Letters to the Editor
Public should be told Felix case specifics
We write in response to the Nov. 20 editorial, "Accountability, not ducking for Felix."
It is our position that The Advertiser's editors have taken umbrage with the Legislature's attempt to scrutinize Felix. We note that your education reporters have been fair in their coverage of the issue, in particular the work of the Joint Senate-House Felix Investigative Committee. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same for you.
We recognize that editors do not owe any of us an obligation to be fair because editorials are your opinions, an exercise of your First Amendment rights, rights that we believe in and support.
Notwithstanding, you do owe the public and us a disclosure of your newspaper's long-standing relationship with attorney Jeffrey Portnoy, who is the Felix special master. It goes without saying that Portnoy has been critical of the Legislature and its investigative committee.
You should also inform the public that Portnoy was a party to the meeting held prior to the investigative committee convening in mid-June 2001, where the decision was made that we would not be permitted to subpoena Dr. Ivor Groves, the court's monitor who reports to Portnoy, unless we did so in a manner that would fully protect and severely limit the scope of Groves' testimony.
With this letter, we hope that the public will be able to resolve the obvious differences in the opinions expressed by the two dailies.
Sen. Colleen Hanabusa
Rep. Scott K. Saiki
Co-Chairs, Joint Senate-House Felix Investigative Committee
Blame ourselves for our need to drill
I was amused by Masako Cordray's Jan. 3 commentary condemning our Sen. Akaka for endorsing the drilling for oil in the northern part of Alaska.
While I sympathize with the indigenous people who populate the area, it is in our national interest to produce our own source of hydrocarbons. We are a civilization dependent on sources of energy. We have about exhausted our woodland supply; coal is still plentiful but comes with heavy baggage (heaven forbid that we use atomic energy); there are few sources of hydro-power left; wind power is unreliable. And so we depend on petroleum products, e.g. liquid oil or gas.
Cordray chooses to live on these remote Islands where her every article of clothing, most of her foodstuffs and all of her power needs have to be flown in, shipped in, barged in and truck-delivered. If she were to look out her window (a silica and soda melted product), at her vehicle (a smelted, oil-burning machine), sitting on a paved road (petroleum residue), she may come to realize that it is our demand for electricity (oil- and gas-generated) that drives the need for more drilling.
It is not Akaka or President Bush who would be responsible for despoiling the wildlife preserve; it is she and I and all of us who have come to expect to exist in our present civilized condition.
Robert Levy
Send the Robocops back to Mainland
Speeders are hazardous, but Hawai'i is stepping all over my idea of American liberty.
There is something subtly inhumane and unethical about cameras replacing people for the sake of money in law enforcement. Expect an increase in bench warrants, jailings and fugitives, for sure.
It's clear that innocent drivers may pay, too, since registered owners answer to the court. It's like proving innocence. The Fifth Amendment protects spouses from testifying against each other, but camera cops will ask this on a form.
Everyone knows that speed limits are stupendously low (by 10 to 15 mph), so camera cops' justice doesn't fit the naturally occurring driving on the roads.
I'm for American justice that has human cops to interpret the law and that doesn't let a picture of a license plate put someone in jail, which will happen to some poor shmuck. Money is not worth pushing the limits of justice. Vote for those against it.
God bless America and send the Robocops back to the Mainland from whence they came, along with their greedy corporate sponsors.
Anthony Julius Lannutti
What about going after Sunday drivers?
With the hullaballoo ensuing over the new system for catching all those color-blind guys who run red lights thinking that they are green and all the wanna-be "speed racers" out there (you know the type), I personally would like to know if people going under the speed limit will be treated the same way. That's right, the dreaded (shudder, gasp) Sunday driver.
You know who you are. You are a menace to society. Seriously, though, it's been proven scientifically that these underachievers are just as dangerous as the overachievers.
Also, and this makes me sound jaded, I bet very few off-duty police officers and their family members will receive many of these little pieces of paper. I don't think this system is fair for your average everyday types such as myself who quite often just go with the flow of traffic, just another fish in a school.
Auwe! What a waste of money.
Nora Jean Tudor
The 'General' gave everyone his heart
I can't stop thinking about the "General." He gave to everyone more than money; he touched you with a piece of his heart and was a philanthropist to your soul.
With the roar of Tony the Tiger and the charisma of Billy Graham, the General would make your day. When asking the General, how's everything? — his animated signature reply was "Grrrreeeeaaaatttttt!" When feeding the homeless every Sunday at Ft. DeRussy Beach Park, he would always say, "I'll put a smile on your face and a stain on your shirt."
He had the perfect words for whomever he was talking to; he knew what you needed to hear. You always felt a breath of fresh air in the General's presence — an angel, so to speak. I miss him so.
To quote my friend, "A hui hou, aloha kakou, malama pono and God Bless America, the red, white and blue."
Jim Rosen
Cruise ship gambling would fix problems
If I were Ben Cayetano, I would buy a cruise ship and legalize gambling only on the cruise ship. That would increase money for schools and fix our economy.
People of Hawai'i would have jobs and we would have a lot of tourists. The cruise ship could go around the Hawaiian Islands and pick up and drop off people, who could see the Islands from a whole different view.
Win or lose on the cruise ship (gambling, that is), there would be two vacations in one great package. Without having to build extra-high-rises and thousands of neon lights like Vegas, we would just use Hawai'i's beauty.
S. Matsusaka
Better protection needed for bicyclists
I was born and raised on O'ahu. I was hit by a careless driver in Waikiki when I was a child. Every time I go home to visit, I am run off the road on my bicycle by large commercial trucks and sometimes cars, for no reason except carelessness from the driver.
There needs to be more enforcement to protect bicyclists. Higher fines and more attention would correct this problem quickly.
The law says to share the road. But that is not happening. Life is valuable. Prove it, do something, before someone gets killed. Support pollution-free bikes.
Greg Kai
Seattle
Neighborhood boards could have real power
The best remedy for the ills of democracy is more democracy.
When I was a member of the Honolulu City Charter Commission in 1972, I proposed that the commission recommend a state law that would allow areas with sufficient population to form their own municipal government. Communities that come to mind in those days were Waipahu, Kailua, Kane'ohe, Hale'iwa, 'Aiea, Wahiawa. Two or more communities could form a single political entity such as Makaha, Wai'anae and Nanakuli. The local interest this would generate would be a revival of government "of the people, by the people, for the people."
As with any new idea — new to Hawai'i, that is — there were more objections and dire predictions than helpful modifications. A majority of the members stated their principal objection as being the cost of such a development. Nothing can match the present cost of voter apathy. An unstated objection was the reduction in power of the organized political parties, neither of which could override a local maverick majority when it came to local matters.
Local townships could contract with the city or the state for services that would be too expensive to duplicate, with the threat of doing their own thing if the contracted services were not satisfactory, and also the option of providing additional services at their own cost if they so desired.
My effort did not prevail. Instead, a watered-down substitution resulted in the creation of the neighborhood boards with no real power. These same neighborhood boards could now become the basis for the creation of new townships with real power.
I do not harbor any hope that this idea will be realized in the near future. Nobody objected to the abolition of the lame-duck session of Congress and the earlier installment of the new president of the U.S., yet it took 20 years to become a reality with the 20th Amendment to the Constitution.
Now is not too soon to start beating the drum for more democracy.
Samuel P. King
Don't do what I did: a lifetime of mistakes
I am an inmate at O'ahu Community Correctional Center. If what I have to say will stop one child from making the mistakes I made, the five years I face will be worthwhile.
I am 46 years old and have been an alcoholic for 30 years and an addict for 20. I am a college graduate, a father of three sons and a former Honolulu police officer.
I started off at age 15; we drank cheap wine and drove fast cars. Sex was a daily affair. Things slowed down a bit when I entered the Honolulu Police Department. I truly loved my job. I did not, however, have the discipline needed to walk the talk.
I lost my job over the same type of behavior I had enjoyed as a 15-year-old: alcohol and sex.
The old friends (cops) I had disappeared and the new ones said try it. I did. And could not stop.
I even had a second chance when six years later I got my job back only to lose it a second time in a reverse-buy sting operation (I bought drugs from an undercover cop).
Please listen to me when I say don't just say no. Get angry. Anyone who would tell you to try drugs is not your friend.
I am now divorced, broke, career-less and in prison facing five years. I have been in and out of prison most of my adult life and I have been arrested 72 times, all for drug-related crimes. I have begged, borrowed and stolen. Most of my new friends are dead (overdosed or murdered). Only the Lord knows why I am still here.
One brother is an attorney and the other is a successful businessman. Both do not drink or use drugs. My two sisters are also drug- and alcohol-free, married and doing well. I want very much to have what they have: success and sobriety.
My New Year's (life) resolution is to get back in school and to not use drugs or alcohol. I would like to ask all of our children to make a resolution to stay away from drugs and alcohol as well. Anyone who wishes to write me, please do so and I will respond. My address is Michael Spiker, A0156115, M/3, 2199 Kamehameha Highway, Honolulu, HI 96819.
Mike Spiker
Inmate, addict, O'ahu Community Correctional Facility
