honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Wednesday, May 22, 2002

Letters to the Editor

Apology long overdue for the 'no-no' boys

The "no-no" boys are only now being recognized for who they were — courageous individuals who refused to fight for a government that stomped on their civil rights at a time when Japanese American community leaders chose complicity over demanding justice.

They were punished for their defiance by a vengeful government and wrongly, but widely, ostracized in a community eager to "fit in" at any cost.

To acknowledge their struggle does not diminish in any way the accomplishments of those who bravely served in uniform. The Japanese American Citizens League apology is well-deserved and long overdue.

Paul Hayward


Female prisoners need better services

I believe the new drug sentencing law for first-time offenders, SB 1188, will be more equitable for female offenders.

In Hawai'i, women are 11 percent of the prison population. While the male prison population doubled between 1985 and 1995, the female population tripled, largely due to harsh sentencing laws that incarcerate females who are nonviolent, first-time drug offenders.

Many women in prison are mothers who may have lost contact with their children due to being in prisons outside Hawai'i. Foster care may then be needed. Half of these children never visit their primary caregiver in prison.

Female offenders need gender-responsive services that address substance abuse, family relationships, vocational education, work, prior victimization and domestic violence. In order for recovery to begin, male and female offenders need treatment and rehabilitation, rather than punishment.

Ilona Maki


ERS should invest in Hawai'i's future

This is in response to Toby Martyn's May 15 letter about the ERS taking its responsibilities seriously, which he said is "why we have consistently testified in opposition to legislation that would mandate the ERS to make high-risk venture capital investments in Hawai'i."

Three years ago, the Legislature authorized the ERS to put 3 percent of its corpus into "alternative" (read "high-risk") investments, which amounted to almost $300 million. The ERS selected a New York firm to allocate this money, half of which went into a forestry investment, the other half into top-tier venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, Boston, New York and other Mainland locations, but none in Hawai'i.

Hawai'i needs venture capital to grow new companies. Without it, the sons, daughters and grandchildren of Hawai'i's government retirees will surely go elsewhere to find high-paying jobs. Do our retirees want to see the family they worked so hard to grow leave them for better opportunities on the Mainland?

Hawai'i venture capital firms have made some very good investments in local companies. Digital Island provided very good returns to its investors, and Pihana Pacific raised hundreds of millions of dollars from sophisticated investors, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. A newly formed fund invests in Hawai'i venture firms offering diversification to institutional investors. 

The ERS trustees already make "high-risk" investments, just not in Hawai'i. It would seem that their fiduciary responsibility should be to invest a portion of those funds in Hawai'i and help create successful Hawai'i companies that will generate jobs for Hawai'i's best and brightest. These companies and their employees will certainly generate the tax revenues that will support the next generation of government retirees. Doesn't that seem prudent?

Bill Spencer
President, Hawai'i Venture Capital Association


What about seat belts for pickup passengers?

Your May 19 editorial on "Click It or Ticket" was not really complete. Not once did you mention passengers riding in the back of pickup trucks.

Our lawmakers refuse to pass laws on pickup trucks other than for child passengers, yet people have been killed and maimed when accidents happen in trucks. What's the excuse?

I've seen people of all ages with absolutely no protection, yet our do-nothing lawmakers turn deaf ears on this subject. Why?

Eugene Cordero
Pearl City


Baldwin High senior can hold her head up

Good for the Baldwin High senior who refused to cave in to the unreasonable rule that a woman must wear a dress for the graduation ceremony. I've been reading her detractors, who say she's in for a big surprise in the "real world" and that she's immature, hard-headed, etc.

I say, "You go, girl." Sometimes we have to stand up for what we believe is right, especially in the face of opposition.

It's never easy to be the one who fights for change, and I'm one who knows. I have been in disputes over race, gender bias, politics and even a school walkout in 1968 over oppressive hair and dress regulations. We didn't win, but in 1970 the school conceded to the students' wishes, and the dress code finally caught up with the times.

By the way, we didn't have the ACLU to help us. Wish we had. It would have saved a lot of time and grief. When so-called adults don't listen, that's when organizations like the ACLU are needed.

Walk for your graduation and be proud. You did the right thing.

Michael Grotstein
Kane'ohe


Fight for the children

I read Lee Cataluna's column "Lawmakers forgot something" and cried because, once more, the children were forgotten. Let us hope that during this election year, we will vote for lawmakers brave enough to make the right choices. Your vote does count, so I urge all voters to fight for our children; they are our future. Please vote.

Annie Lorenzo
Wahi'awa


State must properly finance education

Regarding Cliff Slater's opinion of my April 30 Island Voices commentary comparing per-student expenditures: California's public education funding once ranked sixth-best in the nation but fell to 48th.

According to the Feb. 19 San Diego Union-Tribune, Gov. Gray Davis recently bumped California's K-12 education back up beyond the national average of $7,095 to $8,766 per student.

Hawai'i would benefit greatly if our public-school children also got $8,766 instead of only $6,771. Then our centralized public education system designed to give all kids an equal chance could really work.

Two of Hawai'i's private schools — Punahou and Iolani — spend practically double, per student, what the state spends. This helps create excellent education and shows the value of proper financing.

And yes, good governance, adult time, effort and commitment are essential to our children's education. But in these times, they aren't overcoming our serious lack of classrooms, books and computers.

Our schools can't afford textbooks anymore, nor get necessary computers. Our kids are being taught on lanai and in storerooms.

Looks like underfunding to me. Let's properly finance our children's public education.

Renee Ing


Math championship winners were ignored

It was a wonderful story about the honesty of the Kaiser High School students, which resulted in their dropping from first to third place in the state mathematics championship. However, is honesty in students such a rarity that it warrants page-one headlines as well as a follow-up story about one of the students a couple of days later?

What about the real first-place winners? Who are they? I don't recall seeing their names mentioned at all. They are the winners who were denied recognition because of referee error.

The Iolani School students worked many hours with their teachers preparing for these meets. Their many successes in winning previous math contests attest to their capabilities. They were not "handed" first place, as the story suggested. They earned it.

Congratulations to the real winners.

Lillian Okihiro
Kane'ohe


Community Theatre review undeserved

I have had it with your so-called "critic," Joseph T. Rozmiarek. His May 15 review of "Oliver!" is totally off the mark.

The actors and actresses who provide talent for productions at the Army Community Theatre are not the professionals he would have us study under a magnifying glass — they are volunteers, giving of their time and talents to entertain audiences, and they did an outstanding job of it. That's the secret, Mr. Rozmiarek, entertainment.

Fortunately, I have been privileged to attend professional stage productions in New York on Broadway and Off-Broadway and professional and nonprofessional productions in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles and Houston and am a season ticket-holder of the Army Community Theatre.

As such, I will make Rozmiarek this challenge: For every one critical remark you can make on any future productions by the Army Community Theatre, I will find three positive features in the production.

Donald R. Pendarvis
Mililani


Teachers pile it on at end of school year

As the school year comes to an end, a lot of teenagers are bombarded with a bunch of homework and final exams, and sometimes I wonder if teachers know that we're human and can only do so much.

With all the finals being a factor in my grade, I fear that my grades are in jeopardy. I wish that teachers could somehow cooperate a little with us so we aren't stressed with multiple exams in one day.

My brain is fried!

Kimberly Komoto
Roosevelt High School


Switch coach's contract

Hey, until June Jones can win an NCAA championship, he should have Mike Wilton's current contract and Wilton should have his.

Leland Parker
Makawao, Maui