Letters to the Editor
Public won't support more surfing contests
We have received e-mails and phone calls from people who are concerned that the Office of Economic Development will be drafting new surf contest permit rules.
Although the permit prioritization process may need fixing, the city should be well aware that the public will not support an increase in the number of contests on the North Shore.
A representative from the city will be at today's meeting of the Sunset Beach Community Association, 7:30 p.m., at the Pupukea Recreation Center. All interested surfers and residents are invited to attend.
Gil Riviere
Let's Surf Coalition
Wal-Mart is committed to being good neighbor
The Wal-Mart/Sam's Club planned for the Ke'eaumoku superblock has been getting a lot of attention. As the district manager for all six Wal-Mart stores in Hawai'i, I know that Wal-Mart and Sam's associates, as well as our customers, are very excited about the project.
The new Wal-Mart store and Sam's Club will bring quality merchandise at everyday low prices to customers in the central Honolulu area. It will also create about 1,100 jobs for the area — quality jobs with benefits.
We've talked with a number of neighbors who live around the site, and we understand that some of them have concerns about how the project will impact their neighborhood. We share those concerns, which is why we have been working — and will continue to work — with the neighbors to address those issues.
We are committed to being a good neighbor in the communities we serve. On behalf of our 3,000 Wal-Mart and Sam's associates in Hawai'i, mahalo for giving us that opportunity.
Tim Ross
Mililani
'Carving up the state' is the real problem
H. William Burgess' viewpoint toward your encouragement of OHA's role in forming the new Hawaiian nation reflects a negative view of OHA's assistance in "carving up the state of Hawai'i and removing it, in part or entirely, from the reach of the U.S. Constitution."
OHA is not the problem facing the state of Hawai'i. OHA is an agency of the state of Hawai'i and mandated by its present constitution to receive 20 percent of revenues from the ceded lands trust to provide for the needs of the Hawaiian people.
The main issue is, as he put it, "carving up" the ceded lands trust so that those lands, about a million acres or so, will go into the land bank of the new sovereign Hawaiian nation, which passage of the Akaka Bill in the U.S. Congress in 2003 will achieve. The Akaka Bill calls Native Hawaiian aboriginal tenures before 1778 "communal" tenures. In other words, there will be no private property — hence, no property taxes.
Whatever revenue has been coming into the state from that source will no longer be accessed by the state of Hawai'i. Will that remove the state of Hawai'i? No. The state will be impoverished, but the citizens who make up that state will shore up the state's revenues with taxes.
There are Native Hawaiians who can hardly wait to have no private property rights in the ceded lands trust, and those waiting to be able to access the revenues from the "national" lands can hardly wait to have the power to effect this transition. We will see for the first time what it means to have a communist government in charge of one million acres of land in Hawai'i with the sovereign right to deny private property rights to those acres to all its own citizens as well as the citizens in the "other" state.
Jolly good? You supported it. You will live to see it enacted, unless you, like H. William Burgess, understand world history.
Tyrants come, tyrants go, the wonder of power to know.
Rubellite Kawena Johnson
The arts are critical in preserving culture
Your excellent Nov. 15 front-page article on the arts in education included a headline that contained the idea that the arts are a "frill." The arts are only a frill when they are treated that way.
In many of our public schools, the potential for effective learning through the arts is unrecognized. Many of our elementary teachers have not been shown how to integrate the arts in their teaching.
Emphasizing reading and math while neglecting the arts hasn't achieved positive results. Without imagination — coupled with drawing and designing — we would have no written languages: nothing to read.
Can a person be a good reader without an active imagination? Can a student learn math without visualizing the patterns math is built on? Music is beautiful math. The arts help children become creative problem-solvers and life-long learners.
Without the arts, we would not know the historic and current cultures of the world. Without education in and through the arts, how can we preserve our own cultures?
Albert Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
Under both federal and state mandates, the arts are now core subjects in schools. Let's get the reality in line with the mandate.
Duane Preble
We're being manipulated on new nuclear testing
I sleepily grabbed my paper upside down on Saturday and was shocked by the headline, "U.S. considers resumption of nuclear testing." I couldn't believe it. Then I wondered why this wasn't top news until I flipped over the newspaper to read the lead headline: "Attack fears increasing."
Now it all makes sense. The more frightened we are, the more we will accept — even call for — a return to building and testing nuclear weapons.
Anyone feeling manipulated yet?
Nancy Aleck
Japan firm isn't right to build our aquarium
So we have two proposals for an aquarium, one of which is from a Japanese construction company. Hasn't the Hawai'i economy been ruined enough by bright ideas from Japan?
While Hawai'i was selling out to the Japanese, the rest of the United States was enjoying 10 years of unprecedented growth. It is time for our state to become part of the U.S.A. and to look to the west for inspiration and not the east.
Stuart Conner
Teaching a variety of curricula is vital
The DOE's and BOE's main job is to look for solutions to our public education problems. Reducing time requirements in various curricula (such as P.E., art, music and even science) to meet the standards for the basic needs is unfortunate. But it may seem like the only way out of the situation if one plans to stay within the work hours of a student's day.
Studies prove that teaching a variety of curricula is vital. One influences the other. It gives students a chance to shine in some area that reflects their uniqueness. Limit the spectrum of exposure and you limit the desire to learn in some students. You limit the end results in many students.
Perhaps we have overstated, "It takes a village to raise a child." Here in Hawai'i we have students running all over our village looking for something to do.
How about extending the students' day with a purpose of making them well-educated, thus giving them the time they deserve to achieve more in life?
Sure, it will initially cost more money and involve more educators, but in the long run, it will pay off for a better society in the future and in the end save us money.
Cherry Jeong
Retired DOE teacher, Kailua
It's time to focus on improving economy
Now that we have made our choices, the elected officials and the new administration must, as their first order of business, grapple with the unhealthy state of our economy, especially in the private sector.
Statistics on the number of bankruptcies and unemployed are intolerable. Many businesses have shut down or are on the verge of closing — not for the want of quality merchandise, but mainly for the lack of consumers. Legislators must now work with the new governor to create new businesses that will in turn create employment.
Some of the projects that Gov. Cayetano has started are considered good for the economy and should be continued. We need to make some significant changes that will encourage businesses to prosper without undue interference from bureaucratic requirements.
Legislators must listen to the new governor's plans and determine whether they are beneficial to the majority of the people of this state. Let's not let the unions dictate policy beneficial only to their members. They can submit their wish list when the economy improves.
Toshio Chinen
Pearl City
Council members should shave staffs
The new City Council should organize with only one staff member per council member. The present staff of five is too wasteful and not at all essential. The recent cases of staff abuse — Andy Mirikitani and Rene Mansho — are clear proof that five staff members are unproductive and wasteful.
The City Council should be run as a business, with the mayor as chief executive and the council as the board of directors. It was never intended that each council member function as a "satellite" mayor.
In terms of tax dollars, the annual budget for council operations of $3.5 million can be shaved to $900,000 — a reduction of a whopping $2.6 million.
The city can surely use the savings for important services like police or the new city auditor. Each new council member must face up to correcting this gross waste and honestly organize the council.
The research arm of the council (in itself a luxury) is more than adequate to provide the council with intelligence and ideas.
A blast of fresh air is certainly timely and welcome.
Yoshiro Nakamura
Former councilman
Hilton mold points up need to cap lawsuits
Your "Hilton repair estimate now $40M" article is clear evidence that greedy trial lawyers are eating away at our freedoms just as effectively as Osama bin Laden. This $40 million fiasco is caused by fear of lawsuits — plain and simple.
Why did mold appear in the brand-new Hilton towers? In all likelihood, it's because the air-conditioning engineers, scared of lawsuits, specified huge, SUV-sized AC systems "just to be safe" when a moderate sedan-sized system would have done the job. Oversized AC systems are off much of the time because they cool the air quickly. When ACs are off, moist outside air creeps in and breeds mold. A properly sized AC system runs most of the time and removes excess moisture from the air. So the engineers are scared witless.
Another fear dominated when Hilton was deciding what to do with the moldy furniture. A local company offered to buy it, clean it up and resell it. "No, no!" said the three-piece-suit Hilton attorney from the Mainland, "someone might get sick and sue you.!"
The sad result is a horrendous waste. Professionals are as terrified as 13-year-olds at a horror movie. Let's put some reasonable upper limits on lawsuits.
Howard C. Wiig
Dobelle has every right to express view
Doug Arnott's Nov. 16 letter regarding the Democrats' lack of cooperation with our newly elected governor is full of the spite and malice that permeated the Republican Party-sponsored ads during the recent election.
The election is over and Linda Lingle won. Let's cut the rhetoric and move on.
Regarding the comments about Evan Dobelle: The university president has every right to voice his opinion, just as you and I do (and as do all the teachers, firefighters, police officers, etc.). Remember, it's just an opinion — as were all the endorsements both candidates received.
Bill Nelson
Hale'iwa
When resorts leave power grid, we pay
A recent letter writer praised a Kona Coast resort for installing its own electric generation plant and criticized HELCO for not helping the other resorts do to the same thing. It should be clear that a resort will only install its own power plant if it reduces its costs.
One of the ways they save money is that they no longer have to buy HELCO power. By not buying HELCO power, they are no longer helping to pay for the transmission lines that HELCO installed to serve the resort in the first place. Can you guess who has to pay more since the resort is paying less? That's right: the rest of the HELCO customers.
The resorts are justifiably interested in keeping their costs low. And HELCO is properly interested in keeping costs to its remaining customers low. Is it any wonder it doesn't see eye to eye on resorts leaving the electrical transmission system it built to serve them?
Dick O'Connell
Priorities all wrong on 'Click It or Ticket'
Where are our state's and city's priorities? We have a lot of problems that plague our state, but our state decides to use our tax money to cite people for the heinous crime of not wearing their seat belts.
Since we're trying to "protect" people with this "Click It or Ticket" campaign, why don't we "protect" them by giving tickets for smoking, drinking, eating fatty foods and not getting enough exercise, too?
I would rather have police officers patrolling our streets, keeping the people of Hawai'i safe from harm.
Kevin Y. Uyeda
Mililani
