Oprah 'favorite things' TV episode was sexist

Though I commend the Nov. 22 "Oprah's Favorite Things" show for honoring the importance of all teachers, it was unsympathetic to male elementary and early childhood educators.

The engendered nature of the audience, gifts and comments by Ms. Winfrey reflect national statistics showing a scant 9 percent of elementary school teachers are male, with numbers below 2 percent between kindergarten and third grade, under 4 percent in the critical preschool years, and declining at all levels since the mid-1970s.

Our society is in the midst of a shift in gender role expectations. It has become cool to be an "involved" dad, yet myths and stereotypes about men's willingness to work for low wages, capacity to nurture, or the statistically unfounded concern that male teachers threaten young children's safety makes it hard to enter or remain in the field. Few young children experience a male teacher, and with so many children needing positive male role models, that is a loss to us all. For more, go to www.menteach.org.

One more 'alternative' for our trash problem

What a brilliant idea in Councilman Mike Gabbard's Nov. 27 op-ed piece. He wants to ship O'ahu's trash to Elmore County, Idaho, 22 miles east of Boise, or Klickitat County, "an arid and isolated part of southern Washington state."

Over in Idaho and Washington, I can hear them singing, "He's not heavy, he's my brother."

People relocating to the Mainland from Hawai'i might start moving to Elmore or Klickitat counties to preserve that feeling of being close to home.

I've got an even better idea: Let's blast our garbage into outer space. It's a done deal because, as they say, "In outer space, no one can hear anyone else complain."

Think about it: What a shot in the arm for the economy. New life for the comatose Ka'u Spaceport. New jobs. New high-tech startups supplying hardware and software to the aerospace industry.

I've even thought up a name for the project: "EX-TRASH" (Extra-Terrestrial Removal and Storage, Hawai'i).

Promotional campaigns will bring revenue to local advertising and PR firms. The slogan: "Hawai'i — boldly daring to send garbage where it has never gone before."

In Mr. Gabbard's words, it would be immoral not to consider this alternative.

Leeward is already burdened by waste

The City Council is doing it again. It is making Leeward the main dumping area of the whole island.

Leeward has two power plants, a giant industrial park, a plant for cancer waste from the hospitals (which is broken down). There's a refinery, quarry, etc.

The council has no concern for the large population's health.

The Second City cannot grow if the land around it is given over to waste. The landfill in Makakilo is leaking, the gulch landfill is overextended.

Does there have to be an epidemic before the council stops?

Pick up the air tab

Since the NCAA is in an admirable cost-saving mood (don't send three teams, send one), in the spirit of reasonableness and, more importantly, fairness, let's have the NCAA pay the Wahine's cost to the sites where they must play. The NCAA will still save the cost of sending two. Is that rocket science or what?

Warrior football: in end, it's only a game

I am a UH alumnus, so a win in any UH sport makes my weekend and a loss is always a bummer, but not the end of the world. Remember, they are students first, and the coaches don't play the game. They are all human. The Warriors had a lot of injuries this year that have had a major effect on the win-loss record.

June Jones has been the best thing for UH football, including calling the team the Warriors and settling on the "H" logo and black uniforms, etc.

In sports, everything is a matter of inches, timing and momentum. What happens if the fake punt/pass is caught, we score and the momentum is reversed? Then they are heroes and everyone jumps on the bandwagon. It's how you act when you are a loser that shows the true self — not how you act when things are going well; that's easy.

I would rather have a coach and players who have the guts to at least try. I wouldn't trade the excitement of June Jones and the run-and-shoot for anything. Remember, even the best teams in the nation lose. You have to keep everything in perspective. God bless every one of the Rainbow Warriors. We back you all the way! At least most of us do! Go, Warriors!

Bottle bill program ripping off consumers

I am only now understanding the impact of the bottle bill. The state charges the distributor a 5-cent deposit per container, which is passed on to me. Two problems:

• There is no redemption center now (maybe in January?) so I have to store the containers if I want my deposit back. The law says the cans cannot be crushed, so I cannot reduce the mass. Where do I store them until January — in my closet? If I throw away the cans as I am now doing, the state has a windfall because it makes 5 cents off me for every container I purchase from now until the redemption center is operating.

• The label on my beer is a paper sticker that comes off when wet. Without the label, the cans cannot be redeemed.

What a ripoff.

Stolen laptop contained wealth of research data

Some days are worse than others. Before I become consumed by my own woes, I try to think of others who are having tough days, weeks, years, or the worst tragedies, experiencing the loss of loved ones. But even when I balance my thoughts with those of others, I'm still blue today.

On Nov. 23, someone broke into my house and stole my laptop. Not being a material-oriented person, I wouldn't normally worry about the issue too much, and especially since I'm rather forgetful and misplace keys and my purse often. But what saddens me isn't the actual laptop, but what the laptop contained. My Ph.D. research from the past three years is contained in that machine. Everything from the raw data to my detailed thoughts are contained in that machine. Simply put, it is an extension of me and my mind.

In the last three years, I've been conducting my Ph.D. research on the local Hawaiian fisheries, mainly tuna fisheries, at the UH department of oceanography. This research extends throughout the tropical Pacific with the help of a group of great scientists, both here at UH and from throughout the Pacific, including Mexico, California and New Caledonia. We're trying to unravel the complexities of tuna migration in the tropical Pacific Ocean. In doing so, we've discovered interesting information about tuna and other predators of the open ocean.

Most of our research is focused around a basic principle your mother taught you: "You are what you eat." Therefore, by analyzing tuna sashimi, we can infer information about their diet and movement patterns. In addition, these migratory animals appear to be telling us information, via the chemical cues in their muscle, about the chemistry and physical environment of the Pacific Ocean. The tuna are our oceanographers. I'm afraid all of my data and research will be lost now.

As a result, I ask solemnly that whoever might have my laptop to please return it. Or if you've recently purchased a used laptop, please contact me. I'd like to try to recover the data from the hard drive. It's a Dell Inspirion 4150, with a number of scrapes on the right side where my bracelet rubbed on the machine while I wrote frantically. Once again, it's not about the laptop, but the ideas contained in the machine. I'd be happy to pay a reward. No questions asked.

Global trash solution needed

My heart goes out to the City Council in its attempt to address the trash problem on O'ahu. This problem has been on the horizon for years, and now we have to deal with it as it goes to crisis level.

Where to put our ever-increasing trash load is a complex issue and should be answered by experts as part of a comprehensive program involving recycling, consuming less and ecologically thinking as an island with limited resources and places to dump trash.

• Recycling. Our leaders must forge ahead with mandating a recycling program we can follow. We must separate our trash and update how it is collected and dealt with.

• Use less. We need to adopt more efficient ways of living in Hawai'i. We need to get to a one-car-per-family goal. Those who wish to have more than one car should pay additional fees for doing so. These additional fees would pay for a part of a mass transit system that makes sense for moving people around our island.

• Eat produce and fish farmed in Hawai'i: Import and eat less red meat and pork, use fewer paper goods and other consumables. We can do it with courageous, articulate leaders willing to move beyond the least painful means of keeping the masses happy.

• Come to grips with a dump site: We as an island community must take care of the host community burdened with O'ahu's dump site. Isn't it ironic that Wai'anae has so little in resources for dealing with homeless, healthcare and community services and takes all of our trash? The community that takes the burden of our trash should get top-of-the-line assets to outweigh the negative impact of hosting the O'ahu dump site.

• Embrace all community groups in making decisions such as waste disposal and recycling, energy use and allocation, transportation and urban growth and development. Groups such as the Sierra Club and Envirowatch are not part of the team that makes policy decisions. These groups have great resources and mana'o that should be part of making the decisions, not just providing reactionary voices. The idea of dumping rubbish at Campbell Industrial Park makes no sense unless we as a community plan on shipping our trash to the Mainland (which sounds insane to me).

• De-politicize the big issues: Trash, sewage, transportation and urban planning are complex issues and should remain out of the ring of politics. Raw sewage spills, crumbling infrastructure, haphazard development and still no cohesive plan on mass transit and personal vehicle management for our island environment. We need to move these issues back to the experts' hands.

We need leaders for the hard work needed to keep Hawai'i beautiful. The right answer is not an easy one and should not be politically motivated.

Recycle, use less, eat better and drive less; these are common-sense goals we all need to strive for.