Letters to the Editor
Check-in at airports getting out of hand
I fully agree with Rowland Nethaway's Aug. 8 letter about the scariness of checking in at the airport. Thousands of Americans are being relentlessly searched at the airports. This reminds me of the wartime jitters during World War II, when Americans of Japanese ancestry were rounded up and sent to concentration camps.
Today we have a different type of war. Unlike World War II, when we could concentrate on a nation as a whole, today's war is concentrated in the Middle East and against an enemy that is scattered all over the globe. Although America has prevented most of the militant Islamics from infiltrating our borders, American travelers are still being subjected to ridiculous searches.
Until this security check-in cools down, we are omitting our air travel rather than going through all that hassle. Pity the airlines for losing billions of dollars. These security checks are partly to blame.
Robert Kam
Child support agency needs major overhaul
To our candidates out there making their promises, I'd like to know what you plan to do in correcting one of the state's biggest farces: the Child Support Enforcement Agency.
The agency claims the federal government has a law to protect it from making any accounting errors. We were told we would have to take the "receiving parent" to court to try to collect any overpayment. But what if they paid the wrong parent?
When will we have an accounting system that will be accurate? Whenever they do an audit and find they have misplaced funds, they start a new account.
By the time we got our reduction appointment, they were missing $2,400. They had shown us payments from 1998 to the current date, but had nothing prior to that. The employer records we have show payments prior to 1998.
How much more will be missing by the time we get the accounting appointment? We are told we must have our record, but they can't find theirs. They should be held responsible like any other business.
Sylvia Perreira
Blow Hole victim acted irresponsibly
My deepest sorrow and compassion to the California family that lost its son recently at the Blow Hole. It is a senseless tragedy.
I hope this gets the attention of our state courts, judges and elected officials to stop and do the right thing: throw out meritless lawsuits that are filed against the state and city for such incidents.
We live on a volcanic rock; there are thousands of dangers on this volcanic rock. We have hundreds of miles of shoreline, mountaintop ridges, large winter swells, erupting lava, etc. Responsibility comes with the territory, which includes common sense and respect for an unknown place to anyone not familiar with the territory.
It does not matter if this person came from the side ordirectly from the ocean to this spot. Acting responsibly would have told him to keep away.
Yes, it is a tragedy. But accountability and responsibility are what keep tragedies like this from occurring. The state should not settle any of these claims for the lack of responsibility of the victim.
Tom Aki
Driving more hectic with van cams gone
A year ago I left with my wife for school on the Mainland. We haven't been following the day-to-day arguments over the legality of the van cams, but having been back to visit in March and now in August, it is clear that there was a difference.
In March, with the vans active, it felt safer to drive here on O'ahu's crowded freeways than I can ever remember. Now in August, with the vans gone, I see it closer to what it was always like — hectic and often nerve-wracking.
Joe Bright
Anderson is on right track on state lottery
Democratic gubernatorial candidate D.G. "Andy" Anderson should be lauded for his stance on proposing a statewide lottery to help pay for the education of our young people.
For several years, Florida has funded all of its educational needs, including teacher salaries, on monies specifically derived from its lottery.
It is time for the silent majority on gaming in Hawai'i to take a stance and vote for Andy for governor. He has all the attributes: He is a local-born successful businessman, has worked in city government, is politically respected and knowledgeable.
The lottery and other forms of gaming may be the only way Hawai'i can get out of its prolonged economic slump. The sugar and pineapple industries are no more, the military presence in Hawai'i has been downsized. The lottery and other forms of gaming will help attract our only obvious means of support to our shores — tourists and business people from all over the world.
Steven T.K. Burke
Retired, Honolulu Police Department
Record shows schools were given priority
Perhaps one day, when the political smoke has cleared, someone will look at the record and realize that education has been one of Gov. Ben Cayetano's highest priorities.
Despite opinions to the contrary (Helen L. Kekuna, Letters, Aug. 15), the facts speak for themselves. During Gov. Cayetano's administration, 16 new schools were built — more new schools than at any time in state history.
In addition, approximately 2,870 additional full-time positions were added to the Department of Education, as well as another 554 posts in the Department of Health to assist our students with special needs.
Finally, teacher pay has been significantly raised. Since 1997, teacher salaries have increased by about 34 percent, or $10,000 on average.
Perhaps one day the record will show that even in difficult economic times, unparalleled achievements in education were accomplished during Gov. Cayetano's tenure.
Cedric Yamanaka
Press secretary, Office of the Governor
Stop eating meat to save Earth's water
In the Aug. 14 Advertiser, an article stated that the U.N. predicted a water crisis for half the Earth by 2025.
According to soil and water specialists at the University of California Agricultural Extension, working with livestock farm advisers, it takes 5,214 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef, 1,630 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of pork, 815 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of chicken, and 23 to 49 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of either lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, wheat, carrots or apples.
In addition, if you shower each day for seven minutes, using a shower flow rate of two gallons per minute, you are using 14 gallons of water per day, or 98 gallons per week. Rounding that to 100 gallons per week, in 52 weeks you would be using 5,200 gallons of water per year to shower daily.
Comparing 5,200 gallons of water used by taking a seven-minute shower every day for a year to the 5,214 gallons of water it takes to produce a pound of beef, you could save more water by not eating a pound of beef, 3.2 pounds of pork and 6.4 pounds of chicken than you would by not showering for a year.
Isn't it about time that we thought realistically about our future and the future of our planet than the endless craving our senses have for the taste of flesh?
Hesh Goldstein
"Health Talk" moderator, K-108 Radio
Seniors complex hit by car thieves again
Not even a month after my dad moved into the Kulana Kauhale Maluhia Senior Apartments in Waimanalo, his car was stolen from his parking stall. I wrote about this theft on May 24, "Thieves took more than my father's car."
The car was recovered a short time later, but had to be put into a shop for repairs. After waiting months, the work was finally completed, new paint applied and the car returned to him on Aug. 5.
Early on Aug. 11, the thieves returned. With a steering wheel locking device in place, however, they were not able to steal the car again and settled instead for the new canvas car cover that my Dad had bought.
These incidents are not infrequent or rare to this little complex, and the rate of crime continues to rise. In spite of that fact, this senior community has been a great place to live. Dad has made many new friends and really enjoys the neighborhood. Still, with nearly 75 percent of the units remaining to be filled, I have to ask, "How safe will it be as even more seniors move in? How safe will it be for Dad?"
Keola Horita
New facility doesn't address inmate needs
Regarding the article about replacing OCCC: I agree with the remark by the ACLU's Alvin Bronstein. Hawai'i's focus needs to be more on addressing the prisoner's integration back into society.
We inmates are in dire need of programs to ready us for the real world. Many who are incarcerated would benefit from job training, trade classes and counseling with our families, whom we will be reuniting with. One major problem seems to be the lack of furlough housing, which causes a delay in release and therefore results in overcrowding.
I do hope that our state government will decide to provide what would be most helpful and obvious in this case.
Jodi Carvelo
Kailua
Wall painting wanted
Nothing against Wyland whale walls, but wouldn't a Chinese scroll painting (e.g., Guilin's karst scenery) on the side of a building in Chinatown be a nice touch?
Doris Wojta
Mayor's office meddled in project
Congratulations to Mike Leidemann on his excellent article about the wonderful new educational facilities at Hanauma Bay, which opened Aug. 15-16. Many people in the city government, the community and the private sector worked for years to make this project a reality, and kudos are due all around.
I would, however, like to clarify one element of the article concerning the costs of the project. Leidemann apparently accepted more or less at face value the pitch by the city's spin-doctors that the additional costs of this project resulted substantially from efforts to accommodate community input on the location, appearance, etc. This is simply wrong. The facts are:
• The community task force on the project (which I co-chaired) recommended a "modest, flexible" facility — not the stylish but highly expensive cave replica that the mayor wanted and imposed on the project.
• Building the facility at the location recommended by the task force — in a depression closer to the rim of the bay but on the safer side (for pedestrians) of the access road — need not have cost a dime more than the original partial renditions of the facility, much less the $1 million claimed by Managing Director Ben Lee.
The major extra cost of the "move" resulted from the fact that the architects neglected to calculate the sightline from the new location, and so the education building was clearly too tall and had to be shortened — during construction — to meet the city's assurance that it would not be visible from the beach.
• Other subsequent input from the community (principally the Friends of Hanauma Bay, of which I served as president from 1998 through 2000) resulted in the reversal of a number of unilateral and ill-advised changes ordered by the mayor from the original plans — and partially implemented before we learned of the changes — that would have detracted significantly from the operational effectiveness of the facility.
• Other major additional costs not mentioned by the managing director in his briefing came from a continuing series of unilateral interventions by the mayor, mostly while construction was under way, in various structural and cosmetic aspects, including moving doorways, adding areas of false rock facing, repositioning planters (which in one case now impede access by emergency vehicles), etc.
The overall result has been to turn a $10 million facility into a $13 million facility, which may not be supportable by the revenues taken in by the bay — another assurance by the city to the council and taxpayers.
The community is definitively not responsible for the appalling escalation in the cost of this facility. The buck for this stops at the desks of the mayor and the managing director.
I have asked the City Council to undertake a full performance audit of this project so that this kind of mismanagement can hopefully be prevented in future projects.
Richard W. Baker
