Letters to the Editor
Keep skateboard park locked until kids clean it
I wondered how long it would take before they made their "mark" at the new skateboard park in Hawai'i Kai. It wasn't very long.
I don't think the contractor or the city should have to clean up the graffiti. The contractor should finish the skateboard park and the city should accept it, if everything has been done according to the contract (except for the graffiti).
The city should then post "No Trespassing" signs on the fences and leave it locked up and off limits until the skateboarders make arrangements to clean up the mess. If it happens again, lock it up until they clean it up.
They also hit the wall by the bus stop across the street, and someone had to paint that over also.
If the city sets the rules at the beginning, then the kids will know what they have to do to keep using the park. The kids are going to have to police themselves. If they don't, then they suffer the consequences.
Brent Hancock
Turn the Natatorium into volleyball venue
The UH swimming pool, baseball stadium, softball stadium, basketball and volleyball arena, Waipi'o soccer fields, Aloha Stadium (with new turf) — "Build it and they will come." And come they did.
Hawai'i has some of the top volleyball players in the world. We should develop the Natatorium into a world-class beach volleyball stadium.
Drain the pool, fill it in with the large, waste-mixed concrete blocks from the Ala Wai. Cover that with smaller rocks, then fill with real sand and make the ex-Natatorium into the Wimbledon of Waikiki for beach volleyball.
C. Berry
School brass drag feet over student transfers
Parents of children attending high-poverty public schools that have been failing for two years or more now have the option of transferring their children to another school in their district. Last week, Secretary of Education Rod Paige issued a list of 8,600 low-performing schools nationwide where students would be eligible for the transfers next fall.
But many superintendents are complaining and objecting to this form of choice.
Even though they have known about the basics of the changes since the No Child Left Behind law passed Congress last year, they are claiming they don't have enough time to arrange the new transportation logistics.
Superintendents argue the money would be better spent fixing up the failed schools than spending funds for transportation — but they failed to take advantage of that opportunity while they had it.
Superintendents contend that too many low-performing schools are on the list, but perhaps there are too few — since some states could have been tougher about pinpointing troubled schools.
If we are to believe education officials in Arkansas and Wyoming, for example, there are no failing schools in their states — which really suggests they were too lax in confronting their educational problems.
Michigan identified 1,513 low-performing schools — more than any other state. But Michigan is noted for its strict education standards.
For more on public school choice, see the National Center for Policy Analysis Web site.
Cliff Slater
Global economy makes us competitive
The July 7 commentary by Wali Osman has me a bit dismayed. I have known Wali casually since we both started at a local bank, and he was well-schooled by the likes of David Ramsour and Sam Slom. But his defense of big government and big labor is confused in its presentation, and his conclusions just do not follow.
Osman observed that economies of scale cannot be leveraged with Hawai'i's relative size and geographic location; hence, we are the classic "niche market." What does work in Hawai'i, and optimizes our natural strengths, is small business — as both a primary and secondary driver for our economy.
The recurring problem for Hawai'i has been that big government and big labor, as presently configured, are the mortal foes of our small-business community.
Their drive to overregulate and dictate mandates, regardless of costs, have canceled out our advantages and given Hawai'i the unfriendly business image Wali was trying to address.
We must update our laws and our "no can do" attitude to recognize that the world is now an interconnected marketplace where a small business in Hawai'i can compete if we are willing to learn from others and not put our heads in the proverbial "we are special" sand.
Richard Rice
Honolulu police officers are cream of the crop
The Honolulu Police Department has taken enough flak.
Here is a little-known fact: HPD offers any non-criminal the opportunity to participate in a free 13-week class called "The Citizens Police Academy." I am a proud graduate of the 18th class.
We learned what it takes to be a police officer, and what each officer faces daily. The requirements to become an officer are formidable, and only a small percentage of applicants pass the rigorous standards.
The 35 members of my class, from all walks of life, began our journey with little in common, but we graduated with one shared sentiment: enormous respect for our "peace officers." Walk in their shoes for one day before you judge.
Pam Chambers
Europe has tipping above service charge
We were surprised by the statement in your July 15 editorial "Restaurant tipping: It shouldn't be automatic" that "What is missing in Europe is any incentive to waiters to provide service above and beyond expectations."
All over Europe, if you find service above and beyond the normal 15 percent service charge, you give what the French call "les poussieres" (the dust) — which is whatever you feel is the value of what was done above and beyond the norm. If you don't give this modest "thanks," it means you were not impressed, and usually the waiter quietly accepts the implied rebuke.
Otherwise, your article is a useful reminder of what real tipping is.
David W. Doyle
Government is not dependent on God
Richard Rowland, in this July 15 letter, claims "our entire system of government is dependent upon recognition of the fact that we all function under cognizance of God."
Like all arguments of this type, Mr. Rowland begins with an unjustifiable and unsubstantiated presumption that "God" actually exists outside the imagination of believers. Rowland further claims that " ... an attack on the concept of God is an attack on the essence of the United States of America."
Like me, more than 30 million Americans have explicitly chosen to reject religion in favor of a secular "impetus for our individual creativity, liberty and prosperity." We do not believe in Rowland's concept of God; to us Christianity is a delusionary fantasy. Yet we, the millions of nonreligious Americans and majority of Hawai'i residents, are citizens, too. We are also guaranteed due process and the equal protection of laws under the Constitution.
Rowland implies that doubt, skepticism and criticism of religion and religious ideas are somehow un-American, when in fact such questioning of authority is the cornerstone of democracy.
Mitchell Kahle
President, Hawai'i Citizens for the Separation of State and Church
Combine Hula Show with Hawai'i Calls
In reading about the old Kodak Hula Show and its sponsorship, may I say that the Hawai'i Calls show, which I own, could perhaps be melded with the Hula Show?
Through the use of radio, which is now many times the size of radio in the past, with many millions of listeners, the show could be presented to people around the world, instead of the 800 people at Kapi'olani Park.
Many times more bang for the buck is what you would get, if the sponsors are interested.
Don McDiarmid Jr.
Where's responsibility for our bad economy?
Oh, the local economy. Everyone is hoping it will get better, but woe is us.
They told us the bad economy was because the Japanese weren't buying houses anymore. Then they said it was the Persian Gulf War. Yeah, that's it, the Persian Gulf War. Then 49 other states participated in one of the largest and longest economic expansions in history. Hawai'i watched. It will get better, they told us. We did nothing. Now we blame the war on terrorism and corporate scandal for our economy.
As our schools and roads fall apart, as our government leaders get hauled off to jail, as government spending remains out of control and as real economic reform languishes, how nice to be able to blame something else.
Mark Middleton
Kapolei
Movie on Kamehameha would be a travesty
Just say no to Hollywood!
Here's one Hawaiian who has had it with Hollywood's infiltration, glamorization and blatant capitalization of our rich past.
The story of Kamehameha needs to be told, but not this way: with screenwriters who will tweak and take artistic liberties in the visual oration of Hawai'i's past.
Having "The Rock" play Kamehameha based on a script by Greg Poirier? Now North Shore Pictures wants to produce a replica film, and can't even get the story straight? "It would be a great taboo for the part of Kamehameha to go to a nationality that was a fierce enemy of the Hawaiians during that time." Samoans were fierce enemies of the Hawaiians, OK?
Focusing on his love life? Are they even aware of the love life in which Kamehameha and his contemporaries engaged? This just reminds me of what we've come to expect from Hollywood. Terrible copycat movies.
Of course, our government will see to it that these movies get done by offering insane tax breaks and perks that will bring in jobs to the state.
P. Kahananui
They're at it again
I realize it is no longer in the news, but has anyone noticed that our local gasoline prices are going up again? We're now about 40 to 50 cents higher per gallon than the national average.
Carmen U'ilani Haugen
How would you tell the princess?
Dear Dr. McCubbin:
I am writing on behalf of myself and my 'ohana, which shares my sentiments regarding recent news of the Kamehameha Schools having admitted its first non-Hawaiian student due to exhausting the pool of qualified Hawaiian applicants.
At this moment, I wish I did not have so much aloha for and so many ties to the school that has guided my life since age 5 and helped me to realize my abilities, weaknesses and dreams up until the present day, as I begin my fourth year of medical school. Maybe then I could more easily assure you that my views are free of any negativity, the "us against them" attitude so often attributed to Hawaiians by the media, in highly visible struggles over land, government, education and other rights instead of being derived only from good conscience.
I believe any person of good conscience — non-Kamehameha alumnus, non-Hawaiian, non-Hawai'i local, a complete outsider looking in — should have difficulty agreeing with your recent action. I urge you to think about two truths:
- There are many schools non-Hawaiians may choose to attend, and many Hawaiian children attend schools who each year are refused an opportunity to attend the Kamehameha Schools.
- Having to defend Hawaiian rights and values within a society of numerous other influences is virtually unchanged from the time of our beloved princess. Bernice Pauahi Bishop bequeathed the Kamehameha Schools to be an educational institution for Hawaiian children because she foresaw the challenges they would face.
Gently refusing Lot Kamehameha and the throne, in love with and married to a foreign businessman, she not only held off pressure from Charles Reed Bishop and foreign interests, but persuaded her husband of the importance of securing Hawaiian interests, and together they took action. Her manner was not flamboyant, but wise and effective, the Hawaiian way of unspoken obligation.
I urge you to ask yourself if you came upon this strong Hawaiian woman today, if you would be able to look her in the eye and justify your stance, because more than ever before I see her spirit in the faces of our Hawaiian children.
Kristin K. Fernandez
Class of 1991
