Letters to the Editor

No wonder education in Hawai'i is messed up

My wife and I have found out firsthand why Hawai'i's schools lag the rest of the nation. Simply put, the Department of Education seems to have no capacity to think outside the box.

My wife has a master's degree in education with eight years of teaching experience, and she just came from Las Vegas, where she was teaching at one of the most prestigious elementary schools in the country, where the curriculum includes Latin, ceramics, photography and art history, to name a few. She came to Maui excited to dive in and make a difference in her students' lives. Truly, she is the most dedicated and professional teacher I know.

Unfortunately, some flunky at the DOE failed to properly evaluate her credentials and told her that she was not even fit to be a substitute teacher in the state. Subsequent phone calls and faxes have been met with either no reply or utter indecisiveness. Irked, she has decided to look for a job in a private school.

And yet I understand that the state is literally taking people off the streets and putting them into classrooms with minimal training. If I were a parent paying taxes in Hawai'i, I would be furious.

We need to give this gas cap thing a try

Letter writer Jim Henshaw questions Sen. Ron Menor's figures based on the report of a service station operator. I suggest both Sen. Menor and Mr. Henshaw look at the recently concluded lawsuit for the answer.

One of the facts revealed was that Chevron made a disproportionate percentage of profit from its Hawai'i operations compared to the rest of the country. Nobody disputed the figures put forth. I think Sen. Menor's point that the law doesn't require a higher price if prices should rise on the West Coast has been overlooked in the discussion. The law only comes into play if prices in Hawai'i should rise higher than the threshold.

In other words, if Hawai'i's refineries can deliver at a lower price than the West Coast, then nothing happens.

Everyone says we need more competition, but we have to face the fact that the market in Hawai'i is only so big, and it can be served adequately by the existing suppliers. A new player in the market is not likely to happen since the entrenched suppliers could drop their prices to force the new guy out. Or, the new guy could simply charge the same as everyone else.

Unless somebody can come up with a better idea, we need to give this gas cap thing a try. The governor has herself said that if we try something and it doesn't work, we can always come back and fix it. Although she wasn't speaking about the gas cap, I believe her analysis was appropriate to this situation as well.

Mayor Harris is still a trustworthy person

I have been a big fan of Mayor Harris. I am just a housewife and a senior citizen.

I met him once in person when he was running for governor. I immediately felt he was the right person to represent Hawai'i as governor. Needless to say, I was very disappointed when he decided not to run.

I found out that the mayor himself was driving one of the seven-passenger vans on the Kalihi shuttle run every day to help people desperately in need, in the crucial time of the bus strike. It almost had me in tears. He is still the same trustworthy person. Thank you, mayor!

C&C development is 'paving over paradise'

The proposed Castle & Cooke Koa Ridge development in Central O'ahu is just another case of "paving over paradise." When you look to the right, driving up H-1, those beautiful rolling hills of green cascading down from the watery Ko'olau mountain range is where Castle & Cooke wants to pave over, thus connecting Waiawa Gentry and Mililani.

Are we going to continue to stand by and watch while greedy developers pave over the last bits of precious island (we only have so much) for a short-term profit, when this prime ag land could be available for future generations for valuable food production?

If you think we need more housing, think again: 13,000 units have already been approved to be built. Plenty of land is available for future growth in Central O'ahu. Now we are going to approve thousands more houses, built over the aquifer — only to spend millions in tax dollars building a desalinization plant?

I hope not.

It's American way for Hawaiians to speak up

As always, William Burgess occasionally will preach his hate for Hawaiians and belittle them as much as possible.

"Equality" to him means to place Hawaiians at the bottom. "Aloha" does not mean that Hawaiians should keep their mouths shut and let everyone else take advantage.

I think we all know by now that Hawaiians are the stewards of the land. It always has been and, whether people like it or not, it will always be that way as long as we can help it.

Call it lack of aloha if you will, but you can't hate Hawaiians for doing what we should do, and that is to speak up for what we believe in. If I'm not mistaken, that is the "American" way, am I right? And as Americans, we certainly have a right to choose what color T-shirts would be appropriate for whatever occasion, not what Burgess thinks it should be.

He stated that the Hawaiian population began declining prior to Captain Cook's arrival. And he would know this based on the census records taken of Hawaiians prior to 1778?

Road to North Shore is littered with junk

Kirk Caldwell's anti-bus-advertising commentary Oct. 3 would make sense in a Hawai'i that was doing the obvious things to assure its aesthetics. However, a recent drive up Windward O'ahu to Turtle Bay revealed — as always — a dozen or so gutted roadside vehicles and several large piles of trash, including discarded household appliances, mattresses and the like.

All this week, countless numbers of golf fans and out-of-state visitors will be making their way to the Turtle Bay Championship. Many will be unfavorably impressed by our state's consistent inability to keep its highways free of junk.

I suspect that very few will note that TheBus remains free of side-panel advertising. In such a context, Caldwell's overblown concerns are laughable.

O'ahu already has had ads on its buses

While the discussion about allowing advertising on the exteriors of buses continues, for some reason an important historical fact hasn't yet been mentioned: We've already had ads on buses — had them for nearly 20 years, in fact — from at least 1952 to 1971.

Back then, O'ahu was served by different private bus companies. The largest, Honolulu Rapid Transit, ran pretty much only in urban Honolulu. Its vehicles carried six or eight signs apiece: one on the front, another on the back and either two or three on each side, depending on the type of bus. So if HRT had (as a complete guess) 200 buses, that would be 1,200 to 1,600 mini billboards driving around Honolulu.

There were ads for all kinds of stuff: stores ("Take this bus to SEARS"), wine and beer ("140 Awards/Italian Swiss Colony Wine," "Hey — Look at Primo!"), detergents ("FREE Cannon Towels With Rinso Blue Box Tops"), politicians ("Elect John A. Burns Delegate to Congress"), and even newspapers ("Tops in the Territory/Honolulu Advertiser").

This fact shouldn't be construed as an endorsement of allowing this to happen again. But we should at least be fully informed.

Park policy would help HPD curb ice

Thanks for your coverage on the City Council proposal of park closure policies to curtail illegal activities.

My family lives near Haha'ione Valley Neighborhood Park, and we have seen, and heard, late-night parties involving alcohol, marijuana and ice at the park. When called, the HPD has done an excellent job at promptly responding to neighbors' complaints and politely sending the partygoers on their way.

However, the HPD is hamstrung when it actually comes to enforcement of our anti-drug and anti-alcohol laws. An officer recently explained to me that unless he actually witnessed someone smoking crack or ice or whatever, he could not act on a phone tip.

Having a regulated park closure could conceivably give the police probable cause to initiate search and seizure for contraband after hours — theoretically enabling them to get the drunks and the iceheads off the streets and to a safer place for everyone: jail.

Arguments that such a regulation would infringe on our public rights to enjoy the parks at whatever time we wish are silly. We all know the police are stretched way too thin to bother peaceful, law-abiding citizens involved in harmless activities, such as stargazing.

I suspect all opponents to the proposal live far enough away from parks to have never been bothered by the drunks and the drugged during their late-night activities.

Perhaps when the time comes, we should elect others who care more about our community's health and well-being and less about some misguided intellectual ideals about "freedom" without its necessary corollary: responsibility.

Bus pass replacement is insanely complicated

Why is the process of replacing senior/disabled bus passes being made so insanely complicated? There is one possible explanation.

I paid $25 for a pass on Aug. 25, optimistically believing there would be no strike. This pass has never been used. I will use it for one month, take a loss on the other 23 months, and fork over another $30.

The city is counting on the majority of pass holders doing the same thing, rather than go through all of the rigamarole they'd have to go through to get back even a little of what they've already paid.