Posted on: Friday, February 27, 2004

Letters to the Editor

Navy's decision on church disappointing

I was disappointed to read the Jan. 27 article by Karen Blakeman, "Church, Navy square off over use of land."

I can sympathize because I, too, was part of the nine civilian churches asked to assist the 14th Naval District. This group of churches has continually provided a great service to our military and civilian families alike.

In 1963, the 14th Naval District and the Pearl Harbor Memorial Christian Church received this message directly from the secretary of the Navy and the president of the United States: "I cannot see any reason to get rid of churches. Give Pearl Harbor Memorial Church another lease for 20 years at a dollar a year." — President John F. Kennedy; therefore, the Act of Congress 10 U.S.C. 2667 (70A Stat. 150).

It seems to me that President Kennedy established a vital precedent.

May it also be noted that the churches have paid for their own facilities. One Navy chapel cannot equal the strong ministries of nine dynamic churches.

Please look again at the closing comment of Blakeman's article by Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a spokesman for Navy Region Hawai'i: "There are no special deals. Not for anybody — Jack-in-the-Boxes or churches." Yet, the Navy gives a lease to the developer in exchange for constructing an office building. And the developer gains the control over the property, collecting rent and managing leases for whichever businesses and properties the developer brings in or allows to remain. Looks to me like a special deal.

An important answer is missing from the full-page ads and ongoing campaign in favor of Seibu Makena Resort's rezoning requests on Maui: Why?

We — the county — are under absolutely no obligation to add more land to the already considerable acreage rezoned for the benefit of Seibu.

Planning and zoning should respond to genuine needs of the community, not to opportunities for private profit-making.

We have a fiscal obligation to be extremely careful about granting zoning entitlements to property owners. Entitlements can be sold with the property to new owners who have no interest in honoring promises made by the original owners to encourage rezoning by decision-makers.

Worse, if the community later needs to restrict entitlements, we will likely face a lawsuit over property "taking" with a prospect of paying many times more than the cost of the land before the gift of rezoning.

Lately, it seems abundantly clear that a real need on Maui to be addressed by rezoning is affordable housing, not more time shares, millionaire golf homes and coastal mansions.

Do we really need another exclusive, high-end town out on a dead-end road, accessible through a temporarily widened highway with a history of serious congestion?

Do we need expensive residential development around the last undeveloped, locally accessible beach area on the dry side?

Do we need to take scarce water resources away from affordable homes and pipe them to the dry side for private gain?

Just whose needs is the county supposed to be looking out for?

Castle Junction work should be stopped

Gov. Lingle, please halt the work and heed the warnings expressed by the Kailua Neighborhood Board on your massive $7 million Castle Junction slope project.

The project was billed as an emergency measure. Yes, stabilization is required. A much smaller effort focusing on limited grading, retaining walls and stabilizing landscaping with protective netting similar to state improvements at Makapu'u would be more appropriate and considerably less expensive.

Unfortunately, work has begun, and an estimated 18,000 truckloads of dirt will be moved down Kalaniana'ole Highway to an area adjacent to Kawainui Marsh and Kahana Iki Stream.

The impact on the Ko'olau Poko community will be great. The current condition of the paved highway is so poor that the endless truck convoys carrying the soil to the proposed dump will ruin what little drivable road we have left.

Your immediate attention is crucial. I would hate to see this extremely expensive state work be viewed by some as an undesirable legacy.

Something needs to be done about speeders

What is it with speeding? I just don't get it. I see it all over the place, and I wish I had the power to pull over those who drive dangerously behind the wheel to issue them a ticket. There is no highway patrol or police to catch them in the act.

I guess it doesn't dawn on these restless individuals that they are hurting and intimidating everyone around them. The Islands definitely do not want to see any more accidents.

Something needs to be done. Whether it's taking away a license or going back to driver's ed, somewhere along the line, the bad apples of the roadways need to be stopped and penalized for their actions.

Legislature is failing to provide solutions

The Senate transportation chairman painted a disgusting picture of why legislative traffic bills dealing with speeding, drunken driving and other related issues fail to reach a vote.

Mike Leidemann's Feb. 14 transportation article quoted the chairman in part as saying, "I just don't know what it takes anymore. For whatever reasons, they seem to die somewhere along the line."

Technical, economic and political concerns combine to prevent bills from becoming law, according to lawmakers and lobbyists.

A MADD spokesperson added that some bills are not well written and legally don't work. Others are opposed by behind-the-scenes powerful state and city government entities, to include industry lobbyists that, collectively, get bills killed to protect their vested interests.

These are stinging indictments of how our Legislature is failing to develop workable solutions to resolve the difficult challenges of critically important legislation of this state. It is a sign of embarrassingly weak government, and foretells that some shadow government entity is controlling legislative matters and the senators have lost control.

I am especially troubled to see that our legislators are intellectually challenged to compose well-written, legally workable bills. Maybe they should contract with the ubiquitous local criminal attorneys who are seasoned warriors, and courtroom brawlers, to draft the necessary language to plug the holes in poorly written laws that are unenforceable.

Enough already. The community wants solutions from government — not alibis.

A white Jesus during Black History Month?

I find it more than a little ironic that during February, Black History Month, we are being bombarded with images of a white Jesus in the trailers for Mel Gibson's film. Jesus, the Annointed One (Kristos), was a Jew, a member of the Semitic peoples.

The historical record is very clear, unequivocal actually, that 2,000 years ago the Semites were a brown, dark brown or black people with tightly curled to woolly hair. The one phenotype that Jesus the Annointed One (Kristos), or any of the disciples for that matter, would not have been was a Caucasian, a white man.

How are we ever going to come to grips with racism in this country if we continue to deny people of color their historical place? How could white people hate people of color if they were taught Jesus would pass for black if he were to rejoin us today?

Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, Mohammed, the founders of the major religious movements, all were people of color. Isn't it time we set aside our prejudices and recognize this and start taking the first steps in eliminating racial hatred and bigotry in our society?

Arts season cliche

Your Sunday article about the proposed Hawai'i arts season was interesting and informative. Unfortunately, the suggestion (repeated) that these innovative ideas propel us in a "high brow" direction is an immediate sour note. What is your intent in perpetuating high school cliches? Grow up!

'Sobfest' relates to our very real fears

Given the history of the "neocon party," I feel that Thomas E. Stuart deserves a reply.

The "sobfest," as Stuart calls it in his Feb. 20 letter, concerns the very real fears that some of us citizens feel when we see the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of our nation being threatened. And this is exactly what the current U.S. administration is doing.

Moreover, the majority of citizens are more than willing to go on defending this great nation no matter the cost. But shall we defend it for a state of "fascists"? That is doubtful. After all, unlike the immigrants who migrated here in recent times, we were born free. And we will fight to remain free, at the polling booths or in the streets.

And that, my friend, is why John Kerry, a true hero, will be our 44th president, and not president "pretender" AWOL G.W. Bush.

No freedom in marriage

Gays and lesbians are demanding that they should have the freedom to marry.

That is a non sequitur. There is no freedom when you marry.

I know. I've been married for 43 years.

UH students should not be used as hostages

The greatest losers from a University of Hawai'i systemwide strike would be the students.

If the University of Hawai'i union members Saturday elect to authorize a systemwide strike, it would show that they regard salary increases over the students' higher education. UHPA is artificially comparing the University of Hawai'i system with Mainland counterparts. Members should realize that where they show deficiency, it may be offset with better medical and retirement benefits.

The University of Hawai'i union members must regard the consequences a systemwide strike would have on the students, to which they, foremost, should be committed. Salary raises will come, but not by threatening or forcing them, holding the students as hostages.

Locally elected school boards aren't answer

This idea of having locally elected boards running school districts is just plain silly.

Do you believe for a minute that part-time politicians, religious opportunists and would-be educators can do a better job than a centralized, professional organization? This is an insult to all administrators, principals and teachers, the professionals who run the schools.

I will tell you what will happen if we get local boards. I give it but a few months before the more influential boards clamor for more money for various reasons. They may say they pay a larger share of taxes. They may have powerful "constituent" lobbyists: doctors, lawyers, engineers. They will want more for their kids, obstructing the work of principals, administrators and teachers, even objecting to subjects taught in the classrooms.

Guess what? They will get what they want. And we'll end up with a multitiered school system, with excellent public schools in expensive neighborhoods that can afford equipment and more teachers, and schools in the poor neighborhoods with decrepit buildings and broken equipment. Is that want we want for our kids, for all kids? You don't think it will happen? Think again. Think Boston public schools; it happened there, and it's a terrible problem for parents who can't afford housing in expensive neighborhoods.

If you want to solve the problem, make the existing organization more efficient by putting more money directly into helping the classroom teachers. Hire more teachers, raise teacher salaries and benefits. Make preschool available to all, especially in low-income areas where kids are below or on the poverty line.

It is amazing how many teachers actually volunteer, unpaid, their time for extracurricular student activities (choral groups, science fairs, etc. ...). Money is the solution to fix problems such as low pay and buildings in need of repair. Use the existing infrastructure.

And if you still want to be involved in your local public school, do not hesitate to attend the monthly School/Community-Based Management (SCBM) meeting.

DUI speeder should lose car

Our community has been deeply saddened by the recent deaths on our roads. We especially feel for those who were the innocent victims of someone else's desire to race.

In the wake of such tragedies, debate has raged on what our legislators and police can do to curb this problem. Police have correctly stated that they don't have enough manpower to patrol the highways, and that proving someone was racing rather than speeding is tricky.

One idea is to create a felony class of speeding for those caught going 30 mph or more over the posted limit, but it has met with resistance since many feel the posted limits are low and this could severely penalize people who aren't racing. People have noted that all the drivers of the cars who were racing were young males, but there is no way to constitutionally ban young males from having cars and licenses. What people and the media have failed to notice is the second characteristic most of these drivers share at the time of their crashes — they had been drinking.

We need to focus our attention on drinking and driving. If we can make a dent in it, we automatically make a dent in crashes due to racing. Someone drunk behind the wheel (a fairly common occurrence in this state) is dangerous enough; when that person chooses to drive his car at 100 mph-plus, it's 10 times more dangerous.

I have to think that the feelings of invincibility, feelings of machoism and impaired judgment and reaction time all can be traced to alcohol. I doubt anyone ever says, "Let's get drunk tonight and then race." They get drunk and then decide to race.

My solution is to keep the DUI rules the same, but add the provision that if you get a DUI and a speeding ticket at the same time, you forfeit your car to the state (which would auction it off). I want the owner of the modified car who has been drinking to think, "I better drive 5 mph below the speed limit on my way home from the club." And the people who have sunk tons of money into their vehicles in the form of racing modifications would be the ones with the most to lose.

By taking a good look at posted speed limits and raising those that are ridiculously low, we can shrink the gray level. But there really is no gray level when it comes to drinking and driving. And no one, not even the beer industry, would be foolish enough to lobby against a bill such as this if it gets proposed.

Call your senator and representative today, and let's take back our streets.