Letters to the Editor
Congratulations, 'Bows, on an exciting season
Kudos to Coach Riley Wallace and the UH men's basketball team for winning the WAC title, again.
Despite losing top scorer Predrag Savovic against Fresno State, they toughed it out with great performances from Carl English and Mike McIntyre. This has been an exciting season, and the team has done well.
All Hawai'i should be proud of these young men and their coaches for their accomplishments.
Now, on to the playoffs and the Big Dance. Go 'Bows! Geev um!
B.J. Van Gieson
Kane'ohe
New student bus pass idea drawing converts
The public has reacted enthusiastically to the proposal to allow colleges and universities to pay lump sums to the transit provider so their students, faculty and staff do not have to pay when they board TheBus.
The bus pass program will help reduce parking demand on our campuses, increase mobility for our students, make our transit system more efficient and help reduce traffic congestion.
A University of Hawai'i student who submitted testimony supporting the program noted that something as simple as having clearer validation symbols on ID cards could help ensure that abuse of the system does not occur. This has been done at Amherst and in other college towns with great success.
We can find creative ways to work out the details so this program can make a big difference for our students, community and the environment by promoting transit use.
Duke Bainum
Councilman, District IV
If you want a 'real education,' pay for it
Ah, the poor mother of three children who feels shortchanged by the proposed cuts in education. The state isn't exactly rolling in dough these days, you know. We shouldn't neglect our other responsibilities to the community so her kids can have "a real education."
In my days, kids who wanted a better education went to private schools. Either the parents paid for it or their kids were the brightest of the bunch and got scholarships. If you couldn't afford it and weren't Albert Einstein and you still wanted to get ahead, you were motivated to study and got a job to help pay for your tuition.
Leave OHA and the poor Hawaiians out of it. If you still want your kids to get a "real education," pay for it out of your own pocket.
G. Chung
Gambling proposal ignores social costs
Regarding the Feb. 22 letter by David Masaki: He wants us to give gambling a try in Hawai'i; his plan promises easy wealth, painlessly acquired. He makes it sound so easy to raise funds for the schools or the state budget.
The process of a trial gambling period offers instant wealth, just around the corner, waiting for the right card or the six lucky numbers on the next lottery ticket. Greed drives the mindset that speaks.
But Masaki failed to tell us what these states are paying in social costs. The results are sad stories of addictions, bankruptcies, crime, corruption, embezzlements, unpaid bills, broken families and self-destruction.
The state of Nevada leads the nation in "zero-parent families," and has the highest rates of suicide, divorce, high-school dropouts, women killed by men and gambling addictions. It is also near the top in bankruptcies, abortions, rape, alcohol-related deaths, crime and prison population.
Masaki did not tell us of the well-documented truths about corruption induced by the gambling industry at every level of government, local, state and federal. Las Vegas epitomizes drug-trafficking, money-laundering, corrupt politicians and exploitation.
Gambling proponents and compromising politicians are boring away at the heart and soul of America. Many states have had governors, legislators, mayors and other high officials convicted of crimes associated with gambling interests, while gamblers' collective losses in 2000 amounted to $51 billion.
To give legalized gambling a trial period is proposing a decay that will destroy us from within. Is that really what he wants in Hawai'i?
Marshall K. Hood
Matsuura unbelievably arrogant about bill
Sen. David Matsuura, please tell us it ain't so. Please tell us you did not say, "Absolutely, I will not hear assisted suicide. This dumb bill wasn't even on our radar screen. I haven't even looked at the measure or studied this measure yet."
If any of our children made a statement like yours, we would be appalled.
"You mean you haven't even looked at it or studied it and you can call it a dumb thing? How could you?" That's what we would say to our children.
So, please restore our faith in our leaders, adults who hold our fate in their hands.
Also, is it not amazing that in our democracy, one person, the chairman of a committee, has the power to kill a bill by refusing to have it heard by the committee? Not only is it undemocratic, it is unbelievably arrogant.
Jim and Yoshie Tanabe
Waipahu
Pedestrians don't have car's protections
Pedestrians are not surrounded by crumple zones, side-impact protection and air bags. Small cars don't stand a chance against hulking SUVs and light trucks. Mopedists, bicyclists and motorcyclists are at the mercy of their four-wheel brethren. Their safety counts, too. Therefore, let's remember a few key concepts:
- Motorists often cannot safely operate their vehicles 10 to 20 mph over the posted speed limits. School zones, busy urban centers, freeways with bizarre on- and off-ramp placement (i.e., H-1 between Kaimuki and Downtown) and highways passing through residential areas (i.e., Farrington, Pali) were not designed for high speed.
- While cars have been improved, humans are as fragile as ever.
Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show fatalities decreasing in the last decade, but Hawai'i ranks sixth highest in the pedestrian death rate per 100,000 population and third highest in the ratio of pedestrian deaths to total traffic fatalities.
- Even if speeders are the majority, the majority doesn't always rule in our republic. Courts can and do overrule the will of even millions of citizens.
- Most of our time wasted in traffic is due to traffic congestion, not low speed limits. That's true in Hawai'i and on the Mainland, where speed limits are higher.
Khalil J. Spencer
How can city lose money at Hanauma?
Please explain to me exactly how the city can lose $9,000 at Hanauma Bay because a cash register that broke two weeks ago wasn't replaced.
Doesn't the city trust its employees enough to collect the money? Can only a cash register take in the money? Are people parking for free since the register is broken?
I just don't understand.
Ron Quizon
Pearl City
State amendment isn't needed; pass a law
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Brian Kanno proposes to offer the constitutional amendment question: "Shall nonviolent first-time drug offenders be sentenced to undergo and complete a drug treatment rather than to incarceration?"
To offer such a constitutional amendment is a despicable dereliction of duty.
The Constitution is a general plan for government, not a repository for every law a legislator might find difficult to pass. Legislators are supposed to make laws and be responsible for them, not shunt anything mildly controversial off to a public vote.
The value of drug treatment isn't even controversial. Overwhelming evidence supports treatment as a more effective approach to drug problems than incarceration.
David Mielke
Obsession with film industry is amazing
The Advertiser reported on March 3 that the state of Hawai'i extended tax breaks of $15.7 million to the producers of the film "Surf Girls."
On March 4, in a story about homelessness, a city spokesperson brags of the $11 million paid by the city to caregivers for the homeless, over the last two years.
This state's sycophantic obsession with the film industry is truly amazing, isn't it?
Lee Gray
Beware hidden costs of cellular companies
It's about time someone looks closely at the cellular phone companies that target young adults who have never signed a contract in their lives, enticing them to sign a contract that contains hidden fees.
As a high school teacher, I see many students with phones, and most are unaware of the full impact of the contract they just signed. For example, a popular cellular company not only sold one phone but two phones to an 18-year-old high school senior with no job and no credit. Hidden in the contract was a cost of $400 per phone if the one-year contract was not met, a total of $800.
As we look at the oil companies and gas prices, maybe someone should take a look at cellular phone companies. Maybe educators need to add this to the curriculum like birth control and drug abuse.
Antoinette Correia
Pearl City
Legislature must pass long-term-care plan
We are in our late 70s and worried since we cannot afford private long-term-care insurance.
It is estimated that six out of 10 people aged 75 and older will be needing long-term care. Hawai'i is a caring place, and the Legislature has come forth with CarePlus, which would alleviate the fears many of us have. The $10-a-month long-term-care insurance is affordable.
Sadly, we live in a district where our representative was the only Democrat who voted against it. Hopefully the other legislators will be more farsighted and vote for CarePlus. In the long run, it will save the state millions.
Don and Kimi Matsuda
Speaking for myself
A Feb. 28 article by Hugh Clark mentioned that I testified at the airline merger hearing in Hilo. The article identified me as the current Hawai'i Island Chamber of Commerce president. While that is true, my testimony did not represent the chamber's views, only my own.
Bobby Cooper
Hilo
Politics being played in war on terrorism
The Honolulu Advertiser opines in the March 5 editorial that the "White House must let Congress in on war plans." Under the most generous interpretation, that opinion is disingenuous.
Your questioning whether patriotism has come and gone is insulting.
Politics must stop at the water's edge. Our young people defending this country against future attack are in harm's way. They need all the support we can give them. Sens. Robert Byrd, Tom Daschle and others who attempt to undermine our forces for political gain next November are going to pay a heavy price for betraying our country in these critical times.
What you describe as Daschle's seemingly "mild" question as to goals of this war on terror was in fact calculated to undermine the commander in chief for transient political advantage.
Daschle knows very well the goals of this effort were made crystal clear to every American almost six months ago: Find the enemy; fix the enemy; kill the enemy. To that end, the president has asked Americans of every political persuasion for patience and resolute determination so that our forces may persist in this task for as long as it takes.
You are very wrong to suggest that the "great burst of patriotism and national unity we saw after Sept. 11 (has) come and gone." Americans overwhelmingly support this combat effort because the cost of doing nothing was slammed home to us with the force of a jetliner striking a building. We now live in the merciless crosshairs of a relentless enemy who will stop at nothing until we are destroyed.
In his speech before Congress immediately after the attack, the president set forth a clear choice for others in the world: "Either you are for us or you are against us." It is a choice Americans must make as well.
Where do you stand, Honolulu Advertiser? Your readers deserve to know. There's a war on, you know.
Thomas E. Stuart
Kailua, Kona, Big Island
