Letters to the Editor

Handi-Van drivers make life bearable

I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to a special group of people who daily go far beyond the call of duty to assist the handicapped and disabled members of our community.

These invaluable people make up the Handi-Van family. Without the indispensable services rendered by Handi-Van, many people would not be able to go to work, visit family and friends, go shopping or to church, or even see their physicians on a regular basis. In truth, they would not be able to go anywhere — they would have virtually no life at all.

I have been a Handi-Van customer for more than three years. During that time, all the personnel have consistently treated me with the utmost courtesy and kindness.

Above all else, I wish to acknowledge and convey my fondest aloha to the extraordinary men and women who drive the vans. Regardless of the impatience that customers sometimes thoughtlessly exhibit, and despite the myriad complications and difficulties peculiar to their work, the Handi-Van drivers respond to the problems and needs of their passengers with great sensitivity and tact.

Louise H. Wallace
Wai'anae

WTC mural was work of two artists

Let me thank Honolulu staff writer Michael Tsai for his thoughtful Sept. 9 article in memory of those who lost their lives in the World Trade Center disaster one year ago. Now that the buildings are gone — and so many are dead — all we have are memories to help us rebuild our world and create our future.

So thank you, Michael, and thank you also for your mention of the 1978 World Trade Center mural painted by both Hawaiian artist Brendt Berger and myself, Tia Ballantine. I do hope you will understand if I take the time to correct some misunderstandings in your article.

First, Hawai'i is not the "adopted" home of artist Brendt Berger; it is his ancestral home. His paternal great grandmother, Pilahiuilanihakaukalalakeakihaapiilani Berger, was the daughter of Kaumana and H.A. Widemann. Kaumana was born on Kaua'i but moved in later years with her husband, Judge Widemann, and family to O'ahu. Our son, Jaz Kealoha, is a 1998 graduate of Kamehameha Schools, where Berger still works as a substitute teacher. Born in Arequipa, Peru, and raised in New York, I can hardly be classified as "local," although I am a poet — and also a painter.

Second, I did not "help" Berger paint this mural; this was a collaborative project designed and executed by two artists, Brendt Berger and myself, who recognized and supported each other as artists. I was not his assistant, he was not mine, nor were we married at the time, although we did think of this painting as a wedding ceremony.

Third, we were not "selected" — except maybe by God — to paint this mural. We independently decided to create this painting, using our own time and money, and then gave the mural to the people of New York City. For five years until the highway was finally dismantled, the painting provided great joy for noontime strollers and picnickers, as well as hours of amusement for skaters and bike riders.

Now the mural is gone, the buildings destroyed and thousands dead. There is no end to this tragedy, unless we can remember joy. I am glad that Brendt Berger and I had the opportunity to paint this mural as a gift for the Trade Center and for the people who worked there. Creating it was a joyous event.

Tia Ballantine

'Hawaiian Castaways' outstanding production

Friday night's Home and Garden Channel's presentation of "Hawaiian Castaways" has got to be one of the best promotional and professionally produced documentaries about our Islands I've ever seen.

It captured a lot of real emotions that everyone living and drawn here can feel: the magic and aloha of Hawai'i that touches all our hearts. Photographer Kim Taylor Reece's profile, and those of other persons who have made Hawai'i their home, was especially moving.

The Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau should purchase the rights to use it as a promotional piece. Every potential visitor from anywhere around the world who sees this production couldn't resist dreaming about coming to Hawai'i.

I urge anyone who hasn't seen it to check it out on the Home and Garden channel.

Bill Romerhaus
North Shore Photography

What idiocy is next for Aloha Stadium?

As season-ticket holders for 20 plus years, we were looking forward to this season. After waiting in line as usual to enter Gate 1, we find parking is increased to $5. OK, the stadium needs money. Then we find Section 4 has been blocked off for "permit holders" and everyone who usually parks there has moved to Section 5, where we usually park.

Soon come city buses, which start parking along the chain-link fence, thus eliminating more parking spaces. OK, buses need parking spaces, too. Then come more buses, and they are allowed to double-park, leaving only one lane to drive through to leave. (Is there some fire restriction that seems to be missing?)

To put the topper on the cake, when we were entering the stadium with our parkas in a plastic grocery bag, the bag was confiscated. Please tell me what idiocy is left.

R. Pang
Kane'ohe

Roundabouts create more visual blight

I'd like to elaborate on one of the complaints in Russ Oberther's "Traffic-calming device irritating" letter. And I would urge all neighborhood boards that are considering traffic-calming devices to take note.

Here in Makiki, we now have 22 signs in and around Ke'eaumoku-Heulu roundabout. It is really unfortunate that a simple, inexpensive four-way stop intersection wasn't first attempted.

Hawai'i doesn't have the blight of billboards, thank goodness, but we suffer from the blight of excessive signage. When there are so many signs, motorists stop paying attention to them. Perhaps almost as bad, we become inured to the visual pollution.

Is there some new law that requires the neon-yellow signs wherever there is a crosswalk and no stoplight? The companies that are manufacturing these signs must be making money hand over fist. If the city would go back to painting the traditional crosswalk design and red curbs, many signs could be removed. It is much easier for motorists to see pedestrians in the traditional crosswalks.

The bottom line usually deals with money: In 2001, each of O'ahu's 32 neighborhood boards received control of $1 million in capital improvement spending money. Are traffic-calming devices and signs considered capital improvements?

Laura M. Fink

Plantation life didn't preclude education

In a Sept. 4 letter, David Childs from Wai'anae stated that Hawai'i's children score low on the SATs because they speak Pidgin vs. standard English. He went on to say that Hawai'i's sugar plantation white masters refused to educate the migrant workers and compared the workers to the black slaves of the Southern states.

My grandfather was a young immigrant who could not read or write and who spoke Pidgin. Grandpa respected his haole bosses, worked hard and became a luna (bossman). He instilled in each of us that we could achieve anything here in America. The plantations afforded golden opportunities for the uneducated immigrants. Everything was in place for them (as in a feudal system) with several added components: freedom, democracy and equal opportunity.

I and five siblings were born on the Waialua Sugar Plantation. It was a healthy and happy life. When in the park, we all, Japanese, Filipino, haole, Hawaiian and Portuguese, spoke fluent Pidgin. At our home, only English was tolerated. Many of my Pidgin-speaking park playmates have become teachers, doctors, lawyers and journalists. When we see each other, we still speak Pidgin. It is unique, a spoken handshake.

With the exception of one in our family, we've all attended college. The youngest of "us kids" teaches high school English and journalism in California, and I have a master's degree from an Eastern university.

Ramona Peters
Kane'ohe

Genetically engineered foods are bad for us

Biotech is bad news for Hawai'i. Why would we want to turn over our food production to the same mega-corporations that brought us Enron and WorldCom? Do we want to risk our food supply the way they risked our 401-Ks?

What's sickening is how these companies market frankenfoods. They claim that they are going to feed the world, but instead offer the "Terminator" gene that forces farmers to buy new seed every season from the corporation. They claim their products will require less pesticide, but they produce "Roundup-ready" soybeans so that even more herbicide can be applied without damaging the plant (what about the groundwater?).

And they say their products are more nutritious, like the "Golden Rice" with added vitamin A. What they don't say is you have to eat nine pounds of that rice to actually get a daily minimum of the vitamin.

These corporations will say anything to peddle their great experiment. I'm not buying it. Neither should you.

Judy Dalton

Get well, Mrs. Mink

I'm saddened to hear about Congresswoman Patsy Mink's hospitalization since Sunday, and sincerely wish her well. She has been a good friend within our Hawai'i Democratic Party, and I've enjoyed my meetings with her at several conventions and previous campaigns.

Steve Tataii
Democratic candidate for Congress, District 2

Education debate needs overhaul

The personnel problem in the Department of Education may foretell a bleak future, but other scenarios are possible. Reading Jennifer Hiller's Sept. 9 article, I have a sense that something's missing in the discussion.

There is little in the article we didn't already know. We repeat ourselves and, in the repetition, create an insurmountable problem. If, in our discussions, we stop only with what we know, we don't take in the long view or stretch our imaginations.

Our schools struggle with problems we have known about and cannot wish away. Teachers are getting older. Teacher and administrator vacancies are "up sharply." Turnover will increase as teachers retire. A majority of educators recruited from the Mainland don't live here long, and our university has fewer education majors. We're not successful in the recruiting game. Other school districts compete with us, recruit "our" students, and offer more attractive compensation packages.

Hiller's article is an important reminder of a potentially serious predicament. But if we look beyond the obvious, familiar problems, we find opportunities.

We can improve our conversations about schools. We can hold ourselves and our officials to higher standards of caring. The public (people who elect officials and fund our schools) can change how we exercise responsibility.

We often approach a problem by thinking: a) if we ignore it, it'll go away; b) solving the problem is someone else's responsibility. That "someone else" would be the officials we elect.

For their part, officials believe that being elected means they have the responsibility to solve problems. It's difficult to admit they might not know how, or even understand the problem. People think asking for help is an admission they don't already know what's best — but should. They describe problems without prescribing solutions. They don't outline what actions they might take.

The result? Officials and the public are not engaged in collaborative problem-solving. As an educator might say, "It's going to get worse" is not a satisfactory answer.

What's missing? Conversations that help us think and plan strategically. The decisions people make begin with uncertainty. We may think of "not knowing" as a weakness, but uncertainty provides opportunities to learn. To think strategically, we need to look beyond what seems obvious. When people help each other talk about real issues, we can make the necessary important decisions.

In education, as elsewhere, we're adapting to an environment marked by fundamental change. A superintendent recently told me, "Many of the challenges I face in a normal day were unthinkable just a couple of years ago."

How can we bring about the changes we need? What will influence us to change? What's the future we'd like to create? What actions can we take today that will help us create that future?

These are the conversations we need to have.

Joel Merchant
Resources for Innovation