The ACLU will not come running when you suddenly discover this, trust me.

You will apply for a job and find out you have to dress a certain way. You will find out you can't always do what you want. You will have to do it the company's way. You will not be happy, for in the end, you will have to follow society's rules, not yours.

So do not bask in the publicity for your supposed "win" when in reality you have lost.

Norman Sullivan

Quarantine law hurts Hawai'i economically

Animal lovers are often driven by passionately irrational interests, and that's why Hawai'i's outdated pet-entry law has such broad negative economic impact.

The quarantine law, which can't be justified on any scientific basis, affects business and real estate investment here. Hawai'i can't compete with other states in attracting business investment while continuing an outdated law that precludes the flexibility to easily rotate any employees here who have pets.

As CEO of a Mainland company, with second homes in Hawai'i, I considered and decided against positioning asupport office here. Hawai'i has a well-earned reputation as an unfriendly state for business; the quarantine law was an added negative factor in our case.

The Legislature can struggle mightily to clear the many factors discouraging business investment here, and it should, but it must address the quarantine law in the process. The legislature should remember the seemingly irrational passion of those animal lovers in the Hokget recovery incident and realize that many others like them would never consider moving to a place that requires quarantined separation from their cherished healthy pets.

England has recently changed its quarantine law for similar economic reasons.

J. Reimer

Gun-rights advocates now have upper hand

Regarding your May 10 editorial against Attorney General John Ashcroft, freedom and gun rights: You and other anti-gun media intellectuals have enjoyed eight years of Clinton administration attacks on the Second Amendment, and now the shoe's on the other foot.

Your interpretation of the Second Amendment is as prejudiced as your misquote of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1939 Miller decision.

Where in the rest of the Bill of Rights or the entire U.S. Constitution does "the people," as in "the right of the people to keep and bear arms," refer to anyone else except the ordinary inhabitants of our country? The militia was, and still is (according to HRS 121.1), most of us able-bodied inhabitants.

Surely Frank Lloyd Wright had you in mind when he said, "I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools.Let's start with typewriters."

Max Cooper
Vice president, Hawai'i Rifle Association

Rep. Souki lacks empathy for disabled

As a handicapped individual — with legal auto tags to permit me to park in designated stalls — I read with dismay your online article regarding a reduction of fines for those who park illegally.

In my community, I frequently encounter abuse of this privilege by persons who are my neighbors. I give 'em stink-eye, but avoid direct confrontation, and have never witnessed anyone receiving a citation. (Probably for lack of police presence.)

If Rep. Joe Souki regards this as "relatively minor," he seriously lacks empathy for the disabled community; one hopes he never finds himself among the physically challenged, which would alter his perspective very quickly.

Victoria C. Hoagland
Ocean View, Big Island

Volleyball players take the talent prize

I only started to watch these amazing guys last year, but there was something about them that made me watch more.

I admit, I thought these guys were losers at first. In fact, my friends and I got into arguments about who's more talented: The Backstreet Boys or the UH men's volleyball team.

But one day I watched these guys play on TV. Man, was I wrong. The Backstreet Boys don't compare to what these guys can do. The intensity and emotion of the players brought me to love these guys (besides their great looks). You can't imagine how many "I told you so's" were said the next day.

These men do everything; they even bring the people of Hawai'i together. Now they've done it all. And they're ready to do it again.

Congratulations, team! You played a great season. Next year will be greater. Have a great summer and God bless.

Sandra Rasay

Legislators just don't seem to be able to get it

Raid the employees' pension fund. Raise taxes on cigarettes. Hand out favors to friends. Squander state dollars on van cams. Spend so much on planning that we can't afford execution of projects. Increase the size of state government — even during a recession.

It needs repeating: Hawai'i's multilayered government is way too expensive, often ineffective and usually inefficient.

I'm a Democrat looking for some changes — a lot more than a (delayed) program to save us each a couple of quarters when we fill up at the gas station.

Mike Rethman
Kane'ohe

Celibacy, homosexuality aren't the problems

I am appalled by the priests' sexual abuse of young people in their care, but even more than that, I am appalled by how the members of the church are using the tragedy as a political tool.

If any of them actually bothered to review the statistics or read the literature dealing with sexual abuse, they would know that pedophilia, no matter who the perpetrator is, has nothing whatsoever to do with either celibacy or homosexuality.

Most pedophiles are straight, often married men, not homosexuals or sexually frustrated heterosexuals; the gender of their victim is never an indicator of their own innate homo- or heterosexuality, nor is the availability of a woman a deterrent to the sexual abuse of children. These are outdated theories long since debunked by serious, humane and proven studies of human sexuality.

Changing the requirements for the priests in regard to celibacy is a matter that should be deliberated on at another time, as it has no bearing on the current problem facing the church. And banning homosexual priests, as well as condemning homosexuality in general, will not only fail to solve the problem, it will hurt an innocent segment of the church's faithful, as well as adding to the confusion and dismay of the child victim, who already feels ashamed and will feel more so as he is taught that all male contact is wrong, and anyone who participates in it will be ostracized by the mouthpieces of his beloved God.

Nikki Smith
Kane'ohe

Sunset in the Park a boon to Waipahu

We at Hawai'i's Plantation Village would like everyone to know that we support the Sunset on the Beach, Brunch on the Beach and Rediscover O'ahu programs.

The Waipahu Sunset in the Park event held at Hawai'i's Plantation Village last month provided the village with favorable results and enhanced the community's awareness about what we offer as a local history museum. It also reinforced long-term commitments of our volunteers and assisted in bringing us all together in Waipahu to work as a team.

Additionally, the Sunset project also provided the Waipahu community vendors and businesses the opportunity to showcase their products and services to the community as a whole, thus encouraging each of us to work harder and stay in business to promote Hawai'i's economy. The Sunset event is a positive reinforcement and serves as a tool to advertise each community's uniqueness and helps in bringing the community together.

Lynn Valiente
Waipahu

Parents, teachers key to educational success

Renee Ing, in the April 30 Island Voices commentary, implies that the primary source of good education is money. This is not totally true.

While money can buy a lot of educational resources, it won't buy the love and devotion that have to come from parents and teachers.

Parents' love and devotion must be converted into spending time with their children, showing an infectious attitude toward education, constant interest, unending encouragement, and providing continuous support and direction. Parents also must provide unqualified, energetic and enthusiastic support to the schools, the teachers and administrators. Parents must transfer to their children a vision of success through education.

Criticism of the system, school, teachers and administrators must be positive and constructive and be converted to their own personal involvement to resolve problems. If parents want more money in their schools, they need to earn it, as parents in private schools do, by participating in carnivals, bazaars, craft fairs, etc. Parents also can help by soliciting donations of resources, money and time from business and the community.

Teachers must have love of the profession and devotion to the duty of teaching. They also need positive attitudes and a vision, individually and collectively, to not only do their best but to be the best. Success should be equated to having done more, worked longer hours, obtained higher levels of education and made personal sacrifices, and not because of better pay and benefits.

The best profession to emulate is the U.S. military. It is the best in the world because of the individual's dedication, devotion and a common sense of pride and sacrifice. Military personnel don't get any overtime pay and have to endure long periods of separation from their loved ones. They strive to obtain higher levels of education because it is part of their culture of self-improvement.

Pay is never an issue because those who make the military a career accept what the civilian government offers. It's the culture and the way of life. Bickering about pay would only detract from the mission of securing the nation from its enemies.

Bottom line is not how much money we put into education but how much time, effort, sacrifice, dedication, love and spirit parents and teachers put into it. Basically, we get out of it what we put into it, and not necessarily what we pay for.