Letters to the Editor
Today is the deadline for filing to run for office
Applause to The Advertiser for the long-running series on voter apathy. Truly, our democracy is only as strong as voter participation.
Today is the deadline for filing to run for office. Currently, many elected positions have hardly anyone running for them. The future of Hawai'i will be determined today, as much as in November. If new blood and new ideas coming from new candidates do not occur, we will continue the same system of "government as usual."
It is not hard to run for office, but it does take courage. May God bless us with the courage to run.
Kyle Kopitke
Target the Democrats on campaign reform
Richard Miller lectures Republicans for "hypocrisy" on campaign spending in his July 11 letter. Right word, wrong target.
For five sessions, Republicans have fought to end the corruption of Democratic governors and mayors who force the contractors they do business with to contribute to their campaigns. Our position is consistent and clear: We mustered 23 votes to attempt an override of Democratic Gov. Cayetano's campaign finance reform veto.
Where were the Democrats? Cayetano vetoed campaign reform just as Democratic legislators were bulk-mailing reports claiming to have brought Hawai'i "campaign finance reform." Yet except for Ed Case, every Democrat supported a Democratic governor who depends on tainted contributions, abandoning a reform bill that they themselves had all voted to pass.
Mr. Miller, who are your true hypocrites?
Rep. Galen Fox
House Republican leader
Every Hawaiian child should be admitted
Kamehameha's admittance of a non-Hawaiian student to the Maui campus is an outrageous waste of Princess Pauahi's legacy.
There are 48,000 Hawaiian children in Hawai'i's public schools, of whom only 5 percent will attend college. If there were not enough "qualified" children of Hawaiian ancestry on Maui, then the "qualifications" should be changed until Kamehameha serves every Hawaiian child of Maui.
Pauahi did not mean for this school to be only for the elite Hawaiian; she wanted education for all Hawaiian children, and shame on Kamehameha for making such a decision.
Obviously the administrator of the Maui campus lacks understanding of the great depth of despair Hawaiians feel when they are rejected by Kamehameha and are subjected to the racist, anti-Hawaiian, substandard education so often found in public schools.
All Kamehameha employees who agreed to this decision — from the Maui campus, to Hamilton McCubbin to the board of trustees — should be fired for violating the trust of the Hawaiian people.
Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa
Class of 1970
Director, Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies
Kamehameha Schools violates Constitution
Regarding the admission of a non-Hawaiian student to Kamehameha Schools: Maui was a ploy by the trustees to appease the IRS and other critics of the schools.
This institution violates the U.S. Constitution. Along with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, these institutions continue to divide the people of Hawai'i, and foster resentment in the population.
As half Native American, I must wonder why this is allowed to continue. One can only hope the Supreme Court will end this charade, and all the children of Hawai'i will be cherished equally, regardless of who they are.
Jeff Thomas
Mililani
'Outrage' misplaced in trustees' decision
I am confused by the "outrage" at the Kamehameha Schools trustees' decision to admit a non-Hawaiian child to the Maui campus.
Where is the outrage that with more than 420 native Hawaiian 8th graders who could have applied, only 64 did so? Should outrage be directed at these families? Or, did they fail to apply because they didn't think they would meet the admission criteria?
What about the admission criteria? Where is the outrage that for many years children have seen a sibling accepted while they have been rejected? Did the princess intend it to be an elite and exclusive college prep school?
You report that some say "the schools have left too many students behind while educating only the best and brightest." Certainly, since the best and brightest usually do very well in our public schools, perhaps the princess' wish would have been best fulfilled by helping those at the bottom rather than those at the top. Or, since every Hawaiian can already get an education in our public schools, perhaps an elite school does conform closest to her wishes.
But what then does Oswald Stender think the roll of our public schools should be if the trustees are able to answer his demand that they "satisfy every Hawaiian child's education first"? And, as an elite school, might there not be space for one or two non-Hawaiian orphans or indigent children who are also of the best and brightest?
At least this would be consistent with the words of her will, and perhaps save the school's tax-exempt status from indictments of racism.
Robert B. Fraser
We should emulate Canadians on litter
I recently returned from a trip to Canada. I was amazed at how clean and litter-free that country was. I traveled over 1,500 miles, driving through different cities. I must say for a large country, the Canadians do a fine job of keeping the freeways and city streets practically litter-free.
Then I noticed the no-littering signs indicating a $2,000 fine. This sounds like a great idea for the state of Hawai'i. If anyone was fined $2,000 for littering, I can guarantee he wouldn't do it again. Then perhaps this state could look as beautiful and litter-free as it was meant to be.
On July 5, I rode my bike through Ala Moana Beach Park and was horrified to see the trash from the fireworks and the park users on the Fourth of July. There were boxes and wrappers and debris of all sorts from the used fireworks in the canal and all over the grassy picnic area of the park.
It is such a sad sight to look at any neighborhood in this state and see the junk in people's yards. Everything from rusted cars, refrigerators, washers, scrap metal, wood, etc.
People, you know who you are. Haul it to the dump. Put litter and trash where it belongs.
Then there are those who flick their cigarette butts out of their cars as if the roads were a trash can. If you think the roads are for your litter, then have your neighbors throw it in your yard or patio and see how that looks.
Be responsible. Your reflection will show through the pride and beauty of your 'aina.
Tom Aki
Business doesn't decline with a ban
Hip-hip-hooray for the smoking ban in Honolulu restaurants! This means that on the evenings that I am in Honolulu, I can go out to eat and leave without smelling like an ashtray.
Before I went away to school, I didn't know there was such a thing as a nonsmoking restaurant and would have probably been up there with the folks who believe that creating such a ban would be detrimental to business. Not anymore. I went to school in Colorado, where there is no smoking in most restaurants. In Boulder, you're not even allowed to smoke in bars.
Was there a decline in business? No. Not even in the dead of winter. Folks huddled around warming lamps to smoke their cigarettes, then proceeded back inside to join their nonsmoking friends. I loved it. I also got used to it.
When I returned to my beloved home and started my family, I was dismayed at how few accommodations there were for nonsmokers. While pregnant, I got hungry for the kind of burger that only a fast-food chain restaurant can provide. There were dozens of open tables in the "smoking section" while nothing was available in the "nonsmoking section," so naturally I left.
Even now, when out with my keiki, I cringe when there is nothing left but seating in the smoking section. That should give business owners a hint.
Bravo, Honolulu. I only hope that Maui soon follows suit.
T. Lee-Greig
Makawao, Maui
Why didn't UH let us know about live TV?
On June 24, I and many others received our UH ticket-renewal forms in the mail with the donation amount attached. Renew by July 5. As a true season-ticket holder, I immediately sent my renewal form in, no donation. Because I sit under the scoreboard, I get no instant replay.
Well, low and behold, on July 12, UH announces that Pay Per View will start broadcasting live at the cost of $12.95 a game. Why wasn't this announcement made when the season tickets were being renewed?
UH did not want to let me know that I could sit at home, avoid the hassle at the gate (no umbrellas, purses, hats, etc.) and watch instant replay and save money.
Well, this season-ticket holder, as well as three others at my workplace, will not renew next year. Oops, there will probably be a donation to watch next year's games.
Jim Grimes
Pure Hawaiians are gracious, compassionate
I have had the great pleasure during my nearly 40 years in Hawai'i to meet a precious few pure Hawaiians, and I can tell you from these encounters that these people are the most gracious, loving people I have ever met.
They are not concerned about wealth or power. They are full of love and compassion, no matter what color you are or where you come from. Their hearts are pure and they have no guile.
We must consider these marvelous and disappearing traits very, very carefully before using the term "Hawaiian."
M. Gilleland
Hau'ula
Union should have taken strike vote
I am a Local 5 member of over 25 years who supports union rallies. I further believe the civil disobedience tactic is worthwhile. Unfortunately, union leaders being what union leaders are, they like to hug the spotlight and are deafened sometimes by the loud noise of their closed ring of supporters, indifferent to others of equally valid voice.
My problem with this recent episode is that lost deeply within the air time given to the hotel demonstration were a few fundamental facts:
- Our membership or, more precisely, the affected memberships of the hotels being targeted by the union have not been given a chance to express through a vote their support or lack of support for what is essentially a negative economic action against their places of work. But the union leadership proclaims membership support. A vote of support would likely draw the employers to bargain with a little more seriousness.
- By all accounts that have come my way, our local union is being overly influenced by the international union. That, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. However, not having bargaining sessions because the international negotiator is only available from San Francisco every two weeks demonstrates in the minds of many a dependence on outsiders and a feeling that it is the union that is not available to meet.
- Canceling the union agreement prior to a strike vote being taken puts our members at risk. It is a virtual certainty that terrorism will strike again. If an airliner is blown up or some other catastrophic event occurs, not only will the tourists stop coming, but our members will be without union protection at the most vulnerable of times.
- There seems to be a great deal of nervousness over what is really going on with our union. Faction politics and a lack of proper follow-through by the international union last year when our union was in trusteeship have made many members apathetic to union issues.
Compound this with economic downturns, real or perceived, staff cutbacks, real or perceived, and you have human beings doing what human beings will do best: seek the confines and security of what they know. They will report to work and not take any actions or adventures into the risk of the unknown.
All in all, a very complex and unfortunate future is beginning to take shape solely because the simple step of taking an independently verifiable strike vote prior to the implementation of economic actions against affected hotel operators has not taken place. So long as democracy is not practiced actively and consistently within Local 5, the members and our visitor industry will pay the consequences.
Patrick J "Korky" Gallagher
