Posted on: Thursday, July 10, 2003

Letters to the Editor

Motorized scooters should not be banned

I'm 14 and I am a motorized-scooter rider. What made me want to write this letter was that half of my friends told me motorized scooters were banned and the other half of my friends told me they weren't.

If the scooters are banned, I would like to know why. I know they are noisy. I think the scooters are safe and not safe at the same time. I think they are not safe if they go over 25 mph. I know a lot of people in Mililani who have motorized scooters, and they all use helmets, including me.

I have a newspaper route for The Advertiser, and all the people I deliver to are happy now because I get it to their houses faster and earlier than I used to.

I think you should not ban the scooters, just tell the people they have to deal with it just like everyone else.

'Social Darwinism' reference was wrong

In his June 29 column, Robert Rees snarls that free-market advocacy is based on "Herbert Spencer's Social Darwinism — that what's best for society is the survival of the fittest ..." The mention of "Social Darwinism" is an attempt to smear free-market advocates, and that old, trite "straw man" should be put to rest.

What Spencer actually said was that, in nature, the fittest survive; he didn't say that that was necessarily good, least of all when applied to humans. As George Smith noted in his book "Atheism, Ayn Rand, and Other Heresies," Spencer explained, "... I have contended that the pains attendant on the struggle for existence may fitly be qualified by the aid which private sympathy prompts." Translation: He believed in charity.

Rees speaks as if free-marketers worship Spencer and Adam Smith as gods, and that any disparaging remark made about them somehow refutes all free-market economics. That's false. The truth is that these two intellectuals made some concessions to socialism; they should have gone further to defend capitalism.

And drop the acidic tone toward Malia Zimmerman's www.hawaiireporter.com — a fine, gutsy publication. Well, at least Rees spelled all the names correctly. That's the best part of his commentary.

This war was wrong on several accounts

As a mother, I mourn the loss of young lives in an unjustified war.

As a grandmother, I fear the long-term effects of that war for generations to come.

As a Japanese American, I know what nationalistic fervor, under the guise of patriotism or homeland security, can do to those who happen to look like the "enemy."

As a life-long resident of Hawai'i, I see the erosion of tolerance and respect for diversity replaced by fear and distrust of those who differ, defiling them as evil or perverted.

As a citizen of the world, I grieve over the loss of opportunity that our nation had to be a bulwark for peace and humanitarianism, choosing instead to be an arrogant bully of war and destruction.

Lucy Gay nurtured Wai'anae community

As a resident of Wai'anae and student at Leeward Community College, it breaks my heart that Chancellor Mark Silliman adamantly refuses to return Lucy Gay to LCC-Wai'anae.

Many of us are from a broken or dysfunctional home. Our parents provided the basic needs if we were lucky. Many of us got a public education, and many of us fell through the cracks. Overcrowded classrooms or budget cuts, along with the fact that some children were dysfunctional, compounded the problem. Whatever the reason, many of us fell through the cracks at home and in school.

Lucy says she's a "public servant." So are the others above her. A college education is a choice and not mandatory; therefore, without students, those administrators, especially those who are conveniently "out of country" and who refuse to speak with the community, would be without a job.

Lucy was our coach and mentor. She connected our intelligence and emotions so we can become leaders for our 'ohana and community. Lucy Gay brought goodwill to the Wai'anae community.

Public-worker unions are far too powerful

Russell Okata's July 1 letter describing in some detail the damage that the HGEA might inflict on the population of Hawai'i is frightening.

Whether or not he intended it as a direct threat to extort favorable legislative action, we should thank him for making it absolutely clear that the public-worker unions have gained far too much power.

Arbitration hasn't worked well because the process was loaded in favor of the public unions.

End corporate welfare for Hawaiian, Aloha

Regarding Larry Helm's July 1 letter: I am in complete agreement. It's disgusting to pay unreasonable prices to fly to the Neighbor Islands when, for double the amount, you can fly to the Mainland.

The fact that our U.S. congressional delegation supports a local monopoly through antitrust exemption legislation is appalling. When government decides the "winners" and "losers," we all lose (pay more).

It's funny, whenever a third airline has entered the interisland market, Hawaiian and Aloha airlines can lower their prices.

I'd love to own a business in this state; when my business goes bankrupt, the state will bail me out. Stop corporate welfare.

Allow charter airlines into the state and let the market decide which companies win or lose based on the consumer, not government choice.

There's no rah-rah in skyrocketing costs

I feel as if I'm being held up. In renewing my two season tickets for Wahine volleyball, I asked to move to the lower level. I read all of the literature the University of Hawai'i sent out and understood that for this coming year, it added a $60 premium seat donation in addition to the $155 cost of the seats. I am willing to pay that.

But then the ticket office called me and said that there's a new deal. To move to the lower section I am now required to join the booster club and pay an additional $300 per seat. That's nearly twice the cost of the seat itself, and neither the UH Web site nor the renewal paperwork I received says anything about this new requirement.

How does UH figure on filling up seats with strong-arm tactics like that? This last-minute requirement sure dampens my enthusiasm for UH sports.

Teen suspect should be held responsible

I am appalled by the article in which police reported that a teenage shooting suspect had drugs on him (July 1). The family blames the shooting on the drugs and not the gunman.

Folks, people have choices, and this young man chose drugs. Not a word about how Eric Kawamoto feels about being shot. Admittedly, something needs to be done about the drug dealers who prey on society, but I place the blame squarely upon someone who is stupid enough to get involved with drugs.

Kawamoto works on my floor at PACDIV and, from all reports, is a fine individual. It is a shame when a citizen cannot feel safe in his or her own home. In this situation, the death penalty would be an appropriate sentence.

Federal recognition is based on a big lie

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is steaming full-speed ahead in its efforts to support federal recognition of Native Hawaiians as "Native Americans," the biggest lie in the history of Hawai'i since statehood.

OHA believes that supporting the big lie will protect it against lawsuits seeking to terminate OHA.

On June 27, I received a document via e-mail from Peter Yee, OHA's "Nationhood" division chief, who wrote: "OHA has consistently made every effort to ensure that all points of view are presented to the public. Its monthly newsletter, Ka Wai Ola O OHA, has regularly published articles and letters authored by those in opposition to the positions taken by OHA and its trustees. A planned series of video roundtable discussions includes representatives of organizations whose opinions relating to federal recognition and the appropriate manner in which to bring about Hawaiian nationhood differ from those espoused by OHA and its staff."

Peter fails to point out that Hawaiians opposing the lie have received a whopping $0, while efforts to support the lie have received substantial OHA funding, including an allocation of up to $450,000 to hire the Washington, D.C., law firm of Patton Boggs, LLC, the same firm that lobbied support for oil drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.

"We believe the passage of this measure sets the future context for designing Hawaiian governance, locally and nationally," OHA Chairwoman Haunani Apoliona said.

If OHA is seeking to build the future context for designing Hawaiian governance upon a lie, OHA is steaming full-speed ahead in the wrong direction.

Speeding contributes to tragic accidents

I don't know what caused or contributed to Sunday night's tragic bus crash, and my heart goes out to all the injured and their families.

I do know that but for the grace of God, these tragedies would happen more often. City buses, tour buses, school buses, Handi-Vans, you name it — they all speed. If they are not speeding, they are not moving.

A slap to educators

I want to add my voice to the chorus of protests about coach June Jones' absurd $800,000 salary. What a slap in the face to loyal, longtime UH professors such as Terence Knapp, who has served the university for 33 years and was honored for his work by the state Legislature. These noble educators are left in the dust.

Don't put your faith in auditor's HVCB report

In reviewing the state auditor's report on the Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau, we should remember that these types of audits are specifically designed to turn up questionable practices, no matter how minor. For some reason, state audit reports always come with highly inflammatory language and exaggerated claims of wrongdoing that presume the worst.

The leaking of an advance copy of the draft audit report to the media last month raises questions about the integrity of the process and may well be part of a pattern of harassment by unrelenting critics of the HVCB whose goal appears to be to discredit the agency and its leadership at any cost.

The cumbersome saddle of state bureaucracy that is being placed upon the HVCB — and the HTA — frustrates people and distorts priorities. It is not what the Economic Revitalization Task Force had in mind when it created the HTA. The idea was, in fact, to streamline the process, trim back the bureaucracy — to oversee and to hold the HVCB accountable, not become the marketer.

The HVCB is intended to be a swift and agile marketing organization that can respond boldly to the demands of a very rough-and-tumble marketplace. Instead, it is becoming an organization that is suppressed and intimidated, stifled by layers of approvals, checks and crosschecks. We must be careful that it does not lose confidence in its ability to take big swings, to take some of the risks that good quality marketing requires.

HVCB does a good job for Hawai'i. It is an inherently hard-working, accomplished and honest organization. If there have been some errors in judgment, let's fix them and move on.

We trust that the HTA in making its important decision to award the state's marketing contract will not let the auditor's report influence its judgment to pick the most qualified marketer. Hawai'i tourism is a multibillion-dollar business. There is valuable equity in the HVCB as the state's marketing organization, and we should not put at risk our ability to continue working with it for a few dollars misspent.