing on e-commerce and international business.
In regard to the production of television and films that garner worldwide exposure, under the governor's leadership, Hawai'i has soared. The entertainment industry has created excellent jobs and enhanced our global reputation.
Dye scoffs at the "beach bunny and beauty pageant" content of the film and television productions, which brought Hawai'i $100 million in revenues in 1999, up from $49 million in 1995, $60 million in 1996, $70 million in 1997 and $99 million in 1998. The last time Dye tried to elevate himself from the masses was when he pronounced that the new museum at the former Hemmeter building was "much too hoity toity an idea for a boy from Kalihi," as if the governor should only build pool halls or something. Who's the one lacking vision?
Jackie Kido
Director of Communications, Office of the Governor
