Letters to the Editor
The 'corner office': George Chaplin's home
George Chaplin was a godfather (in the original, very good sense of the word) to more than a generation of Hawai'i journalists, including me. Teaching. Nurturing. Prodding. Challenging. Encouraging. Correcting.
His competitive juices were always flowing ("Get it first," he would say), but not at the expense of responsibility (" ... but first, get it right," he'd add).
He saw that The Advertiser's advantage as a morning paper was in local news, but never let anyone forget that Hawai'i was part of a larger world, especially in need of news of Asia and the Pacific.
After he retired, I was privileged to sit in that corner office that he made his home for nearly three decades, but I always knew I was only renting the space; it will always be "G.C.'s office." Without George, Thurston Twigg-Smith and Buck Buchwach, there would be no "corner office" because there would be no Honolulu Advertiser. All of us in the Islands owe George, Twigg and Buck a daily round of applause for the fact that we're one of the few American cities still blessed by two daily papers.
And I'm one of many who owe him thanks for a career of excitement on deadline. With the legacy he left, it will never be "-30-" for George.
Gerry Keir
Advertiser editor, 1989-1995
U.S. will use 'weapons of mass destruction'
The U.S. is on the verge of starting a war with Iraq. When we do, we will unleash great quantities of bombs, which could be construed to be "weapons of mass destruction."
We will kill and maim far more Iraqis than we've ever accused Saddam Hussein of. Our beloved country will do what worst-case scenarios say that Saddam might do.
The hawks (mostly conservatives) just can't wait for Fox and CNN to begin broadcasting video of broken and bloodied bodies of innocent Iraqi men, women and children. As we did so often in Vietnam, we're going to destroy Baghdad and its people "in order to save them." The blood-and-guts crowd just can't see the insanity of our country out-Saddaming Saddam.
I passionately believe that my country is about to make one of the biggest mistakes in its history. The hawks call me a traitor and unpatriotic because of my efforts to stop the insanity. To me, this is a badge of honor.
Rick Lloyd
Media's criticism of U.S. policy unwarranted
The U.S. was faced with a situation similar to the North Korea and Iraq problems over 60 years ago.
In World War II, the U.S. decided to concentrate most of our war resources on the Germans instead of on the Japanese.
The Japanese were more of a threat to the U.S., considering that they destroyed almost all of the U.S. naval fleet at Pearl Harbor and were on the verge of knocking at our very doorstep. But we did not see the media criticizing the U.S. posture on Japan.
The media today, as in World War II, are no experts on matters involving national security. All this criticism on the U.S. posture on North Korea is worthless and quite irresponsible.
In World War II, if the U.S. did not concentrate war resources on Germany, Germany might have had time to manufacture in great numbers their super weapons at that time — the V-2 rocket and jet-propelled aircraft. And most of all, Germany might have had time to develop the atom bomb.
Today, history is almost repeating itself. But the only difference is that the rank amateurs in the media today who are not privy to Iraq's and North Korea's capabilities are quarterbacking the U.S. posture on North Korea and Iraq.
In World War II, it was the secret of the atom bomb that was kept away from the media. Today, the secret of intelligence information as well as how it is obtained about al-Qaida, Iraq and North Korea is kept away from the media.
Ruben R. Reyes
Waipahu
Here's why we would go to war over Iraq
In response to George Kent's Feb. 12 letter in which he asks, "Would someone please explain why it makes sense to start a war to disarm a country because we cannot find arms in that country? Would someone explain why the United States feels so threatened by arms it cannot find?"
Here goes ...
The U.N. inspectors are not there looking for weapons of mass destruction. They know for a fact that Iraq has them. They are there looking for evidence that the weapons were destroyed, which they cannot find.
In fact, here is a portion from a United Nations press release: "A UNMOVIC chemical team began the process of destroying 10 155-mm artillery shells and four plastic containers filled with mustard gas at Al Mutanna, approximately 140 km northwest of Baghdad" (by Hiro Ueki, spokesman for UNMOVIC and the IAEA in Baghdad; dated Feb. 12).
So now it has been explained to you.
Keith Miller
Mililani
When will Europeans stop whining, grow up?
An appropriate follow-up to Yasmin Anwar's "Why do Europeans hate U.S." (Focus, Feb. 9) might well be titled "When will Europeans stop whining and grow up?"
Granted, the wisdom of the Bush administration's Iraq policy is debatable. Nonetheless, Americans do not appreciate being lectured to — much less "hated" — by the citizens of countries that twice in the last century plunged the world into global war through their shortsightedness and diplomatic and military ineptitude.
Americans remember only too well that many of their fathers and grandfathers paid with their lives to salvage the very European democracies that now take such pleasure in demeaning us. We also remember that it was America that paid much of the bill to rebuild what was left of Europe after its last attempt at self-destruction and to secure the peace against the threat posed by the former Soviet Union.
Europe has proven again and again that it lacks the moral courage to play a leading role in resolving international crises — even those in its own back yard. Witness the genocidal wars allowed to rage in Bosnia and Kosovo until U.S.-led interventions led to resolution of these conflicts.
If one keeps the history of the last 60 years in mind, Europeans' litany of complaints about the U.S. begins to sound an awful lot like the whining of an ungrateful adolescent.
David Harada-Stone
Mountain View, Hawai'i
Care-home inspections should be unannounced
Kokua Council, an advocacy organization for the elderly in Hawai'i, strongly supports legislation for unannounced care-home inspections.
The council views unannounced inspections not as a punitive but as a preventive measure.
It firmly believes that one death in a care home is one too many and that unannounced inspections is a positive step in protecting and safeguarding many of our frail and vulnerable senior citizens.
Robert Masuda
Board member, Kokua Council
Education starts with the parents
In her letter of Feb. 14, Mimi Bornhorst states, " ... education starts with the teachers, not the principals and not the bureaucracy." In truth, education starts with the parents.
Coming from homes where parents or guardians are involved in their child's learning, interested in their child's progress and see themselves as accountable for their child's attendance and behavior, the child will learn regardless of the teachers, principals or the condition of the school.
Robert Chanin
Kailua
State House is voting for the status quo
Once again the state House decided that the status quo is what is best concerning the public school system.
Representatives listened to a group of whining school principals who complained that, if removed from the Hawai'i Government Employees Association, they would be demoralized and no teacher would want to become a principal.
If the truth were known, these individuals do not want to be under a pay-for-performance contract. Why should they give up the gravy train they now ride where performance, or lack of, has no impact on their pay?
Any professional teacher worth his or her salt would jump at the opportunity to become an agent of change and make dynamic changes to the public school system. Dynamic change is what the Hawai'i public school system needs to move it from being at or near the bottom of nationwide public school systems.
It is refreshing to see The Honolulu Advertiser editorial staff "gets it" and calls for change in the present system. School leaders should not be a part of a union because the seniority and transfer rules work against any dynamic change.
Of course, this begs the question: Does Hawai'i want to continue with the same political process that is, in essence, a large part of the problems we face today? The electorate voted for change in November; however, the leaders of the state House just don't "get it."
Either the state House leadership is part of the problem or part of the solution. For the sake of the children, concerned parents must demand a change in the status quo.
Therese Henrion
Kailua
Dead monkeypods should be replaced
For nearly a year, I have been looking at the dead monkeypod trees at the intersection of Kamehameha IV Road and Likelike Highway and the public housing frontage. These are 90 percent of the specimen trees planted in a landscaping contract with the state Highways Division.
What I can't understand is how the contractor has gotten away with this — not replacing material that has failed to make it. Is there something being withheld from the public?
Can't the Highways Division replace them and bill the contractor? Or, just remove them, for they are an eyesore — a remembrance of someone's incompetence.
Ted Green
Children should not be adopted by singles
Single people should not be allowed to adopt children. Every child should be raised in a traditional household with two parents who are married. This will give the child a chance to grow up in a normal environment.
Growing up in a single household can have a negative impact on the child. Being influenced by a nontraditional household can cause a lot of confusion.
Ernesto Ulep
Legislature must pass student vote measure
"Our Voices Do Count." The phrase was emblazoned on Kids Voting Hawai'i banners hanging on school walls and fences across the state during the past three general elections.
Nearly 200,000 students have voted on paper ballots or by computer since Kids Voting Hawai'i first opened their hearts and minds to the civic responsibility of voting. Hawai'i's youth have been practicing democracy, getting in the habit of being responsible citizens and gearing up for the day when they would be able to cast an adult ballot.
In every general election, they have voted on student issues important to them. And in every general election, they overwhelmingly have voted yes to the question: Should the student member on the state Board of Education be given the right to vote? In the 2002 General Election, 44,126 students, grades K-12, voted the affirmative.
Now students are learning a tough civics lesson. Our lawmakers don't always listen to the majority of their constituents. Students are the constituents, when it comes to the legislative measure that would give the student member of the state Board of Education voting rights on everything but personnel and budget matters.
The Hawai'i Student Council leaders heartily support it and have been lobbying for it year after year. Kids Voting Hawai'i voters routinely support it. But the judiciary committees in the Legislature might shelve it again.
If the issue is passed this year, it will appear on the 2004 ballot as a constitutional amendment. You can bet the state's newest, youngest adult voters will flock to the polls to support it, and the student BOE member voting rights amendment will have the enthusiastic endorsement of Kids Voting Hawai'i voters.
If the measure fails to make it onto the ballot, our youth will have learned a lesson too many of their parents have learned ... a lesson in voter apathy.
Linda Coble
Chairwoman, 2002 Kids Voting Hawai'i
