Bypassing dysfunctional DOE was a good idea

As public school educators, we are more often than not advised (read: required) to "trust the system" when we request support for improvement in our schools.

The DOE is one of the most dysfunctional systems in this state. The condition and performance of too many of our public schools bear testimony to that reality.

What saves many of our students, and ironically also allows the system to still float, albeit in stormy seas, are the diminishing number of dedicated, competent, hardworking teachers and staff who ignore as many of the idiotic mandates and policies as they possibly can. These few educators survive with little or no administrative support — or worse, with opposition — and still continue to teach and care for their students.

The legislators who used the democratic process to respond to the requests of their constituents and bypassed the dysfunctional DOE bureaucracy in order to try to get the job done are to be commended, not chastised. In light of the paltry sum allocated to Windward school projects, it appears that our local Windward legislators are still trying to follow the archaic DOE procedures that haven't worked with any degree of efficiency for decades.

Adele Wilson
Kailua

PGA appears to be stuck in the past

You've come a long way, baby. So have you, America. But the Professional Golf Association is an anachronism stuck back in its royal and ancient dark ages as far as acknowledging the handicapped and gender issues.

Too many PGA members forget that golf in America was a private-club game only for blue bloods and the rich, and caddying was the only entrée and level of participation for the masses. Today, still too many PGA members mouth the same words — "You don't belong!" that their PGA predecessors heard when they came knocking at golf's door not too long ago.f the myopic vision of these PGA members persists, the PGA should stop using the word "open" with its tournaments and use "closed" instead or the more familiar "restricted."

Richard Y. Will

McCubbin didn't leave for personal reasons

Aw, c'mon folks. We know Hamilton McCubbin's ouster as CEO at Kamehameha Schools had nothing to do with his personal life, but was about his desire to finally open up Kamehameha and end the grubby politics and shady dealings at Hawai'i's biggest nonprofit educational establishment.

McCubbin must have been cutting close to the heart of the issues for the dirty tricks department to get so desperate.

McCubbin is not the first, nor, sadly, will he be the last, honest educator to get the shaft from the dirty politics of Hawai'i nonprofits, but perhaps his aloha should act as a wake-up call for us to look for the motivations — whose ox might be gored — behind educational "investigations."

M. Colgan

Allow paramedics to retire after 25 years

House Bill 507 is on the governor's desk awaiting a signature. It would allow Honolulu's paramedics to retire after 25 years of service. I urge Gov. Lingle to sign it.

Honolulu paramedics work in adverse and hazardous environmental conditions. They work with biohazards, violent people and those who are critically ill. Theirs is an arduous task.

Can you imagine carrying a 300-pound patient down a flight of stairs on a gurney because the person is too sick to walk? How about placing a breathing tube in a trauma victim alongside a freeway as cars go whizzing by? These are not unusual things for our paramedics. They do this 24 hours a day, seven days a week, rain or shine.

Currently, the members of the police, fire and ocean safety (lifeguards) departments are all able to retire after 25 years of service. Honolulu's paramedics do not yet have this provision. They should.

The paramedics of our community are there for us — always. It's time we support them.

Libby Char, M.D.
Emergency physician

Kawaiaha'o Church should rethink vote

It is unfortunate that the membership of the Kawaiaha'o Church has voted to reject the Rev. Kaleo Patterson from being its senior pastor. Rev. Patterson is highly qualified, has all the credentials and speaks the Hawaiian language fluently. He grew up on the Wai'anae coast, a product of the Hawaiian Homestead program.

One of the main reasons the Rev. James Fung resigned as pastor of Kawaiaha'o and returned to the Mainland was that he said his ministering was too Western in style. Some church members felt that Patterson's Hawaiian sovereignty activism would make him too Hawaiian in his pastoral views.

It is ironic and hypocritical that Patterson's rejection was partly based on the fact that he has long hair, a beard, and has an arrest record brought on by his Hawaiian activism. For these very same reasons, not even Jesus Christ could be voted in as the senior pastor at Kawaiaha'o Church. Jesus Christ had long hair and a beard, he was an activist in every way and he was arrested, prosecuted and eventually crucified on the cross for civil disobedience.

Church members should rethink this rejection and have another vote.

Steven T. Kalani Burke
Pearl City

Public schools have much to offer students

I disagree with a recently posted comment stating that a public school education cannot motivate children. As a past attendee of Punahou School, I made the choice to leave, as I felt I was not receiving the education I was paying for.

Now, at Kahuku High and Intermediate, I know the true value of a public education and the great potential public schools have to offer without the high price tag.

Overgeneralizations about public education are often a result of disengaged parents. With proper counseling and discussion with administration, parents can have direct influence on their children's academic vigor at whatever school they attend.

At Kahuku, the honors program offers an education that surpasses many of the classes I once had at Punahou. I find these teachers to be more down-to-earth and approachable. Often with a private education come teachers who are too self-involved with their own studies to become engaged with their students.

A public education offers great opportunities — what it takes are involved parents and interested students. We mustn't be lured by the false assumption that a private education is a good one, because public schools have much to offer.

Andrew Leatualii Savini
Kahuku High School

Animals aren't humans; they prefer messy house

Will someone who hasn't been overly influenced by Disney animated movies please tell the Hawaiian Humane Society that animals are not humans. Being concerned about real physical animal cruelty is one thing; but charging someone with animal cruelty because her dogs were left in a dirty house, or cages, is ridiculous and un-animal.

Dogs are dirty animals. Dogs, naturally, eat garbage. They naturally stink. They don't bathe as do humans. They run from being washed, and often go and wallow in the dirt after you wash them. They rip up furniture and spread the garbage all over the house or lawn. They sure seem to prefer a messy house.

If you could ask dogs if they'd prefer living in a clean human domicile or a garbage dump, I'm sure they'd choose the dump. If you could ask a male dog if it were more cruel to "humanely" neuter him, keep him in a tidy house and walk him on a leash ... or put him sexually intact in a cage with two female dogs ...

Jerry Neil III
Pahoa

Rozmiarek might get back to theater roots

Long after the show is over and the memories have faded, only Joseph T. Rozmiarek's reviews are left for history. Somewhere hidden in a cedar chest, a cigar box or scrapbook is the discolored newspaper story of how the "s" was left out of show. I've never wanted to be a critic, but I will always fight for freedom of the press.

I believe Joe Rozmiarek has forgotten what it's like to be involved in a recreational theater. I'm sure that when he was a young soldier he sanctified Army theater and found refuge in it.

Maybe he can find it again. I would like to extend him the opportunity to get back to the grassroots of amateur theater and guest-direct Cathy Foy in "Kiss Me Kate" at Army Community Theatre in our 61st season.

Vanita Rae Smith
Producer/director, Army Community Theatre

Playing politics with Act 221

I would like to respond to Rep. Brian Schatz' May 19 Island Voices commentary, which suggests that the governor was using Act 221 as a scapegoat for all our state's budget woes. Nothing could be further from the truth.

During the past legislative session, Gov. Linda Lingle sought to fine-tune Act 221, a law that was intended to provide tax incentives to high-tech businesses that created permanent jobs in the state. The changes sought by the governor would have strengthened Act 221 by closing existing loopholes and ensuring that only companies that were actually promoting Hawai'i's high-tech industry and created permanent jobs would be eligible for this tax credit.

According to estimates by the nonpartisan Council on Revenues, the governor's proposals would have generated a savings of $55 million over the next two years.

Let's look at the facts. During the act's first year, the 100 percent technology investment credit was claimed by 53 companies and cost the state $9.6 million and created total potential tax losses of $46 million, which is equal to the amount investors pumped into the industry. The Tax Department estimates that a separate Act 221 provision, the 20 percent technology research and development tax credit, cost the state $14 million in revenues that same year. The number of new jobs actually created in the high-tech sector remains unknown.

In the act's second year, 2002, only 20 companies remained, and overall employment at these companies dropped by 32 positions that year. These figures strongly suggest that many one-shot companies, such as companies that are formed to make a single movie, took advantage of the credit. This was not the law's original intent.

A majority of the members in the state House and Senate, who happen to be in the same political party as Rep. Schatz, vocally opposed the amendments and launched a disinformation campaign accusing the governor of trying to hurt Hawai'i's burgeoning high-technology industry. Then, the majority-party members voted down the changes from becoming law.

I find it curious that on the one hand the same legislators who sought to increase taxes and fees during the last Legislature, such as the GET and automobile registration fees, were so vocally opposed to closing some tax loopholes, which they readily admit only benefit a small number of businesses and individuals and do not result in a corresponding benefit to the people of Hawai'i overall.

No, Rep. Schatz, the governor was not using Act 221 as a scapegoat for the state's economic ills. It is only another example of politics as usual as majority-party members were able to block yet another common-sense improvement to an existing law. And once again, the big losers were the people of Hawai'i.

A "New Beginning" has come to Hawai'i. It began when the people elected a Republican governor, and it will continue when they elect a Republican Legislature.