Letters to the Editor
Cameras should track traffic-flow violators
While I am in favor of new, effective measures to improve safety on the roads, I think a too-hasty installation and use of these cameras have resulted in a social and civil mistake.
As much as the next driver, I dislike and fear antisocial speeders and slalom drivers on our faster roads. However, I also believe that the great bulk of drivers here are your decent, nationally-above-average, considerate citizens in a state that still deserves its title of the "Aloha State." What upsets me, and I suspect most drivers, is the social myopia of the system.
First, the camera is totally impersonal. It has no reciprocity, no judgment; it just works mechanically. This is never a good basis for justice.
Second, people tend to act on and feel reassured by the civil tone around them. Here I mean "traffic flow."
Surely the clever camera technicians can adjust their computers to catch speeders who violate the flow, rather than those driving at fixed speeds. Flow above a certain speed, of course, would automatically set off the camera.
How about trying to work with the public instead of against it?
Michael Preston
Clear up problems with camera program
Hello? Didn't anyone read David Shapiro's Jan. 24 commentary? He effectively described some of the main problems that need to be addressed about the camera system. In case you missed it, here's a recap:
• We'd like the state to acknowledge that a margin of error is calculated into the program. (Anyone reading the papers knows that reporters who have been doing their homework have discovered there is one, but the state can't acknowledge it due to legal implications.)
• We'd like the citations to be treated like parking tickets and not affect insurance. (The state said this is an insurance company matter, and kudos to AIG to be the first to say it may actually consider not having them affect rates.)
• We're concerned about the profit motive of ACS and the state. (But the fact that they are looking at adjusting it to a flat fee is comforting, and I really am happy that this program was originally designed to have those breaking the law foot the bill for implementation of it.)
• Police support is needed for the program. (This can be something that will benefit them, too. As we all know, officers have a lot to do in addition to catching speeders, and they can't be everywhere at once.)
I believe this program can work in some fashion with adjustments and am appreciative of the lawmakers and others who have been willing to give it a chance. Standing up for finding a reasonable solution, rather than scrapping the program because of a little heat, is what our leaders should be doing.
Mia Noguchi
East Honolulu
A little help, please
Why don't the front-line inspectors who require young mothers carrying a baby in one arm and replacement duds in the other to remove their shoes have a speck of chivalry and carry a long shoehorn?
Ted Gibson
'Pre-Plus' program should be shelved
When Gov. Ben Cayetano, in his State of the State address, proposed a universal preschool program, he promised that the program would not entail the use of general funds.
The governor has overseen the gutting of the public education system, the breaking of agreements with school teachers and the overcrowding of classrooms in order to meet what he calls "a budgetary crisis." Yet, through all of this, the "Pre-Plus" program moves forward.
Nobody would argue against the noble notion of guaranteed preschool for all of Hawai'i's children. But this issue has become more about Cayetano's legacy than it is about providing what our children need.
The governor didn't get his "Disneyland" in Diamond Head crater; he didn't get his giant aquarium in Kaka'ako. Now he wants this final program as a monument to his administration before he leaves office this year. Sanity dictates that we first solve our problems in the K-12 system before pouring much-needed funds into new initiatives.
Ken Armstrong
Political differences
I heard the nonsense about putting aside political differences. There is no legitimate consensus without conflict. I often complained about the governor's attitude, but when he shoved back hard, I usually agreed with him.
David Arthur Walters
Will didn't provide for Hawaiians only
Damon Senaha attempts in a Jan. 23 letter to perpetuate a myth about Princess Pauahi's will. He says "plain language" within the will gives "(admissions) preference to Hawaiians of pure or part aboriginal blood."
That language does not apply to the two Kamehameha schools she funded. It applies to a later section of the will wherein she directs her trustees "to devote a portion of each year's income to the support and education of orphans and others in indigent circumstances" and, in this section only, adds "giving the preference to Hawaiians, etc. ... "
Senaha and others must have the language of the will before them to be able to quote as they do. But they persistently distort the quotes.
When the schools were started, the then-trustees did indeed begin the current policy of admitting only those with a drop of Hawaiian blood — discriminatory even then, but accepted because the schools were private and did not benefit from U.S. tax policy. Now they do (the schools have become a 501-C-3 organization and thus are exempt from taxes), and now they are discriminating on the basis of race, which is a no-no in the United States.
It's time to stop beating this dead horse and instead stop discriminating on the basis of race, whether it's being done by OHA, Kamehameha Schools, the University of Hawai'i, the federal government or whatever.
Thurston Twigg-Smith
What's the reason for 'lovers' lane' curfew?
Round Top Lookout, otherwise known as Tantalus, was for many years a kind of "lovers' lane." For many O'ahu couples, this destination was the quintessential consummation of a romantic night out on the town. With the luster of city lights below, stars above and the moon over the Ko'olau mountains, the nights were dazzling.
But in recent years, there has been a strict ban imposed on parking from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m. at this magnificent site. The same restrictions apply to other romantic spots, including Diamond Head Lookout. One must assume that because of public-safety issues, these restrictions have been placed on us. Has it really become too hazardous for us to park on a public road at night?
Who makes these decisions for us and based on what information? Has O'ahu really become so dangerous that the police need to impose a curfew on law-abiding citizens?
It seems logical that increased patrols, not curfews or parking bans, would allow an acceptable measure of safety to move about as free people at any time of day or night. In these troubled times, couldn't we all use a little more beauty and romance in our lives?
Michael J. Lauck
Cruise ship gamblers can afford their losses
In regard to the Jan. 18 Island Voices piece by H. Robert Hampton, "Shipboard gambling is the only way to go": I agree wholeheartedly with his conclusion that Hawai'i should legalize gambling on cruise ships, but not elsewhere.
However, Hampton failed to mention what is to me the most important reason that casinos should be kept away from our fair shores: The people who gamble on cruise ships can generally afford to lose. On the other hand, many people who cannot afford to lose would frequent casinos, with consequent hardship for low- and moderate-income families — and the state welfare system.
That is reason enough to keep the casinos out of the great state of Hawai'i.
William M. Stephens
Lahaina, Maui
Gaming referendum good for democracy
Let's have a referendum on gaming. I think public debates are healthy in a democracy.
Also, debates teach people to be civilized; for example, there is no absolute "freedom of thought," even though many voters assume they can try to communicate with others whenever they may want to do so.
Phil Robertson
Public-school teachers have unique problems
Regarding Cliff Slater's Jan. 21 commentary "DOE: Rigor mortis has set in": You must understand why the DOE requires the extra courses for people who are coming for positions with master's or a doctorate degree. It is important when you enter the public educational system to have a background in classroom management.
Private schools may remove a student relatively easily for disruptive behavior; the public system cannot. In the public sector of education, when you have a problem student, it is the teacher's job to handle the problem.
When a child is sent to a private school, the parents' expectations of the child's work is greatly increased, as well as the parents' involvement. It is easy to step into a classroom of 24 students who are well behaved and who do all their homework.
You must physically assault someone to get removed from a public school, and sometimes that won't even get you kicked out.
The DOE could hire those professionals with a clause that they will fulfill the DOE requirements within a certain time frame.
Michael Thomas
King would be against U.S. response to 9/11
Your article on the Honolulu parade honoring Martin Luther King Jr. ignored the many marchers who applied King's anti-war message to America's present war. The violent U.S. response to the 9/11 atrocity will worsen the suffering for millions around the world and escalate the cycle of war, violence and terror.
King strongly denounced nuclear arms and the Vietnam War and spoke passionately against the evils of militarism, as well as racism. He loved America too deeply to let it become a violent and decadent empire.
King was a great man because he dared to speak unpleasant truths about the human condition in order to illuminate a way to justice and peace. His words still challenge us today. This is why we honor him each year.
Kyle Kajihiro
American Friends Service Committee — Hawai'i
New energy policy must be developed
Robert Levy's Jan. 9 response to my commentary of Jan. 3 missed the point that Sen. Akaka has misled the people of Hawai'i about the human rights and environmental consequences of oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Oil extraction is an immense, dirty, "for-profit" business, and its very presence will transform this pristine wilderness into an industrial zone. Oil development there will harm the great porcupine caribou herd and destroy the traditional life of the Gwich'in, who are the caribou people.
Ninety-five percent of Alaska's North Slope is already open to the oil companies. Only the arctic refuge is protected. Sacrificing our finest public lands, the magnificent and irreplaceable coastal plain of the arctic refuge, will not solve our energy problems.
We must redirect our national energy policy toward conservation and the development of renewable fuels and systems, the technology of the future. Then, as a society and as individuals, we will not feel compelled to destroy what is sacred for what Levy calls our "civilized condition."
Masako Cordray
Reforested land didn't attract native bird
Jan TenBruggencate's Jan. 21 article entitled "Reforested land proves to be native attraction" is misleading.
The juvenile endangered 'akiapola'au heard calling in the replanted area was most likely there purely by chance or was lost, and not a result of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services replanting efforts. The fact that we fly over open ocean to visit Neighbor Islands doesn't mean we use the open ocean for habitat, but we must cross over it to get where we want to go. It would take many decades for the replanted area to mature in order to sustain a living environment for the 'akiapola'au.
Biologists learned that native plants do better when planted under koa trees than if planted alone in open fields. A Big Island private landowner proved this to them in 1977. Prior to that, the same biologists said it couldn't be done.
Foresters, ranchers and private landowners with vast amounts of on-the-ground expertise, knowledge and common sense know far more than most ecologists will ever hope to in their entire professional career.
Bill Rosehill
Kailua, Kona, Big Island
