Letters to the Editor
Jones Act all but eliminates competition
The Nov. 19 article "Shipping now a high-seas scrimmage" explains that a glut of competition in global shipping has kept rates low. While this has made the going tough for carriers, consumers enjoy lower prices.
In Hawai'i, however, the Jones Act all but eliminates competition. This allows Matson and CSX to enjoy enormous profits. In our state, it's the consumer who always bears the burden.
Robert Chanin
Kailua
Waikiki could use Wallace Theatres
A recent letter regrets the loss of the Waikiki Theatres. I agree and wonder if alternatives were considered: leaving one open, for instance, or cutting one into two (as was done years ago with the Varsity Theatre).
City planners are discussing ways of getting local residents "back" into Waikiki. As a long-term Honolulu resident, I would like to say that the only times in recent years I have gone to Waikiki were to see movies.
As an alternative to seeing films in Waikiki, I now suggest to friends and students (I'm a college teacher) seeing high-quality independent and foreign films on the small screens at the Art House at Restaurant Row. O'ahu residents are extremely lucky to have the opportunity to see the kinds of films that are featured there.
Maybe Wallace Theatres would consider opening something in Waikiki. Now that would help get local residents into Waikiki. (Are you listening, Wallace Theatre people?)
Chuck Whitley
Waimea Valley flora must be protected
The local community is not the only group anxiously awaiting a decision about the fate of Waimea Valley. People throughout the country care about the future of the native, imperiled plants held in Waimea Valley.
Through donations to the Center of Plant Conservation institutions, such as Waimea Arboretum and Botanical Garden, Americans are supporting the study of recovery of America's vanishing flora. Waimea Arboretum and Botanical Garden works to recover 20 imperiled U.S. plants. CPC supporters have invested more than $100,000 in Waimea's conservation collection.
I was heartened to hear last spring that the city had decided to acquire the property and provide the leadership and funds for appropriate management and care. But the center continues to be concerned about the losses in plant material that Waimea Arboretum has endured. Plant loss in a botanical institution is not part of the natural attrition rate. Rather, losses usually occur when plants do not receive the attention they need. Reports we receive this past summer about the lack of funds for the botanical collection are worrisome.
The potential role of Waimea in restoring imperiled Hawaiian species and in interpreting these resources for Hawai'i residents and visitors is tremendous. I hope the citizens of Hawai'i join me in urging the city to act quickly to stabilize the plant collections in Waimea Valley.
Kathryn Kennedy
Executive Director and President, Center for Plant Conservation
Others responsible for 'undergraduate dilemma'
The "dilemma in undergraduate education" referred to in a Nov. 20 letter ("Don't limit university to 'first-tier' students") is not the responsibility of the university. That is the basic problem that has had the agonized attention of educators, government, teachers and parents for many years.
If "improving undergraduate education" in Hawai'i is faced as a "mission impossible," as the writer claims, that is what it will be.
The university has a right to expect that any student admitted will have the mentioned requisite "primary school skills and bases of essential knowledge." If elementary and high school standards can be raised to provide students with those skills, they will be prepared for a "first-tier" university. With a "first-tier" university available to them in Hawai'i, the so-called "brain drain" to Mainland colleges will be lessened or obliterated. Possibly we overrate the much-touted value of the "Mainland experience."
The university must be permitted and aided to become a first-tier institution. More importantly, we must concomitantly raise the standards and challenges of undergraduate facilities. Isn't that what all of the recent gubernatorial candidates have promised to do?
Marie I. Boles
Don't use 'us vs. them' in public education
Bryan Mick writes in his Nov. 24 letter that "Standards-based education would have you believe that graduating students who are college-ready is their main purpose. That is ridiculous since the majority of public high school students are not going to college — that is why we have private schools."
What is ridiculous is the assumption that the majority of public school graduates aren't qualified to go to college — only private school students are.
He adds that "The most important things for public schools to do are to produce involved citizens who vote (through social studies and history) and produce citizens who are healthy (through P.E.). What good is knowledge when your quality of life is low due to health problems?"
I spent seven weekends in August through October doing voter registration, and I can tell you both public and private schools have a long way to go when it comes to producing involved citizens who vote. None of our young people are being taught the importance of voting.
As far as producing healthy citizens, again both public and private schools have a way to go. Let's not play the "them vs. us" game and sell our public schools short.
Sharon McCarthy
Hau'ula
DOE must finance charter schools fully
I have friends who teach in charter schools, friends who have students in charter schools and a friend who is on the board of one of the charter schools.
By your recent account, the state spent about $6,487 per student (which would presumably include charter school students) in the 2000 school year. But in the same article you point out that the state only spent $3,805 per student in the charter schools for the same period. It is quite apparent that the difference of $2,682 per student in the charter schools was retained by the DOE to support its bureaucracy. I thought one of the purposes of the charter schools was to give autonomy to the local charter schools.
Why is the DOE so afraid of the charter schools? It is obvious that for the most part the charter schools have been very successful. Why not let them excel? To do this, the DOE will have to give these students their fair share of the educational dollar.
Jim Campbell
Free bus service due to voters' approval
In response to Ann Allred's Nov. 28 question in her letter regarding how other U.S. school districts have free bus service: It is simply a matter of source of funds.
Most U.S. school districts are funded from property and real estate taxes and not from the state's general tax base. When those school districts require additional funds to provide services, there are two options for them: 1) raise property taxes, or 2) individual school districts "float" a tax levy, voted upon by the families living within the school district (adding to their property tax, if passed).
In the latter case, if the levy does not pass, then the school district must reduce services as it cannot operate "in the red." Mainland school districts have not only had to cut services because of a failed tax levy, but found it necessary to curtail certain school functions and reduce administration and professional staff as well.
We all pay for school services, one way or the other. It just becomes more apparent in Hawai'i when the burden of added expenses, such as the bus fares, falls upon the families with students attending school.
Bernard Judson
Kapolei
There's different way to beef up security
I don't get it. Years ago, I remember someone asking bank robber Willie Sutton why he held up banks. His answer was "because that's where the money is."
The new security measures at the USS Arizona are an unfortunate fact of life, and front-page Advertiser photos showing signs warning tourists to beware of pickpockets, car break-ins, etc., sure don't help our image of a tourist-friendly place.
In fact, if I were on the Mainland and saw that picture and read the stories I see almost every day pertaining to the crime problems in Hawai'i, I would head for the Caribbean and one of their all-inclusive resorts, which cost a lot less than a week in Waikiki. (Too bad some of the hotels here don't have such an all-inclusive policy — it would sell like hotcakes.)
If tourists are now almost forced to leave valuables in their vehicles, wouldn't it make sense to set up a program where they don't do that? All the cameras in the world won't stop the determined thieves — they will only catch the amateurs, who are probably a minor part of the problem. Bank robbers rob banks because that's where the money is.
What's needed is some area prior to entry were everyone checks everything. If the price of admission has to go up 50 cents to cover the cost, so what? If the goodies are not left in the vehicles, they can't be stolen. Sounds kind of simple to me.
Walter Mahr
Mililani
Skate park needed, not a traffic circle
Are Honolulu drivers aware that they will be severely impacted by the Halawa zoning change being heard in the City Council tomorrow?
If you are an Aloha Stadium fan, will you be able to wait on the side of Kamehameha Highway until the gates open? Lani Enterprises has a surprise for you. The righthand lane will be a deceleration lane so you can conveniently turn into the proposed Aloha Market traffic circle. Will that new traffic circle cut into the frontage road that serves waiting fans?
The Halawa community has been told the market will serve their needs, but there is a deck on the proposed 2 1/2-story Aloha Market that would have a view of Pearl Harbor and it would make a wonderful beer garden. How does that serve the low- and moderate-income population who are feet away from this commercial enterprise?
There are no adequate parks for all the children. Mayor Harris, the children in the Halawa-'Aiea-Waimalu-Pearl City areas need a skate park on that land. Wouldn't that be Mele Kalikimaka for these communities?
Lela M. Hubbard
Democratic Party must stand up
The recent election was a true debacle for the Democratic Party locally and nationally. In Hawai'i, for the first time in memory, Republicans now hold the governor's office. In Washington, they have gained crucial control of the U.S. Senate.
The critical question is why millions of Democratic and independent voters stayed home on Election Day or else switched over to the GOP.
Sure, the Republicans, as the official party of business, used corporate funding to dominate media advertising. Linda Lingle did have a big financial advantage over Mazie Hirono. And of course, George W. Bush is a master at using anxieties generated by the post-Sept. 11 crisis to reinforce his party's popularity.
But the Democrats, themselves, are the real problem. Why indeed would people bother to vote for them? In Hawai'i and nationally, they seem to stand for nothing that matters to anyone and to be devoid of principles. Did the Mazie/Matt team, for instance, present any ideas or vision of governance that might inspire anyone? (No wonder an old Democratic friend of mine said, "I won't vote for four more years of Cayetano.")
Democrats in Congress simply laid down and gave Bush a blank check to attack Iraq. They have supported his administration's steady erosion of our constitutional rights. There was never a strong Democratic message that a Republican Senate majority would lead to more tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans at the expense of education and healthcare, federal courts packed with hard, right-wing judges and an assault on the environment in the name of oil company profits.
The revitalization of the Democratic Party in Hawai'i and on the Mainland means reconnecting with the issues and problems of the tens of millions of people who feel abandoned by politics and are terribly vulnerable in this new global market society. Democrats need to promote a New Deal to extend health and job protection to the people denied it, to reinvest more in education and less in ($200 billion) Joint Strike Fighter planes, to defend our education and contain the natural instinct for corporate greed.
In Hawai'i, a half century ago, Democrats stood for the dignity of working people, land reform, real democratic citizenship for all people and a social welfare state second to none. It is time to return to that vision.
Noel Jacob Kent
