Posted on: Sunday, December 8, 2002

Letters to the Editor

We're looking forward to coming back home

I left two years ago for the Mainland to recuperate from brain surgery. We have been making plans to come back home at the end of next summer.

I am glad to see Gov. Lingle's "zero tolerance for rewarding friends and punishing enemies," that the administration is there for all Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians, and that it will attempt to bring back those who have left.

Gov. Lingle, congratulations. I hope and pray that your plans come to light for Hawai'i and its people without much opposition.

I know it will take time for anything of substance to happen. It may take a tug-of-war, but at least there's a tug.

Cecilia Gimenez
Chula Vista, Calif.

DOE quietly sabotaging public charter schools

Regarding Jim Campbell's Dec. 3 letter on the DOE's failure to give public charter school students their fair share of the educational dollar: Thank you, Mr. Campbell, for speaking out on behalf of Hawai'i's public charter schools.

As a parent of a child attending a charter school, I am all too familiar with the frustrations that come from being shortchanged by the DOE. It is obvious to me that the DOE is not open to change, nor is it committed to the children who attend charter schools.

As for Mr. Campbell's question, "Why is the DOE afraid of charter schools?" I can only assume that withholding money from charter schools and penalizing teachers who choose to teach at charter schools are its ways of quietly sabotaging the charter school movement.

Gov. Linda Lingle has a new vision for Hawai'i's educational system, which is obviously in need of an overhaul. She spoke of her support for the "pioneers of charter schools." I hope that Gov. Lingle will take that step to see that charter schools are given every fair opportunity to succeed.

Kerryn Carland

Elderly in care homes must be protected

Regarding your Dec. 4 article "Cayetano reduces 20-year sentence for caregiver": As an elder-law attorney, I work with the frail elderly and their families helping them find the appropriate care when independence is compromised.

It is a mark of a decent society that the weakest among us, the young, the disabled and the very old, are treated with care and respect. When a helpless elderly person is allowed to die in severe pain as the result of neglect by a person holding herself out as a professional caretaker, justice should be the same as when a person deliberately commits murder.

We need to reflect on how such a death is allowed to happen and take the steps to prevent such happenings. Although punishing after the fact is a deterrent, it is far better to have laws in place that will make it much less likely that such abuse can happen.

The Bermisa case brings home the critical need to have stricter monitoring of care homes. The licensing laws for care homes should be strengthened so that such tragic neglect is far less likely.

In particular, the frail elderly in care homes would receive better care if there were annual unannounced inspections of those homes rather than inspections announced in advance. Let us protect the weakest among us.

Judith Lee Sterling

Public officials must address Jones Act

In your recent questionnaire to the congressional candidates, 28 out of the 35 who responded favored repeal or reform of the Jones Act. That is 80 percent of those responding.

This issue is like having a crazy aunt in the attic whom no one wants to talk about. Where have our public officials been? Now Matson hits us with a container-handling charge.

Wake up, Hawai'i.
L. Donald Machado
Kailua

Bikers once again made Toy Run a success

To all the bikers who came out to support Street Bikers United Toy Run 2002: Hundreds of you, all bearing gifts for our needy children as you have for the last 27 years, made it another successful year.

Special thanks to the Honolulu Community Action Program, the Convention Center, HTA, Pacific Rim Motorcycles, HMAA, Kona HD, Dragon Productions and so many others who made this event possible. Mahalo from Street Bikers United.

Roy Gomez

A cold and lonely night, and then fate stepped in

My watch said 3 a.m. It was Feb. 4, 1942. The entire island was in darkness. It was cold as the winds blew over the waters of Pearl Harbor. A chilly haze dimmed the twinkling stars.

The mountains of 'Aiea above the harbor were a dark silhouette in the early morning darkness. The Islands were in complete silence and light-less. The fading moon and stars were the only light until daybreak.

I stood on the bridge of the Argonaut, the largest submarine in the world. Nights were long, lonely and quiet for those of us who worked that shift — 12 midnight to 8 in the morning.

What impressed me most that night was the one sailor on watch, pacing back and forth in a limited area with his rifle slung from his shoulder under his arm. He had dark-brown, short curly hair. His face showed worry and an unusual grimness. You could see the loneliness, too, as he occasionally gazed into the mountains. It was one of those moments you don't forget. He was so young, good-looking and serious.

When you think about it, nobody smiled in Pearl Harbor during those trying days. I spoke to him, but his mind was far away, probably back home in Carolina.

I could not forget that night, too, for I was disabled for a month an hour after I talked to him. You see, one of my jobs was to splash and cover the maze of water tanks in the bottom of the submarine with boiling grease to prevent rust. The smoke and heat while one is lying on his back to reach far-out areas is enough to drive you out in a half an hour.

My partner on the top rung dropped an open five-gallon can that slithered all the way down to the bottom hold and splashed a load of boiling grease right down my back, which produced blisters for many days. So I felt a special attachment for that submarine.

Later I learned that the Argonaut had a rendezvous with death that week after it left dry dock in the dark of the night. It was caught unexpectedly and sunk by a flotilla of destroyers in the Sea of Japan.

I often, even today, wonder about the young man on duty. I can still see him clearly (yes, even today), pacing back and forth grimly. Did he see his fate? That he would never come back again? Sometimes I wonder. Some things you just can't forget. I wonder where is his family today? Do they know that his mind was with them? I can still see him looking into the shadowy mountains, thinking.

America, have you forgotten?

George S. Ching