Letters to the Editor
Don't blame unions for business woes
According to Martha Harding (Letters, June 13), "a great deal of blame" for the high cost of doing business in Hawai'i belongs with the unions because "a whopping 24 percent of the workforce is unionized."
Yes, isn't it terrible that a quarter of our people have banded together to fight for a living wage, health benefits and a safe work environment? Yes, wouldn't it be better for business if we were all willing to work for fast-food wages? That way small businesses could make a profit while we live three to a room, eat Spam and rice every day, and forego visits to the doctor.
Wake up, Martha. This is Hawai'i. We're in the middle of the ocean, with limited resources, and top heavy with BIG business. It's not the workers who are killing small businesses. It's big business — organized, entrenched and backed with plenty of capital — that is driving its competitors out of the market.
Lou Zitnik
Proud union member
Noise is no reason to ban motor scooters
Lawnmowers, leafblowers, helicopters. Those are just three noisemakers I hear often that irritate me. I'm sure they irritate other people. So maybe we should just ban those things as well as motor scooters. The movement to prohibit motor scooters is clearly narrow-minded.
Many supporters of the ban claim that motor scooters are dangerous for people, especially children, to ride. As Kathy Bryant-Hunter of the Kailua Neighborhood Board said, "It's just a matter of time before someone is seriously injured."
At least motor scooters can't be used on freeways, unlike motorcycles. Motorcyclists ride equally, if not more, dangerously than motor scooter operators, often weaving through busy thoroughfares. The biker subculture can also attract an unpleasant criminal atmosphere, which was present when four people were murdered at a southern Nevada motorcycle convention earlier this year. You never hear about motor scooter gang wars.
I don't say we ban lawnmowers or motorcycles. Speaking as someone who does not own a motor scooter, I say don't ban something just because you hate it.
Makena Dyer
Age 15, Kailua
Developers may face educational standards
It seems ironic that the state Land Use Commission rather than the Department of Education may have taken the first step in improving the quality of educational facilities throughout Hawai'i.
When the commission votes on Castle & Cooke's proposed developments at Koa Ridge and Waiawa at its June 21 meeting, if it approves the condition of having schools in place before homes are certified for occupancy, families in Central O'ahu will have a better opportunity to send their children to adequate facilities that will be more conducive to a quality education.
Up to now, if a developer wanted zoning approval, it normally had to agree to conditions such as providing land to build a school, providing a specified dollar amount to the DOE for construction, etc. Needless to say, these costs were passed on to the buyers of the homes in the new development. Once this was done, the developer's legal responsibilities toward providing a "fair share" toward educational facilities in the community were complete.
This has not resulted in the type of education infrastructure desired by concerned parents, since the DOE can use whatever is provided by the developer under the conditions it sees fit and has to depend on the Legislature to provide financing for whatever it finally decides on. In Mililani, inadequate financing and poor planning resulting from this policy have led to schools with multitrack schedules, school overcrowding and a proliferation of portable classrooms.
If, as Castle & Cooke is concerned, this newly imposed condition is precedent-setting, then the beneficiaries of this new policy will be our families and children — not the developers, which have received the most benefit from zoning procedures up to now.
We all owe Commissioner Stanley Roehrig our gratitude for his foresight and courage in proposing this condition.
Doug Thomas
Mililani
Diatribes against Democrats misplaced
David Shapiro has every right to express his personal opinion on your editorial page. However, reading his recent "Volcanic Ash" diatribes against the Democrats make one wonder if that volcanic material has somehow fried his brains.
When he challenges the Democrats for lacking a "titan" near the stature of John Burns or Thomas Gill for the current gubernatorial race, surely he realizes that all the candidates are "titans" compared to the lightweight Linda Lingle. She's a midget next to Mazie Hirono.
This media-hyped lady has done little to distinguish herself since offending Maui environmentalists and fighting nepotism charges involving her ex-husband, other than to raise money wherever she can. She only speaks in platitudes about "change," with no other discernable message.
Sen. Daniel Inouye did far more than give a "stern scolding" to fellow Democrats during his rallying pep talk. He agreed with all of the speakers that the Democrats would prevail when they come together after the primary election.
The voters aren't as gullible as some would have us believe.
R. Carolyn Wilcox
State must protect our reef fisheries
I applaud the new proposal by the state Division of Aquatic Resources to raise the minimum-size limits for a variety of our inshore reef fish. Our reef fishery resources are severely depleted due to overfishing, and these changes are steps in the right direction.
However, the state should also face up to two even bigger problems — the almost total lack of enforcement, and a blatant and widespread misuse of gill nets.
Gill nets are commonly set out all night instead of the four-hour limit, and they kill juvenile fish indiscriminately because of their tiny mesh size. The mesh cannot recognize size limits, and the entangled fish die before the nets can be retrieved.
Fishermen recognize both the lack of enforcement and gill-net overfishing problems. So does the Division of Aquatic Resources. What is lacking is the political will on the part of the Legislature and the courts.
Tougher laws will do little to restore our reef fisheries without real enforcement and tougher sentences for violators. The enforcement agency should be put back into the Division of Aquatic Resources where it belongs, and perhaps then it can once again be accountable.
Also, our state judges need to be educated as to just how seriously depleted our reef fishes really are. A slap on the wrist for violators just doesn't cut it. In fact, gill nets should probably be banned altogether, along with scuba spear-fishing at night.
A lot more than just raising a few size limits is needed before our reef fisheries have a chance of significant recovery. By itself, it is simply too little, too late.
Richard "Rick" Grigg
Department of Oceanography, University of Hawai'i
Hawai'i should have motorcycle helmet law
As a physician who drives a car, I applauded the HPD's "Click It or Ticket" program. We all know we should wear seat belts, and rigid enforcement encourages compliance.
As a physician who rides a motorcycle, I am nevertheless appalled that although I wear a helmet while riding, wearing a helmet is not a requirement of the law. Because it is voluntary, any casual observer can note, the majority of motorcyclists are helmet-less.
Motorcycle riding is inherently more dangerous in that if there is an accident, injuries are more likely to be severe. This is why the injuries seen in motorcycle riders, who make up only a small portion of the riding public, are disproportionately high compared to automobile injuries.
I rather imagine the HPD agrees in that its own solo bike officers wear helmets, and all training programs, including bike programs, require helmets when they can.
While we pride ourselves as the "Health State," we are nevertheless in the minority of states by lacking the requirement and further lacking the enforcement of this sound and healthful habit, causing us to lose millions of dollars a year in federal highway funds. Auwe!
Jack H. Scaff Jr.
Criminal priests must face judicial system
I think the leadership of the Catholic Church in America is wrong in its decision that it is somehow OK to keep a priest in the church after he has committed sexual acts with a child, as long as he only did it one time. I'm sure that is not what God expects of priests, the church leadership or any of us.
To begin with, it is a crime, and those who are guilty should be punished according to the law of the land.
To not report the incident to the police, to protect the errant priest, or to not cooperate in prosecuting the criminal also are crimes. To retire the priest to a monastery or other location where the offender will not be called Father, not wear clerical garb and not be involved with children doesn't cut it. It flies in the face of our judicial system, the laws we all must live by.
I am aware of the critical shortage of priests and that a strict enforcement of both God's and man's laws might further decimate the ranks of the priesthood, but I think God would put the welfare of little children ahead of the concern for the criminal priests and their errant leaders.
Do these Mainland church leaders feel that murder is OK too, as long as you kill only one person? Or is it just ruining the life of a child that is permissible?
I applaud the leadership of the Catholic Church in Hawai'i who said they were not satisfied with this policy from on high, and who also said that here in the Islands we will have real "zero tolerance." Obviously, we in Hawai'i are more in tune with God's commandments and the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Keith Haugen
Nu'uanu Valley Park wrong place for center
Plans are under way to find a site in Nu'uanu Valley for a multi-purpose/senior center. Fine, so far. No one has a problem with that concept.
However, one of the prime sites under consideration for this structure is Nu'uanu Valley Park — the land immediately adjacent to Queen Emma's Summer Palace. Construction at the Queen Emma site would irreparably alter the beauty of Queen Emma's home as well as endanger some of the most beautiful trees on O'ahu.
As best I can tell, the number of people supporting a center at that site is minuscule. The constituency against locating the center is very large and includes The Outdoor Circle, the Historic Hawai'i Foundation, the Daughters of Hawai'i and Neighborhood Board No. 12. The last of these groups is, of course, the elected representatives of the citizens of Nu'uanu Valley. Yet, inexplicably and regardless of this resistance, the vision team continues to support this location as one of the prime sites for the proposed center.
The solution to this problem is simple: Eliminate the Nu'uanu Valley Park from any further consideration as the site for the multi-purpose center. Will the City Council take this sensible action? Let's hope so.
Peter F.C. Armstrong
Federal estate tax is an abomination
When it comes to estate taxes, small-business owner Jay K. Evans (Letters, June 14) is terribly misguided. He believes it is possible to stick it to the rich without dealing middle-class America a financial body blow.
The so-called "super rich" he denounces will always have the financial means and expertise to (1) influence and (2) escape the tax code that is inflicted upon the rest of us. Were Mr. Evans to succeed in growing his small business into a large, prosperous firm, wouldn't he want to provide his surviving family members the fruits of his hard work and enterprise without the confiscatory claw of government skimming off the top?
The estate tax is an abomination for one and all. It is also a political intelligence test. Fifty-four U.S. senators passed the test, but unfortunately 60 were needed to invoke cloture, end the debate and pass repeal on a permanent basis.
The twin staples of the Democrat Party — class envy and the race card — also present voters with an intelligence test. Both are negative-sum games in which everyone (except Democratic incumbents) loses.
Maybe this November a majority of us voters will pass the test by giving socially divisive tax-and-spend incumbents a long-overdue heave-ho.
Thomas E. Stuart
Kapa'au, Big Island
Political NIMBYs should be shared
NIMBY is the acronym for "not in my backyard." Waimanalo Gulch is a landfill located on the Wai'anae Coast. Sounds misleading, doesn't it? I call this political NIMBY.
It is reported that the Waimanalo Gulch landfill will be filled to capacity within two months. A new landfill site is needed. I suggest situating the new landfill in Hawai'i Kai and calling it "Nanakuli Gulch."
In the spirit of aloha — political NIMBYs should be shared.
Carolyn Peters
Wai'anae
