Posted on: Tuesday, July 15, 2003

Letters to the Editor

Mayor's improvements to city are wonderful

I love to ride over the potholes in our Honolulu roads. Every time I ride over one, it reminds me of all the wonderful things that our mayor, his department heads and staff, and the Honolulu vision teams have put in.

Where do I start? We have well over 2,000 new, big shady trees planted all over town — from Ala Moana Boulevard to Kailua Road. Waikiki has a new face, from its bandstand to its streetlights. We have the Waipi'o Peninsula Soccer Park, the Central O'ahu Regional Park for tennis and baseball, and we have a highly improved Hanauma Bay.

We have some traffic calming (which has really shown it works, by the way). We have the bus shelters. Then there are all of the new little things the vision teams have brought, like community signs, sidewalks, pathways and new parks.

I have lived here 40 years, and I believe we will look back on this time as the "golden age" of Honolulu — and all because we have a mayor who is willing to look at the big picture and spend money on these improvements to our city.

Love those potholes!

Stop wasting money on the tourist bureau

So the attorney general's office will be investigating the HVCB. This is well and good, but be sure to investigate the HTA, the governor's office and KITV all at the same time.

The Legislature, too, should stop wasting the taxpayers' money by just rescinding all funding to the tourist bureau and all tax credits for the hotels.

This money should be diverted to fix our schools and give the underpaid teachers their raises.

Let's forget the money appropriated to sell Hawai'i. The people involved are only interested in marketing themselves.

Parents responsible for child's discipline

Regarding John Mussack's July 9 letter "Administrators should be made accountable": I disagree with his statement that "Most of them would not be disruptive if their school principals had a clue."

It is the parents' responsibility to teach respect and discipline. Kids should be coming to school prepared by their parents to learn, listen and respect their teachers and administrators. It is the teachers' and administrators' job to make sure that the kids are receiving quality education by teaching the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic.

When did it become more important for the DOE to teach respect and discipline instead of giving students an education? It is always the parents' job to make sure that their child becomes a healthy participant in a society, which includes respect and discipline.

After working with severely troubled teens who were an identified part of the Felix Consent Decree, I had an opportunity to work with a variety of people important to those children's care, and the most important persons in their eyes were their parents. Teachers and administrators come and go, but you will always have your parents.

Legislature beginning to assert prerogatives

Not only is there a two-party system (per your editorial July 10), but also there is emerging a separate and equal branch of government — the Legislature — as provided for in the federal and state constitutions.

Finally, the Legislature is asserting its independence — first in a unanimous bipartisan override of Gov. Cayetano's veto of the age-of-consent bill in 2001. The current six overrides were decided on party lines, but all six bills were passed earlier with Republican votes.

Your statement that Gov. Lingle isn't obliged to spend the money is not in question. The question is whether she will or will not, and the answer depends on the politics of each issue.

The Senate hearings prior to the session appeared to encourage the senators and representatives to override, just as much as the 500,000 protesters in the streets of Hong Kong influenced one political party leader to resign from the Cabinet and Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa to postpone a vote on the sedition bill. Politicians do listen to the people.

Pick up recyclables every other week

With all the fuss over the cost of recycling, no one seems to have suggested the obvious solution: Have curbside pickup of recycled trash every other week, that is, twice a month, and keep the twice-a-week pickup of regular trash.

A typical family does not generate enough recyclable trash to warrant pickup once a week, especially since the types of trash that Honolulu's recycling program has accepted are so limited. Recyclable trash does not create a health hazard, as non-recyclable trash does. (It's just newspapers, cardboard, and rinsed-out cans and bottles.)

I'm originally from a town in New York that has a lot more money (because of property taxes that are almost 10 times higher) than Honolulu, and it has been on an every-other-week pickup for recyclable trash for decades. And it accepts a much wider range of recyclable trash than Honolulu. Maybe Honolulu should contact Scarsdale for details.

Election of U.S. judges against the Constitution

Regarding Eric Terashima's proposal to elect federal judges (Letters, July 9) because of "judicial activism" on the part of the U.S. Supreme Court: It is not going to happen. Article II of the U.S. Constitution provides that the president shall nominate federal judges, with the advice and consent of the Senate.

Mr. Terashima may disagree with the court's rulings on affirmative action and the privacy rights of homosexuals, but they hardly indicate judicial activism. "Judicial activism" is nothing more than a euphemism for court rulings that some people do not like.

Are we to have judicial passivity, then? The federal courts are not meant to rubber-stamp acts of Congress or the states. The courts have a duty to interpret and uphold the Constitution. If an archaic and discriminatory anti-sodomy law violates due-process rights, the Supreme Court has a duty to strike it down. Anything less would be judicial abdication.

Federal courts were designed to be independent, and the election of judges would destroy their independence. Judges should not be currying favor with a majority that would seek to trample the fundamental rights of politically disadvantaged minorities.

Ouster of Lucy Gay should be overturned

The residents of Wai'anae are accustomed to being overlooked, neglected and let down by government officials. We have become proactive as a community as a result of this.

Lucy Gay is proactive as well. She has been innovative and a real asset to this community. She has built up a sorely neglected joke of a community college outlet into a viable educational alternative for the Wai'anae Coast populace.

The list of improvements she has made in her short time here is long. She has gone far beyond the call of duty and cannot easily be replaced. We, as a community, believe that she is the best person to continue the improvements that she has made here.

Obviously, Chancellor Mark Silliman has poor understanding of how truly interrelated and united the total Wai'anae Coast community really is, concerning this. He was confronted by many, but there are many more of us behind them. We are angry at the way this has gone.

We hope that those who have the oversight of this man will be wiser than he and will overrule his poor decision.

Mandatory recycling has severe drawbacks

Mayor Jeremy Harris is boldly imposing a dangerous mandatory recycling project as a test case that has already been rejected by the City Council. Recycling is important; however, let's look at the results of a program in Japan similar to that which Mr. Harris is trying to dictate.

In order to avoid paying fees to have trash taken away, people start piling it into public trash bins. In order to curb this problem, the city removes public trash bins. The end result is that littering and illegal dump sites are on the rise while clean parks and streets are on the fall.

Neglect of discipline has created monster

I'm a frequent reader of The Advertiser and find some articles very interesting. When I read articles about serious crimes involving children, such as murder and robbery, I often wonder who will control our streets in future generations.

What I find more disgusting are the statements made by family members of these criminals. "We were all shocked to hear he was found with (drugs). He is a good kid."

Wake up! Bad people commit crimes against good people and should pay the price. Incarcerate the criminals in and around their peers. I'll be willing to pay more taxes to build more prisons to hold more of the nonconformists of our society. Make the streets available to the honest and wholesome family. Good people don't pistol-whip others. Honest, hard-working people don't break in your house and shoot you when you come home from a hard day's work.

In our society, we have created a world for violence. Television, music, video games are not to blame. American society has failed the next generation with the neglect of discipline. It takes a whole village to raise a child.

BJ Wie is doing his job

BJ Wie was right to be his daughter's caddie this summer. He had to be with her and help her just as he would accompany her through a bad neighborhood.

Now, he's right to let go and not be her caddie.

This man has good timing. As Shakespeare said, "The ripeness is all."

BJ Wie is doing his job. He's a father.

Federal court here is in crisis

I am writing this letter on behalf of the entire federal judiciary in Hawai'i to alert the members of our community to the serious crisis now facing Hawai'i's federal court.

The district of Hawai'i is currently entitled to four active U.S. district judges. Of these four slots, three are permanent and one is temporary, and, after October 2004, if a vacancy occurs, it cannot be filled unless it is made permanent by legislation.

Over three and a half years ago, Judge Alan Kay took senior judge status, leaving our federal court with such a vacancy. The heavy caseload and the length of time this vacancy has existed have caused the Judicial Conference of the United States (of which I am the 9th Circuit's district judge representative) to designate the district of Hawai'i in judicial emergency status.

On Jan. 23, 2002, President Bush nominated Frederick W. Rohlfing III to fill the vacancy created when Judge Kay took senior status. As has been reported, Mr. Rohlfing received a highly qualified rating from the Hawai'i State Bar Association, but an unqualified rating from the American Bar Association. The latter rating has stalled Mr. Rohlfing's nomination, making him now the oldest unconfirmed district court nomination pending before the U.S. Senate.

Even with the many extra hours put in by each active judge and the assistance of our senior judges, the lack of a fourth active judge in our district has caused unacceptable delay in the handling of both civil and criminal matters. This problem was recently exacerbated by my having to forgo handling trials during the remaining summer months due to medical treatment. Although my prognosis is excellent and I am expected to make a full and complete recovery, the circumstance highlights just how tenuous our federal court situation is.

We of course take no position on Mr. Rohlfing's nomination; that is a matter for the president and the U.S. Senate. However, the stalemate that has occurred cannot continue much longer before we will be required to call in visiting federal judges from the Mainland on a regular basis. We have already been compelled to request visiting judge assistance this summer.

The people of Hawai'i deserve to have the very important cases that come before our federal court presided over by federal judges from our community who know and understand the many unique aspects of our way of life in Hawai'i. The people of Hawai'i also deserve to have their federal judicial matters handled in an expeditious manner. Therefore, we believe it is important that our community know and understand the critical need to immediately fill Hawai'i's fourth judicial vacancy without further delay, and to have legislation passed by Congress to transfer the temporary position to a permanent one.