Letters to the Editor

Condition of roads just the same-old same-old

Our roads are in horrible shape. So what else is new?

We'll get used to it. We've gotten used to poor schools, unkempt parks, porous prisons, political scandals and lousy leadership. I was frustrated until I procured the secret handbook: "The Dummy's Guide to Running Government in Hawai'i."

• Chapter 1: "How to Promise Little and Deliver Less."
• Chapter 2: "Four Words for All Occasions — WE NEED MORE MONEY."
• Chapter 3: "Maintenance? Who Said Anything About Maintenance?"
• Chapter 4: "Solving Education Issues — Send Your Kids to Private School."
• Chapter 5: "Government Contracts — That's What Friends Are For."
• Chapter 6: "Decision-Making: Laptops or Prison Guards? Laptops, of Course!"
• Chapter 7: "Creating a Business-Friendly Hawai'i." (Note: This chapter is being removed because no one has ever read it.)

Now it all makes sense.

Mark Middleton
Kapolei

Sarcastic attack over appointments off base

Michael Sakalauskas' April 29 letter was right on the mark when he praised Gov. Lingle for appointing James Duffy, a Democrat, to the Hawai'i Supreme Court. Jim Duffy is very highly qualified and will surely be an outstanding justice.

But Mr. Sakalauskas' sarcastic attack on the Democrats for their judicial appointments — allegedly for "old boy" or "political" connections — is nothing if not hypocritical. Gov. Lingle's appointment of Duffy made up for a grievous failure of the Senate Republicans even to hear President Clinton's meritorious nomination of Duffy to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, and for President Bush's withdrawal of Duffy's name about two years after he was nominated and replacing it with a lawyer who had served the Republican Party.

Currently, President Bush has any number of extreme right-wing candidates for judicial appointment waiting in the wings. These are candidates who will rewrite the law and Constitution to impose their far-out conservative values on a people, the majority of whom do not support those views.

To paraphrase Sakalauskas, when will President Bush begin to base his appointments on "fairness, openness and balance in the (federal) government? Truth? Honesty? Respect for all of (the nation's) people, not just those with connections or money" or the president's wealthy and far-right supporters?

R.S. Miller

Public funds option critical for campaigns

Thank you for continuing to acknowledge the importance of public funding of election campaigns.

2003 is the fourth legislative session that public interest groups, with much support from the public and excellent support from the House, have made a magnificent effort to offer voters and candidates the option to completely cut the ties with the donors of campaign gifts. The most recent bill would have allowed two to three candidates from each House district to run using public funds, if the candidate voluntarily agreed not to accept privately gifted money. Each bill was killed by the same senator who, most recently, tried to get out of hot water with the Campaign Spending Commission by amending an otherwise beneficial reform bill to suit his needs.

We're very fortunate to have Robert Watada, executive director of the Campaign Spending Commission, working to increase accountability and transparency. Dr. Watada, his staff and the commission are terrific watchdogs for impropriety and outright corruption in privately funded campaigns.

The abuses they discovered are one more reason why the publicly funded campaign option is such an important choice to offer people willing to make the tremendous effort to run for office, but who do not want to get tangled in the web of obligations that accompanies private money campaign gifts.

Laure Dillon
Executive director, Hawai'i Elections Project

There's a better way to deal with peacocks

I was appalled to read that the board of directors at the Makaha Valley Towers actually planned, with the help of the federal government, to destroy some of the majestic birds that grace its grounds because they are bothering some of the residents. What a dastardly thing, especially when there are such simple alternative solutions.

Let the people of the Wai'anae Coast vote on whether the Makaha Valley Towers is an eyesore that desecrates the landscape of that beautiful valley. If the vote is affirmative, let the government condemn the property, tear down the buildings and turn the area into a peacock sanctuary. Or, let the people who are bothered by the noise sell their apartments and move. Insist that the new buyers sign a statement that they will not complain about the peacocks.

See how easy it would be to solve the problem without resorting to harming these most magnificent creatures that bring such joy to so many of us?

Barbara Del Piano
Wai'anae

No tax credits means aquarium won't be built

The corrupted logic of the socialist mindset never ceases to amaze me. Your May 5 editorial "Wean hotel industry from state tax credits" complains that the "state" should not "give" monies to hotel developers by allowing tax credits. Only the socialist thinks the money a person earns belongs to the state and only through the goodness of the state will that person receive money back from the state by reduced taxes. And we the people should be grateful for anything less than a 100 percent tax rate.

In this specific case, no tax credits means the aquarium will not be built, hotel improvements will not be started, and the state will not receive taxes from the improvements. In other words: Everybody loses.

I'm beginning to believe that radio talk show host Michael Savage is correct: "Liberalism is not a political ideal, it is a mental disorder."

Jim Poole
Waikiki

Forget slowing down traffic; speed it up

Time to face reality: The reason for the outrage over the traffic cameras and now the rumble strips is that no one wants to see our hard-earned money spent on efforts to slow down traffic. What the consumers and taxpayers want is a more efficient and safe way to speed up the traffic flow and get out of the gridlock that makes commuting a nightmare.

To drive 14 miles each morning and evening takes about two hours out of my day. When will we see bullet trains and metros and other efficient people-movers instead of spending millions on systems that don't work? Must we wait for total gridlock before a real solution is found?

Becky Kendro
Kailua

Harris is giving little thought to maintenance

Regarding the May 6 letter by Jake Vaughan comparing Mayor Harris' "beautification idea" and New York former Mayor Giuliani's "Broken Windows Theory": There is a significant difference. Harris' "beautification" consists of capital expenditures without thought for future maintenance. Giuliani's "Broken Windows Theory" is all about maintenance.

The citizen activities Vaughan advocates — picking up litter, cleaning graffiti — would indeed help, but they are also maintenance. Harris is building things, and Giuliani was taking care of things. The governments of Honolulu and Hawai'i have long been active builders of things, but they seldom get around to maintaining them properly.

David Mielke