Letters to the Editor
Females shouldn't have to wear dresses
Shame on the Baldwin High School principal for forcing female graduates to wear dresses under their gowns. This archaic, sexist and discriminatory policy should not be allowed, especially when it causes discomfort to participants.
The female student who requested that she, like the boys, be able to wear slacks should not be banned from participating in commencement ceremonies. Through academic achievement, she has earned the right to graduate and take part in the proceedings of her public school.
What if a male senior of Samoan descent wanted to solemnize the occasion by wearing a lava-lava under his gown at graduation? It simply does not matter what graduates wear under their gowns at commencement.
Holly Huber
'Tyranny of cars' has its own tyranny about it
Regarding the April 28 commentary by Jack Sidener, "Tyranny of cars": The column takes a look at the impact of cars in modern-day society, and tries to humorously form an analogy with today's automobiles and horses in the Wild West, and our excesses when it comes to cars.
A closer reading reveals the author's agenda: eliminate or greatly reduce our freedom based on his political agenda, which is to let the government decide who can drive what kind of car and where they can drive it.
He pokes fun at parking lots as sacred sites. Yet as a professor and an architect, he is in the unique position to positively affect parking lots by creative design and by inspired teaching. So he is complaining in an area where he and his profession have failed miserably (according to him).
His tongue-in-cheek ridicule of what he considers wasteful use of gasoline lampoons people claiming they consider cheap gas a constitutional guarantee. When was he appointed to the energy police? How can he determine what uses are wasteful? If someone wants to drive a safe car (e.g., a SUV), why does he object? He even drives one himself.
He points out that other countries drive less. So what? If all of his fellow professors were jumping off bridges, would he jump off, too? The cornerstone to our successful economy is placing the decisions in the hands of individuals to make decisions in their best interest. What other countries do is irrelevant.
Reed Langdon
Makakilo
New DBEDT slogan conveys confusion
I hope the slogan for DBEDT's campaign to promote business — "Hawai'i is the one place on Earth to do business where life and aloha are part of the bottom line" — does not portend its future.
In this age of short attention spans, this slogan is far too lengthy to be easily remembered.
Most successful slogans consist of only one simple idea, but DBEDT's has three or four. Moreover, the ideas are so crudely spliced together that the result is mystifying.
If "life and aloha are part of the bottom line," does the slogan mean that financial losses can be offset by the life and aloha in Hawai'i? Perhaps inadvertently it promotes the notion that Hawai'i's leisurely lifestyle is not in tune with serious business.
Hopefully, the business promotion campaign itself is better conceived than its slogan.
John Kawamoto
Council must listen to budget testimony
I was one of the 600 people who came to City Hall to oppose the cuts being proposed to the Harris administration budget. It was an incredible evening because so many people made the trip to City Hall and waited very patiently all night to address the council.
We kept hearing from the budget chairwoman that she was making the budget cuts to protect the taxpayers. Well, there were 600 taxpayers in the building who were trying to tell her how they want their tax money spent. It was as if what we said didn't matter when we are the ones paying the property taxes.
We just want the Harris administration budget as submitted to the council to pass in its original form because it provides for basic services without raising taxes or fees and it funds the vision and neighborhood board community-based projects all around the island.
Council members need to listen to the taxpayers who took the time to come to City Hall to express themselves at the budget hearing.
Patty K. Teruya
Wai'anae
Hokget's stay on ship should lessen quarantine
The traveling pooch Hokget spent several weeks aboard the ship, isolated from contact with potentially rabies-carrying animals.
Wouldn't it make sense for that traveling time to count toward the quarantine time she must spend here? (Or is there fear of a threat from rabid seagulls?)
Note: Rabies in rats is practically unknown. Source: CDC. Rabies prevention — United States, January 8, 1999/MMWR 1999; 48(RR1);1-21: "Small rodents (e.g., squirrels, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, chipmunks, rats and mice) and lagomorphs (including rabbits and hares) are almost never found to be infected with rabies and have not been known to transmit rabies to humans."
Kleona Corsini
Regulation of health insurance rates bad
Unbelievably, the Legislature has just passed a bill regulating health insurance rates.
Disregard the fact that regulation of this nature has never worked in any other state it's been tried in. Ignore the fact that the bill does nothing to address what's responsible for higher rates (i.e., escalating provider costs). And completely forget that providers are not uniformly in favor of the bill.
Gov. Cayetano says this is a pro-consumer bill and that it's badly needed. So why is he strongly in support of this bill now — after eight years? This bill has been introduced every year, and we've heard zero from the governor.
Clearly, it's a bit of election-year pandering and a way to help the fledgling political career of Wayne Metcalf, who hopes to one day again hold elective office.
When your benefit coverage is cut because the rates required for your current plan are not approved, remember where to send your bill, c/o Cayetano & Metcalf.
Vincent Basilisk
Moe's music touched visitors from Germany
A wonderful man has gone.
I first met Moe Keale on a cruise from Vancouver to Hawai'i in 2000. He had his performances every evening with his nephews Analu and Kalani, and every evening my husband and I enjoyed listening to his music.
Moe impressed me very much. I never met a man like him; he had a real big heart.
In August 2001, we spent another vacation in beautiful Hawai'i, and once again it was a pleasure for me to enjoy his music at the Sheraton several times. They were always unforgettable moments to hear his unique voice and to see his son Nalani dancing the hula.
I really can't believe I'll never see Moe again, and I'm so sorry that it was not possible for me to say goodbye to him before his ashes were scattered at sea. But in my heart I'll be with him, his family and all his friends.
The world will never be the same without him.
Moe, I give you my promise that I'll keep aloha in my heart forever.
Ursel Burger
Bonn, Germany
