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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, August 20, 2003

Letters to the Editor

High airline fares, long lines frustrating

Regarding Dan Nakaso's Aug. 12 article "Grumbling grows at interisland terminal": My wife and I recently traveled to Maui, and I was flabbergasted at the cost of a round-trip ticket. We paid nearly $400 for both of us to fly. Believe me, we would not have gone to Maui if it weren't for my brother's funeral.

I would also like to vent my frustrations on how long the ticket counter and security checkpoint lines were at the interisland terminals. We arrived at the Honolulu terminal approximately 90 minutes before our flight and stood in line for over one hour before getting to the departing gate. The security line extended outside the terminal.

Our return trip from Maui was even worse. We arrived at the airport two hours before flight time and got to the departure gate one and a half hours later. The ticket counter line extended onto the sidewalk outside the terminal. We have never experienced similar delays when we traveled to the Mainland.

I'm from Maui, and we used to return there quite frequently, but now I don't know if we will even make it there once a year. The increased ticket prices and ridiculously long lines are enough to turn anybody off.

Now I understand why so many people travel to Las Vegas. After all, a complete air and hotel package can be purchased for as low $315. How can Aloha and Hawaiian charge a one-way fare anywhere from $80 to $90 (a distance of only about 200 miles to Maui), yet fly round-trip to the West Coast for as low as $384 (a distance of about 2,500 miles)? You go figure.

Tony Lanias
Waipahu


Increase parking fees to raise bus ridership

Fare increases are not the way to promote mass transit in Honolulu. We are hurting the faithful bus riders and people who believe in mass transit.

Let us think outside the box and increase areas to promote a higher ridership. One way is to increase the cost of parking within city limits. People would then not want to park in the city. They would turn to mass transit. This was a successful method in California.

The increase should be at the box. This will encourage local people to purchase monthly bus passes. For families with many children, they can save money by purchasing monthly bus passes or have their children ride the low-cost school bus.

In addition, increase the five-day passes for tourists. O'ahu hosts millions of visitors per year. They use the sewers, water, roads and buses. Every other city in the nation hits the visitor. I know; I do over 50,000 miles per year in travel.

Question: Currently, adults pay $1.75 and students pay 75 cents. Where does the extra 25 cents go each time a rider inserts a dollar bill? Does the bus company pocket the money? Do we calculate the extra? Or is this a way for the bus company to pay for extras?

Harvey Lee
Kailua


Bus drivers already make plenty of money

Bus drivers seem to think we live on the Mainland with their unreasonable requests and sniveling for more money. How can bus drivers even think they are worth more than our police officers, firefighters and EMTs?

Anyone in Hawai'i who has a job is blessed. So I feel all bus drivers should show our tourists and the world we are 'ohana and show their aloha to the community by taking a reasonable drop in pay so that no one has to be laid off and all can keep their jobs.

Anyone can live well in Hawai'i on what the bus operators get paid. If they don't agree, then move to the Mainland; no aloha there. A strike would hurt our elderly, keiki and all who depend on the drivers to get them to work, school and doctor appointments.

Robert C. Ruiz
Honolulu


So who cares what June Jones makes?

Now that we have learned the deals made in coach June Jones' contract, what do they amount to? A big nothing.

Jones' contract is on par with other coaches who have taken their teams to the next level. So instead of wasting money on reporting that there was nothing wrong with the contract, how about reporting on real news like wasting money on signs that let you know when you are entering a neighborhood, as if you already didn't know that.

So what else did we learn? Oh yeah, that just because you are a state employee you have no right to privacy because the people have a right to know. Well, as one of the people, I don't want to know, so please stop using that excuse for why we want to know because we don't. Go Warriors!

Lawrence C. Fagin
'Ewa Beach


Coach must remember he's a public employee

It is difficult to think of UH football coach June Jones as an educator, since I don't think he teaches any classes, but he is a member of a public school faculty, and therefore a public servant, and whether we like it or not, he is our employee.

If he thinks that secrecy and dishonesty are better than openness and honesty, he is in the wrong business, and he is working for the wrong employer. Not only is he being overpaid, but he must be hiding something if he didn't want us, the public, to know what is in his contract.

He is not setting a good example, something we expect of our teachers, even football coaches.

Ken Kiura


What's with all the hate?

I am baffled by all these hate letters about same-sex marriage. Why does anyone care whom I do or do not marry? Why is it any business of anyone else in the world? How does it touch on their lives in any way?

Brent Kincaid


Youth board actually got to express views

Frequently I hear people pontificating about something called "youth voice" and how it empowers and engages kids and helps them become mature citizens. Unfortunately, about 99 percent of the time all this talk amounts to nothing. Hey! Let's have a student representative on the Board of Education! (Of course it would be stupid to give this student any real voting power, especially over budgetary matters, we adults opine.)

So congratulations to the editorial board of The Honolulu Advertiser for bringing in a bunch of bright young minds as part of their community editorial board program this summer. Saundra Keyes and Jerry Burris are walking the talk and helping Hawai'i's youth to gain a real voice.

Congratulations to Aislinn, Kia, Chris, Amanda, Jason, Jonathan, Tanya and Teal; stepping up to the plate and telling The Advertiser's editorial board what you think about how events are reported is a courageous act of citizenship.

Josh Reppun
Social studies department
La Pietra Hawaii School for Girls


One example shows how the Jones Act can hurt us

Cliff Slater's Aug. 11 column and Sen. Gordon Trimble's Aug. 15 letter both make honest and excellent points but do not really tell the full story. Let me add a personal experience.

In May of 2000, I was on a trip to Bali, Indonesia. There I spotted some very nice teak outdoor furniture that I wanted to buy and have shipped to Hawai'i. The cost to ship a small table and four chairs was $700 — just about three times the price of the furniture. I decided it was not worth it. The seller then said if I was not in a hurry he could ship it directly to Hawai'i for about $250, but could not guarantee a delivery date.

It was then we got into a discussion and started looking closely at shipping rates and destinations. I could also have it shipped to Long Beach, Calif., for approximately the same price of about $250. I would then have to get it to Hawai'i somehow. The $700 cost to ship to Hawai'i would be for shipping from Indonesia to the U.S. West Coast, then to Hawai'i. The reason for not being able to guarantee a delivery date directly to Hawai'i was, in his opinion, due to shippers not moving cargo there until they had a decent load for that destination.

Therefore, the costs that Mr. Slater used in his article are indeed the result of having to use U.S.-flagged carriers. The analysis by Sen. Trimble is partially correct, because foreign ships do call at Honolulu. However, an increase in traffic by foreign ships may require improved facilities at Honolulu Harbor.

Much has been written about the protectionist laws under the Jones Act as well as the Passenger Services Act. Our congressional delegation has made some progress in the passenger area. I applaud Congressman Ed Case for his proposed legislation to help all of the people of Hawai'i, not just the special interests. Where do the rest of Hawai'i's elected representatives in Washington stand on this issue? Are they for the people or for themselves and special interests?

Ron Varley
Moanalua


Hawai'i citizens overthrew queen

Many of the letters you are publishing from Akaka bill supporters have one erroneous thing in common: They all start with the assumption that the United States not only invaded Hawai'i and still occupies it, but broke treaties and contracts with the kingdom in the process; therefore, reparations are due.

Completely overlooked is the fact that the kingdom was lost because Queen Lili'uokalani was breaking a contract she had made with her own subjects, the residents of Hawai'i. When she took office, she swore to uphold the constitution of Hawai'i. That constitution contained explicit language providing for amendments. So when Lili'uokalani announced she was promulgating a new constitution on her own, she was breaking her contract with her people. Even her own Cabinet objected.

Her proposed constitution was unacceptable to most everyone. Among other things, it would have disenfranchised every subject, Native Hawaiian or otherwise. She proposed she would appoint the upper house of the Legislature instead of allowing that to continue to be done by public election.

The community immediately supported an uprising along lines familiar to Americans since 1776: " ... whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends (i.e., ... deriving ... just powers from the consent of the governed ...) it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government ... " (U.S. Declaration of Independence).

The men who led the revolution in Hawai'i in 1893 were subjects of the queen acting in good conscience. They knew their action would either be supported by the populace as a whole or be rejected by the queen's forces and the rebels dealt with. She said later she would have had them put to death.

The United States, far from supporting the revolution as the activists today would have us believe, demanded the rebels return the kingdom to the queen. They refused.

The United States and every other country in the world that was involved in the Pacific then recognized the new government of Hawai'i, first a provisional government, then a republic.

When the Republic of Hawai'i was finally annexed by the United States, the kingdom was long gone and most of its former subjects had become citizens of the republic.

Unlike the treatment given to conquered Indians, all Hawaiians became voting citizens of the United States and retained title to their lands, and government debts were paid off. Native Hawaiians used their vote to elect other Native Hawaiians to Hawai'i's highest elected office, delegate to Congress, until the late 1920s, and controlled the Legislature and the majority of government offices until World War II.

Any claims they were treated unjustly by the United States are as unwarranted and uncollectible as any claims descendants of the natives of O'ahu or Maui or Moloka'i might have against Kamehameha the Great and his Kingdom of Hawai'i because he invaded those islands, killed off the opposition and seized all of their lands.

T. Twigg-Smith
Honolulu