Letters to the Editor
Restore money for women services
Hawaii Women Lawyers strongly supports continued state funding for the Hawai'i State Commission on the Status of Women.
We are a nonprofit group of men and women, founded in 1976, committed to enhancing the status of women and promoting equal opportunities for all people.
We have worked closely with the commission in the Hawaii Women's Coalition. The commission is the coalition's facilitator and co-chair. We are a coalition member.
The coalition's diverse group of nearly 200 private- and public-sector organizations and individuals develops a legislative package each year aimed at improving the lives of Hawai'i's women and children. The legislative packages have included bills addressing pay equity, sex discrimination, civil rights, health and welfare, childcare and domestic violence.
Among the coalition's more recent legislative achievements: adoption of Rule 412 in the Hawaii Rules of Evidence (the rape shield rule, deeming inadmissible past sexual conduct of victims of sexual assaults), substantive changes in domestic violence laws and enhanced temporary restraining orders.
The commission's effectiveness was critical in bringing about these changes in the law.
Throughout the year, the commission serves as a clearinghouse for information and activities related to women and children. It has a long and distinguished track record of developing and promoting programs to help women and children in need in our community.
Budget cuts are necessary and inevitable. However, $95,000 to fund the commission's operating costs are tax dollars well spent. The commission's work results in long-term benefits and cost savings to the state and taxpayers by:
- Fostering community leadership and mobilization;
- Disseminating information to and encouraging collaboration among public and private organizations, community groups and individuals;
- Promoting private-public partnerships;
- Developing preventive ways of addressing social and economic problems; and
- Sponsoring research to help the Legislature, government agencies and private organizations make informed choices and measure results.
The commission is a model facilitator for one of Gov. Linda Lingle's objectives: collaborative leadership, that is, partnership between the government and the community it serves.
We strongly urge Lingle to reconsider her position to eliminate funding for the commission from the state's budget.
Joy Miyasaki
President, Hawaii Women Lawyers
We need more answers on healthcare bill
Before the state progresses further on the passage of the long-term-care bill, it should inform the public of the details of that bill. From what I have read in the newspaper, the healthcare bill appears to be just an idea or the shell of an egg. I'd like to know what's in the egg.
I'd like to know, if a person has more than one job, will $10 be deducted a month from each job? Ten dollars may seem like a small amount to some but it's a large amount to someone making minimum wage.
Who is going to oversee collection and distribution? What are the safeguards to prevent fraud and abuse? How much will it cost the state to start and maintain this program? Do they have the funds and necessary personnel to accomplish this task?
How long must you be vested before you qualify? Is there a sliding scale like Social Security on the amount of benefit you receive? I can't see a person who is vested for a year and gets to collect $70 a day for a whole year and neither can I see a socialized program in which a person invests nothing and gets something in return.
Imagine what would have happened if, during WWII, the American soldiers attacked Normandy on D-Day and worked out the details later. The people who support this bill may change their minds if they ever get to see the total package.
Arthur T. Choy
Global threat leaves officials in spotlight
SARS has been affecting the lives of many people around the world in the past few weeks, especially in Asian countries. Knowing that Hawai'i is a major destination for Asian tourists, it is very interesting to see how our local government will handle this important issue.
We do not want them to panic us, but we do want them to tell us what measures have been taken so far. It is also our right as Hawai'i residents to be notified if any cases are discovered in the state and how those specific cases are being dealt with.
We certainly do not want to replicate the Chinese way of dealing with the situation. The Chinese government put its people and others around the world at risk by its irresponsible choice of withholding information.
It is much better to know the truth quickly than keep it a secret in some ridiculous attempt to save face, as the mayor of Beijing did when he lied about the number of cases in the city. He chose pride over proof and subsequently held back the efforts against curing the disease.
In the event of an issue that affects a large amount of people over a worldwide geographical area, it is every authority's and individual's responsibility to put the larger issue above any personal embarrassment.
Sofiane Boujnah
'Ewa Beach
Editor's note: Others from Leeward Community College also wrote letters on various topics.
Local talent can be found across Islands
Aren't the designers of the University of Hawai'i sports logo local boys?
Craig Hirasaki of the firm Hirasaki Nakagawa and one half of the design team owns a firm that is in Chinatown. Kurt Osaki, the other half of the team who specializes in sports marketing design, was born and raised in Kapa'a, Kaua'i (and is a Kapa'a High School graduate), and has opened an office in Honolulu.
Pegge Hopper did a lot of design work for corporations. Her ex-husband Bruce did the design for TheBus. Peter Sapasap, now retired, designed the logos for Mauna Kea and Wailea, among many that we are familiar with.
Who says we don't have local talent? The athletic department hired local talent, why couldn't the administration?
Steve Hirano
Profit at expense of animal suffering wrong
Cockfighting and the raising of fighting birds for sale out of state have very little to do with "culture" or "a way of life" and everything to do with money. The person who sells birds that he or she knows are going to suffer is just as bad as the person who ties a gaff on a bird and puts it in a ring to be mutilated. The arguments about cultural values, way of life and "I'm not responsible for what people do with the birds I sell" are all (excuse the pun) cock-and-bull stories.
In TV coverage of a raid on a cockfight arena on O'ahu last year, a reporter asked a young boy who had been at the fight what he thought about the way the birds suffered.
The response? "I don't care about the birds, I just want to make money." This preteen told the truth as he had been conditioned by his elders to see it.
To profit at the expense of animal suffering of any kind is wrong. To perpetuate such practices by teaching young people to be so callous about the value of life is a travesty.
Joel Kennedy
We are losing focus on general-education kids
In response to the April 28 article "Attorneys' fees add up for DOE," I was shocked to find out that 20 percent of the total money for the Department of Education goes to special education, which only makes up about 13 percent of the total student population.
What about the other 87 percent of general-education kids? I understand that special-needs children need attention and education, but we are losing focus on our general-education kids.
We are also wasting money on lawyers' costs, which could be used in the classroom. That's not where I want my tax dollars to go: to pay for complaints against the DOE when 20 percent of the total funds is being used for only 13 percent of the student population.
The current system is not working. Now I understand why many people are putting their kids in private school. It's not the DOE's full responsibility to educate and raise special-education children.
Terri Nakamura
Kipapa expresses thanks for restoration projects
We would like to express our thanks to the Hawai'i 3R's program for providing our school with the opportunity to improve our aging buildings and form strong partnerships with community organizations.
Kipapa Elementary School had two successful projects through Hawai'i 3R's where five aging buildings were repainted and restored. Because of the huge backlog of repair and maintenance, our 70-year-old campus would not have been restored for a long time without the grant from Hawai'i 3R's.
We ask for our state legislators to help in continuing to fund this program, as it saves the state money. Using volunteers from Castle & Cooke, the Mililani Lions Club, Hawaii USA Federal Credit Union and other organizations, we were able to paint the classrooms in less time and with less cost.
Kipapa Elementary is very grateful for this effort and hopes that it will continue in the future.
Sheldon Oshio
Vice principal, Kipapa Elementary School
Everyone can help 'beautify' neighborhoods
To understand Mayor Jeremy Harris' "beautification idea" to put in a medial strip on Lunalilo Home Road instead of a police station, you must first understand the "Broken Windows Theory."
This theory is what former Mayor Rudy Giuliani implemented in the early '90s when New York City had the highest murder and homicide rates in the nation. In six years, NYC became "the safest large city in America." Small business flourished, young families started raising children there, tourism increased and corporations were relocating headquarters — and thousands of jobs — to NYC.
Giuliani began his term in 1994 by cleaning the subways of graffiti and stopping panhandling on the streets. Giuliani was "beautifying" the city just like Harris has been doing in Hawai'i Kai with the medial strip, in Waikiki with the landscaping and along Kamehameha Highway with abandoned-car removal.
We can all do our parts in our own neighborhoods to tell would-be criminals that, "Eh, somebody cares about this community, beat it!"
Pick up litter and take five minutes to paint over that graffiti down the street. Fight the disorder that precedes the crime!
Jake Vaughan
Nominee's vision fell on deaf ears
How unfortunate that the senators on the Education Committee didn't want to hear Shelton Jim On's vision for the University of Hawai'i. Jim On stressed that he would like to increase scholarships for Hawai'i children who couldn't afford the school. He said there was a need to emphasize nursing and teaching because that's what the state needs. He felt that another audit of financial records was necessary to see what other problems we have. But, he could not commit to build a West O'ahu campus. Would you have accepted him on a blind commitment?
He was prepared for this interview, but they wouldn't listen.
These Democratic senators had only two goals at the interview. Get rid of the Republican and don't let him look at contracts and financial records.
Susanne Kamei
It takes work to preserve our laid-back lifestyle
Mahalo to Chuck Quackenbush ("Change requires having will to speak up," April 27). I applaud him for speaking up on issues that disturb him.
Those of us who embrace the Islands understand what it takes to maintain the "kind and caring place" to which he refers. The tranquil life that draws families like his to Hawai'i is unequaled. Yet, this spirit is not some natural phenomenon that exists organically. In the face of confrontational forces, it takes daily work to preserve.
The laid-back spirit that we hold so dear is fostered by values that don't always work in other places: trust, aloha, malama and ha'aha'a (humility). We threaten the foundation of our culture when we employ methods opposed to those values. The end does not justify the means if the end means that we lose our essence in the process.
Kehaulani Lum
Chicago
