Posted on: Friday, September 19, 2003

Letters to the Editor

Police Commission chairman must resign

Regarding "Harris' appointee charged with campaign violation," Sept. 13: People charged with crimes are innocent till proven guilty. And, Honolulu Police Commission Chairman Leonard Leong is no different upon being charged with making a donation to Mayor Harris' campaign under a false name.

However, as part of the HPD organization, Leong must be held to the same "higher standard" he requires of all HPD personnel.

Mr. Leong's appointment to the Police Commission is a political patronage position established to create the illusion of being a buffer between politicians and the Police Department. As its chair, Leong controls a civilian review board over citizens' concerns and issues regarding HPD personnel.

Now charged in Mayor Harris' campaign probe, Leong's credibility is tainted in the eyes of the citizens and, more importantly, in the eyes of the police officers before whom he sits in judgment. Therefore, for the good of the community and the Honolulu Police Department, Mr. Leong should resign his appointment to the Honolulu Police Commission, posthaste.

We need a war against domestic terrorism

Hawai'i's government should be remembered for being the first state to stand against the 2001 Patriot Act, which compromised American civil rights. Hawai'i passed resolutions criticizing the broadly defined activities, which allow the FBI and CIA extensive authority to monitor e-mail, wiretap phones, survey medical, financial and student records, and break into homes and offices without prior notification.

But now our constitutional rights are once again under severe attack. President Bush's offensive to expand the 2001 Patriot Act to "untie the hands of our law enforcement officials" should not be taken lightly by Hawai'i. Untying the hands of police would only tighten the authoritative cuffs around our hands. It would be as if we were blinded, gagged and bound because the Constitution would no longer protect us. More power to the government would obliterate the role of checks and balances.

We wouldn't only have to worry about foreign terrorists attacks, but also terrorism from our own government, which we would probably know nothing about since the act is so secretive.

Bush should consider a war against this new crime of domestic terrorism he created.

New transit system a waste of our money

The city is going to spend $50 million to tear up our sidewalks to build new bus stops, yet it can't maintain our bus system at its present level?

According to the city's own environmental impact statement, the city is going ahead with the next stage in its proposed Bus Rapid Transit plan, with the city having already spent over $20 million for the plan itself. The first stage in the city plan is the building of new, standardized bus stops at a cost of at least $50 million.

Fifty million dollars for new bus stops, yet the city has forced the bus drivers to strike to maintain existing services? What is going on here? Tens of thousands of working people, students and the elderly left to fend for themselves for their transportation needs during the ongoing bus strike while the powers-that-be claim to be broke, unable to fully fund the bus system? Yet they somehow have $50 million to build new bus stops?

Before everyone jumps on the Blame the Bus Drivers bandwagon, they had better start to do a little homework, at least more than what the media are telling us. There is money in the city budget, many times more than what fully funding the bus system will cost. It's just budgeted for building bus stops to start. Go figure.

It's a perfect time for jitney service

Bring on the jitney service. The current bus strike is a perfect opportunity to implement a jitney service.

While the city is providing a limited van service, it really needs to give serious consideration for this as a complement to the standard bus service.

And while we're reconsidering our options, please bury the Bus Rapid Transit plan, which will be anything but rapid.

Poor Teamster PR isn't scoring with the public

As new residents of Hawai'i who moved here partly because of the excellence of public transit in Honolulu, we have been very disappointed and inconvenienced by the bus strike, as have most of the residents of this city.

We have been especially distressed by the long gaps and delays in the negotiating process, and we called both the mayor's office and the Teamsters just to offer friendly support for making a settlement. There was a noticeable difference in the receptions our calls received.

Our sympathies actually tend toward the drivers. Both of us come from pro-labor backgrounds. But the Teamsters gave us a rude brush-off on the phone, telling us no more than to call the mayor's office. We did, and there we got a friendly, helpful reception, full of both sympathy and advice for coping with the strike.

It seems to us that the drivers will have enough problems with public ill will when the strike ends without their union adding to the hostile atmosphere by brushing off even friendly inquiries from the public. The Teamsters should have set up a PR office before the strike and actively worked to help people cope with a strike.

If they thought that doing so would hurt ridership when the strike ends, they either underestimate the importance of TheBus to city transit or think they are staging a strike for drivers in a superfluous mass transit system and must bully their way to a bigger share of city money. In other words, their lack of a serious PR effort implies that they are either stupid or greedy.

Good public relations does not involve lies

I must take gentle exception to the remarks of College of Communication Dean Helen Varner of Hawai'i Pacific University on the role of public relations in the bus strike ("Bus union to continue TV, radio ads attacking Harris," Sept. 13).

Dean Varner is quoted: "In good public relations, perception is reality. It doesn't matter what the facts are. What matters is what people believe them to be."

Dean Varner undoubtedly did not intend to imply that public relations practitioners disregard facts and deliberately spin non-truths. Rather, reputable PR people recognize that for any issue before the public, there are multiple "truths" that can be interpreted in infinite ways.

Good public relations effectively communicates one set of those truths in ways that influence others to accept them as their truth, too. A practitioner who lies is not welcome in the field and won't last long.

Drug companies spend too much on marketing

More than 220,000 people in Hawai'i have no prescription drug coverage or woefully inadequate coverage. It is not uncommon for these people to have out-of-pocket drug costs that run $200, $300, $400 or more per month.

Drug company executives spend billions of dollars per year on marketing, advertising and schmoozing anyone who will listen in order to protect their outrageous profits at the expense of low- and middle-income working families and retirees. Drug company fat cats want the people of Hawai'i to believe that they need to generate these mind-numbing profits for continued research and development. This argument might hold some merit if it weren't so hollow and baseless.

The fact is that for every dollar the drug companies spend on research and development, they spend two dollars on marketing and advertising. These costs are passed on to Hawai'i consumers, who are forced to pay astronomical prices for the lifesaving drugs they need to live.

Land Use Commission oversight is important

In the wake of Judge Ibarra's decision in the Hokuli'a case, Gov. Lingle renewed her call to remove land from the agricultural district (Advertiser, Sept. 11). Her proposal would, in one fell swoop, open up thousands of acres of land to suburban sprawl. It would deny citizens the right to have a hearing before people who have not received campaign contributions from developers. It would reduce protection of our natural and cultural resources.

The Hokuli'a development illustrates why the oversight of the Land Use Commission is so important. The Hokuli'a developers avoided LUC oversight, polluted coastal waters with tons of mud, desecrated Hawaiian burials and destroyed a public trail.

It is not surprising that Lingle is championing the cause of the Hokuli'a developers. Lingle is being advised by Dan Davidson, former lobbyist for major developers and now deputy director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

'Illegal' contributions may be entrapment

With news of another "illegal" campaign contributor being brought to justice, it strikes me that the process is like arresting the john and letting the prostitute walk.

These poor guys are just businessmen trying to make a living. Are we to believe that the politicians who received the money were totally clueless about the nature of the transaction?

I suspect many of these illegal campaign contributors could make a case for innocence on the basis of entrapment.

Save school art, music programs

I recently made an evening visit to Kuhio School for an open house in which parents, guardians and families were invited to meet with the school's faculty and staff and visit classrooms. I was saddened to learn that Kuhio School children were at risk of losing their art and music classes.

This significant loss is attributed to recent budget cuts reducing an already low operational budget by 25 percent. It appears logical to assume that public schools statewide are facing the same dilemma.

The elimination of art and music from our children's public school education is an unfortunate roadblock to their growth. The inability of state leaders to secure funding for these programs is nothing less than disappointing and frustrating. This is especially so when we consider the following:

• A 1996 Rhode Island study (Gardiner, Fox, Jeffry, Knowles) found that music and arts training not only raises scholastic performance, but improves student behavior and attitude.

• In another study (Neurological Research, March 15, 1999), students who were exposed to music-based lessons scored a full 100 percent higher on fractions tests than those who learned in the conventional manner.

• A University of Texas study (Houston Chronicle, Jan. 11, 1998) reported that college-age music students have fewer problems with alcohol, are emotionally healthier and concentrate better than their non-musical counterparts.

• A U.S. Department of Education database (NELLs88) that used to track over 25,000 students for 10 years showed that students involved in music generally tested higher than those who had no music involvement. The test scores studied were not only standardized tests, such as the SAT, but also in reading-proficiency exams.

Where state leaders have failed our children, we, as community members, are summoned to help. Maybe you do not have a child now, but today's student may be your future child's baby-sitter or your grandchild's doctor. Maybe you do not care for music and art, but your child's friends may benefit from them, as the above statistics suggest. What kind of friends do you want your child to have?

The individual children of Hawai'i are all our children collectively. They deserve every tool we can give them. I encourage you to support Kuhio School and the local public school near you. Please consider contacting the schools today to see what you can do to save their art and music classes.