Posted on: Wednesday, April 16, 2003
Letters to the Editor
School nurse positions must be continued
Senate Bill 742 and House Bill 244, which were identical in wording, would have provided funds to make 29 school nurse positions permanent throughout the state. Unfortunately, these bills died in the Legislature.
The students and families who have received their assistance will go without it starting next school year. At a time when our public health issues are on the increase, I was hoping that public support would persuade our lawmakers to include one of these bills for passage.
Please contact your state legislative representative so that our students and their families can continue to receive this support. As a student services coordinator at a small public elementary school, I can vouch for the invaluable help ours has given us.
Anne Tucker
Good reasons for not funding commission
Marian Tsuji's April 11 letter misses the point when she criticizes our governor for eliminating public funding for the state Commission on the Status of Women. Or rather, misses the points:
• State taxes should never be spent on funding lobbying by any special-interest group, no matter how laudable the group's purported goals are.
• The Legislature, with 70 percent Democrats in the House, 80 percent Democrats in the Senate, and liberal chairwomen of the Senate committees for health and human services, is unlikely to underfund social services for women.
• A plethora of lobbying groups keeps showing up at legislative hearings urging increased spending on women's needs, and higher taxes and fees to finance that spending. What is notably absent at these dog-and-pony shows is anybody urging fiscal restraint.
• Which is the higher priority for our limited tax dollars: paying someone to provide political cover for what the legislative leadership has already decided to do, or buying textbooks for our keiki?
Jim Henshaw
Interisland merger? No, more competition
Regarding W.W. Robinson's recent letter suggesting that now might be a good time for Aloha and Hawaiian airlines to merge: For the sake of consumers, let's hope that never happens.
What is really needed is more competition, not less. We need Mahalo Air to reappear to put pressure on the exorbitant interisland fares these airlines charge.
An example: Last week I called Southwest Airlines — a regional airline that uses the same equipment Aloha does — and had it pick two ciities approximately 150 miles apart. The round-trip fare for that trip could be obtained for as low as $78 — less than half what Aloha and Hawaiian charge for the same distance.
I postulate it takes three to have competition, and Hawai'i has two airlines, two oil refineries, two barge companies, etc., and prices are too high as a result.
Michael Cashman
State should reconsider capital punishment
People who have done incredible wrongs, like murder, are not being adequately punished. Murderers should not be allowed to live.
Under the 14th Amendment, a state's laws cannot deny a person equal protection. If there are convicted criminals loose on the streets, how can people feel safe in their neighborhoods?
Studies show that one out of 10 convicted murderers will kill again after they are released from prison. Take Kenneth McDuff, for instance. In Houston, Texas, he was given the death sentence in 1966. But when the Supreme Court overturned capital punishment in 1972, he escaped his sentence. Ten years later, he became eligible for parole and was released in 1989. Between then and 1992, McDuff is suspected in 13 other murder cases. The victims' ages range from 13 to 28.
Hawai'i's research shows that 40 percent of our parolees return to prison within two years of their release. Ten percent of those people are being put back into jail because they committed violent crimes. On average, the Hawai'i Paroling Authority has found that people who have done violent crimes are only serving a bare minimum of 4.5 years in jail. Those people could have been sentenced to 25 years.
Hawai'i's crime rate has gone up by 3.6 percent since the year 2000. Maybe this is because the offenders know that they are probably only going to serve a minimum of their sentence. Maybe Hawai'i should rethink having capital punishment.
Stacee Stricker
Pressure governor to leave Act 221 alone
In October, Linda Lingle appeared on the "Think Tech Hawai'i" radio show saying that Act 221 needed to be tightened up. After several e-mails and telephone calls from the tech industry, she changed her mind and vowed to protect Act 221 from any changes because it would scare investors away. For that she won the support of the tech industry.
Less than one month into her term as governor, a bill was introduced to neuter Act 221's R&D credit. The Republicans have said all along they are for lower taxes and that taking away a tax credit is the same as imposing a tax.
Let's look at the facts:
• Act 221 is costing the state "X" dollars. No one can agree on this number because no one has done a study to find out.
• It has been said that there is no way to track the numbers, yet the Maui Economic Development Board has had no problems tracking those numbers on Maui. On Maui alone there have been 1,000 jobs created at an average annual salary of $60,000 and $40 million in revenue generated directly attributed to the Act 221 tax credits.
• The $75 million tax credit proposed to build an aquarium in Ko Olina is said to generate $186 million over 10 years. Using the Maui numbers, Act 221 would generate $460 million in revenue over 10 years, from Maui County alone.
• The revenue generated from the high-tech jobs created will circulate through the economy many times over as these workers will be able to buy houses, cars, groceries, gas and many other goods and services.
Remember that "truth and integrity" are not merely words to be uttered to win a race. Hold the governor's feet to the fire and make her honor the promise she made in her campaign.
Don Mangiarelli
Homeless problem isn't unique to Kalihi
The Advertiser's expansion of the discussion on the homeless situation to the neighborhood board level, with ignited interest reflected in the April 1 Island Voices commentary by Maryrose McClelland and Bernadette Young in reaction to my letter of March 14, is appreciated.
As they may know, from the outset I was a staunch supporter of their concerns that dumping Ala Wai toxic dredged materials along the O'ahu shoreline, in lieu of full remediation of these materials, could, for example, pose potential health risks to those who fish from O'ahu's south shore waters.
The homeless issue of the day is a growing islandwide health and welfare concern. It is unique neither to Kalihi, Wai'anae, Waimanalo nor Kapahulu, but shared by all. Several suggestions have been brought forth over the past decade in attempts to help resolve this issue, including most recently that of a city comprehensive assistance center built with federal funds. As we have experienced, the homeless population that benefits most from assistance services offered is that which congregates in the primary urban area. But many other homeless choose to be near O'ahu's beaches and parks where these services have less accessibility for outreach assistance.
So here we have a conundrum that, if left to community divisiveness, will continue to escalate. Hence the suggestion of a reasonable central space with the necessary access to assist a majority of O'ahu's homeless population. Perhaps this might be in partnership with the state at Sand Island, or at Kalaeloa, a new area being rezoned following delivery from military use. And perhaps this facility, coupled with satellite facilities in other areas, eventually might replace some that the Kalihi neighborhood board chairwomen complain about being in their community neighborhoods.
Michelle Spalding Matson
North Korean nukes, Kim Jong Il are scary
Thanks to Ted La Fore for the April 14 letter about North Korea's right to have nuclear weapons, as does France. The United States has had only an armistice (truce) in place since the end of the Korean War on July 27, 1953. A pretty scary thing with dictator Kim Jong Il in power.
Come to think of it, Jacques Chirac and the French, given their illicit, undisclosed deals with and support for the Iraqis, don't make me feel much better about the nation our countrymen died for in two world wars.
J.D. Nielsen
Intellectual dilemma faced by pacifists
Greg Barrett's thoughtful commentary ("The price of war," April 13) quoting Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly highlights the intellectual dilemma pacifists face today.
Kelly, presumably an intelligent woman who has sacrificed nobly on behalf of Iraqi lives, amazingly decries the very concept of sacrifice itself. She is apparently blind to what is going on around her right now in Iraq: jubilant masses celebrating freedom from oppression, most of whom are truly appreciative of the sacrifice U.S. service men and women have made on their behalf.
Kelly's statement that "if even one person dies from this war it is too many" is the quintessential selfish, sentimental statement of all time. It flies in the face of every selfless act of sacrifice undertaken throughout history and dishonors even Kelly's own work.
This season even exists to celebrate how God sacrificed his son for the sake of mankind, yet Kelly's reasoning would seem to render even this act as senseless.
It is curious how the ostensible world body of moral intelligentsia at the Nobel headquarters would reward ignorant expressions like Kelly's. I will recognize Kelly's statement that someone's brain has stopped working, but in viewing the joyous throngs of liberated Iraqis, I'd say it was hers.
Maj. Keith Jefferson, USMC
Cataluna's column on Spam Jam uncalled for
As a volunteer for the Waikiki Spam Jam, I am shocked and disappointed that The Advertiser chose to print the column written by Lee Cataluna that appeared April 8 ("Patriotic piece hits wrong note").
Dozens of volunteers — including the Pacific Fleet Band and Tsunami (a group comprised of members of the Pacific Fleet Band) — donated hundreds of hours over the last several months to put together a fun family event. The Pacific Fleet Band and Tsunami were greeted with wild applause from a crowd of thousands and received repeated requests to extend their performances.
It is unfortunate that Ms. Cataluna chose to concentrate instead on the band's attire (Navy uniforms) and their choice of songs. Our military men and women fight for our country to give Ms. Cataluna the freedom of speech she enjoys. To say that her remarks were tasteless would be the ultimate understatement.
To the fine men and women of the Pacific Fleet Band and Tsunami, thank you for a professional, inspiring, patriotic performance and for your service to our country.
Debby McGraw
Concrete barrier in Waimanalo ugly
Waimanalo is a beautiful area made very ugly by a handful of ignorant people who repeatedly dump their junk sofas, refrigerators, mattresses and vehicles along the back roads — all this when there is a refuse station less than one mile away.
Now the state has added its contribution.
As a result of two recent fatal accidents at the Olomana Golf Links curve on Kalaniana'ole Highway entering Waimanalo from the north, the state decided (after prodding from some vocal Waimanalo residents) that it needed to do something (anything) to prevent further loss of life along that stretch of road.
What they did was erect a horribly ugly bright-yellow concrete barrier along the straight section of highway, doing apparently nothing to correct the situation at the curve, where the two prior accidents occurred.
Unfortunately, no one wants to acknowledge that the full responsibility for those tragic deaths does not lie with the state or the design of the highway (there are many much narrower and "dangerous" roads throughout the state); it rests squarely on the shoulders of drivers who thoughtlessly and selfishly kill those innocent victims.
Neil Wright
More bathrooms should be available
Last Friday's article on people urinating in public in Chinatown spoke of something I have known about for a while.
It's hard enough to find a clean bathroom downtown even during the usual business hours, but it's nearly impossible to get to a bathroom in downtown during the evenings and weekends.
The same situation exists in Waikiki as well.
In that situation, it's either urinate in public or urinate in your pants. More bathrooms ought to be open to the public downtown, more public bathrooms built and even portable bathrooms installed.
Eliminating waste is a human right. Allow us to practice that right with dignity by having more bathrooms in downtown and Waikiki.
Pablo Wegesend
Kapa'au, Hawai'i
Kailua
Eighth grade, Washington Middle School
Kailua
