Posted on: Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Letters to the Editor

It's nobody's business whom one marries

To Thomas Herndon, who wrote on March 6 that same-sex marriage would "diminish" marriage and "erode the moral fabric of America," I, a heterosexual female, say: Get over it.

Never before has our Constitution been amended to allow for the exclusion of a single category of human beings and restrict that group's civil rights. Where would we be if our moral leaders had not fought for interracial marriage, women's suffrage and other hard-won civil rights? Same-sex marriage is soon, and rightfully, to follow.

Religious zealots who claim to have a corner on morality and the defining word on marriage as an institution would do well to examine the statistics on divorce. A 50 percent divorce rate does not bespeak a glowingly successful institution. We should welcome those wishing to be counted in a highly flawed system that has excluded them.

If Herndon feels that he is being forced to accept another person's marriage, the threat is of his own making. As long as Herndon and other opponents have their right to traditional marriage, it's none of their business whom the next person marries.

True marriage protection

If "traditional marriage" needs to be protected, what this country needs is a constitutional amendment banning divorce. That would protect over 50 percent of all marriages right off the top.

May Hawai'i's 'Idol' stars always keep aloha spirit

The voices of Island American Idol hopefuls Camile Velasco and Jasmine Trias are nothing less than fabulous. Their natural talents are second only to their aloha spirit and Island style. Both girls are obviously destined to stardom regardless of the "American Idol" competition's outcome.

As happy as most of us are for the girls, I cannot help but feel sad that they will be exposed to the music industry and its fast pace.

Maui girl Camile and Maryknoll's Jasmine are Island flowers. I pray that no matter how much they grow, they never lose their sense of humility, while at the same time I wish them the greatest success and all the fame that goes with it.

Camile Velasco and Jasmine Trias are Island birds of paradise.

Traffic madness must be stopped

I had another harrowing commute from Mililani to Manoa this a.m. I left at 5:20 and encountered a torrent of monster trucks, SUVs and racing cars on the H-1 at 5:30.

Freeway traffic is dangerously out of control. It is especially difficult to merge. People will risk a collision rather than give up an inch. I must either leave much earlier to avoid the raging flood of speeding vehicles, or start later when traffic is so congested that it moves at 15 to 25 mph on the H-1.

Something dramatic needs to happen to dampen this outrageous situation. Perhaps our chief of police lives on Fantasy Island. On this island the police do not patrol, and it is a free-for-all on our highways. We either need more police dedicated to highway patrol, a state highway patrol or the dreaded van cams to bring sanity to our roads. Dangerous driving chomps at the quality of life on O'ahu and has serious, adverse economic effects. When I get in my car in the p.m. my only thought is to get home and stay there. Shopping is the last thing on my mind.

Use flashing blue lights

In order to reduce traffic fatalities and racing, I propose the following:

A city and/or state contract to build portable blue flashing lights that operate by remote control. These lights are put in temporary places on highways and roads at trouble spots that have been previously identified.

These flashing lights could be monitored by roving patrolmen and turned on or off by remote control. These lights can also be moved periodically.

In addition, patrol cars with blue lights could be parked nearby (not on the road) for short periods of time as a way of monitoring traffic situations.

Band director has made huge impact at Damien

This past Sunday, I walked with the Damien Memorial High School band in the Honolulu Festival Parade. In less than one year, this band has gone from rag-tag to impressive under the direction of Damien's new band director, Jennifer Sultzer.

As a parent of a band member, I just wanted to express my deep appreciation for all she has done for the band program at Damien. It gave me chicken skin to hear the cheers from the crowd as the band marched by. I hope the school appreciates her as much as we parents do!

Bill limiting cigarette purchases is unfair

A Senate bill prohibiting the purchase of cigarettes via telephone, mail order, Internet and other online sources is making its way through the Legislature.

This bill is unfair and targets those who choose to smoke and have found lower-priced cigarettes through the Internet or other online sources.

The state is responsible for this lost revenue by constantly raising the "sin tax"; it has a forced people to look for lower-priced cigarettes elsewhere.

Why are cigarettes the target? What makes ordering clothing, jewelry, computers and other high-priced items on the Internet or through mail order catalogs any different?

The consumers are not paying any state tax on those items.

Plans that don't target governance will fail

There is universal agreement on the keys to good education: students, teachers, parents and supporting resources.

Sound bites like "focus on achievement" are restating the obvious and distracting from the true problem, which is the delivery of resources from the state general fund to the schools, where learning happens.

That means our debate is about governance and nothing more.

If you don't believe that the delivery system is broken, you need to re-read the details within the PricewaterhouseCooper January 2004 "Operational Review" of 47 schools. The consistent theme is the breakdown of middle management within the bureaucracy and at the district level.

By no small coincidence, this is the area targeted for reform by the governor's local school boards and by the Business Roundtable with its appointed school board, 15 regional councils and service model.

Editorially this fact is being overlooked and you need to dig for this information, but it is worth it.

The current legislative package does not address this problem and leaves it open for ongoing institutional failure.

Even with the best of intentions, Ms. Hamamoto cannot micromanage everywhere, and the public is being short-changed on accountability.

Gun-carry permits, highway patrol needed

I hesitated for a week to write this letter, but was disappointed that no one else in Honolulu has a problem with HPD Chief Lee Donohue's assertions and opinions when it comes to a highway patrol or concealed weapon (CCW) permits.

The chief asserts that a highway patrol would just be a duplication of services. If you have ever had an accident or seen kids flying by in altered high-speed vehicles, almost causing an accident, you know a highway patrol is needed.

The HPD is overburdened and understaffed; accept the help and give up some power, Chief.

On the CCW issue, the chief asserts that Honolulu is one of the safest major cities due to the long-standing, strict gun-control laws. Who are you fooling, chief?

As an ex-HPD officer and current federal law enforcement officer, I know gun-control laws control the law-abiding citizen, not criminals.

More guns, less crime.

What's the big deal?

Regarding "The Passion of the Christ": How can the movie be anti-Semitic? It seems to be a film about Jewish leaders and a Jewish mob seeking the death of a Jewish rabbi who had a large Jewish following. To say that the movie makes all Jews guilty of the death of Jesus is just as stupid as saying every Pearl Harbor movie makes all Japanese guilty of bombing Pearl Harbor.

City needs an inspector

I wish to thank you for your indispensable information. Despite pothole repairs, there are many more remaining, even in the main roads.

Those holes never disappear. I wish the city would have an inspector for this because daily a few hundred thousands of eyes see them.

We have been forced to have difficult driving due to the potholes, especially in bad weather. I wish that everybody can drive safely one day.

Businesses are failing to pay their fair share

It makes me angry to read that developers of an aquarium at Ko Olina will receive $75 million in tax credits from the state of Hawai'i. No wonder there is no money to stop the wholesale destruction of the University of Hawai'i. We're losing faculty because our pay scales are so far below average.

The difference between UH faculty salaries being in the 20th to 30th percentile (as they are now) and the 80th percentile (where they were 12 years ago) is in the $30-million-per-year range. How can we recruit talented teachers and researchers with that low of a pay scale, let alone keep the best faculty we have now?

Maintaining the buildings — whose duct-taped walls are an embarrassment — would cost another $10 million to $20 million more a year. The departments need to get some of their resources back: the Art Department is seriously considering not having a telephone in every faculty office, because its operating budget has been cut back so severely. Other departments are similarly desperate, after years of cutbacks. The total to fix all these is far less than the Ko Olina aquarium tax break.

The movie "Blue Crush" was given $17 million in tax credits. That means the filmmakers didn't pay for their state services; you did. In 1989 corporations paid $104 million a year in Hawai'i state taxes. Last year the net corporate tax was $5 million. Why? The state economy is booming! I want businesses to do well here. But I also want them to pay their fair share of running the state.

UH researchers bring in hundreds of millions of research dollars each year, which pay thousands of technical and academic people in our community. These dollars and the number of supported employees will be dropping: one of oceanography's biggest grant-getters recently took a job at UCSD, so the paychecks of his staff of 10 to 20 will go into San Diego's economy, not Honolulu's. Your smart kid may have to move there to get a technical job. It is frightening to see how many good researchers are either interviewing for jobs elsewhere or are already gone.

This wouldn't be happening if the corporations of Hawai'i paid their fare share of the cost of running this state. The balance between who pays the state's bills and who gets its services is way out of whack. It is seriously misguided public policy to give additional tax credits to fat cats who don't leave jobs here while the roads fall apart and our university loses productive faculty to universities that pay a competitive wage.

Honoring one dolphin's legacy

Early in the morning of Feb. 24 Hiapo, our male dolphin, passed away. His death was unexpected and the staff, students and friends of the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory are deeply grieved and mourning the loss of their collaborator and companion.

After the earlier passing of 27-year-old dolphins Akeakamai and Phoenix from cancer (both had been with the lab for 25 years) the lab's plan was to find Hiapo a temporary home at another facility. This plan would allow Hiapo to have new dolphin companions while the lab's nonprofit arm, the Dolphin Institute, created a new and expanded habitat and research and education facility.

Unfortunately, during this transition period the University of Hawai'i administration decided to replace Hiapo's closest human companions (our staff) and his familiar routines and tasks with their own unfamiliar staff and training regimen. Having been associated with the lab since 1983, I knew and worked with Hiapo for most of his years.

The university's actions distressed me and my staff, and I can only imagine how it was for Hiapo. Although filled with grief and working to move the lab forward, I am left to address the comments of Cathy Goeggel in The Advertiser's Feb. 27 article "Lab under fire after latest dolphin death." Goeggel, who is closely associated with those individuals who, in 1977, stole our dolphins Puka and Kea and released them into the wild where they met certain death, unjustly smears the laboratory's name and record.

The truth is that the lab, under the direction of Dr. Louis Herman, has an unparalleled record of accomplishment in scientific studies of dolphin sensory perception, cognition, and communication. The lab has produced over 80 journal articles, books, book chapters, masters theses, and doctoral dissertations on dolphins and another 60 scientific articles on humpback whales.

This productivity has earned the laboratory a world-renowned reputation of excellence in the scientific community. In addition, scores of television documentaries by National Geographic, NOVA and the BBC; articles in magazines such as National Wildlife and Time; and two IMAX films have heightened the public's awareness, respect and understanding of dolphins as well as the challenges dolphins face in the wild at the hands of humans.

Finally, thousands of elementary and high school students in Hawai'i have learned about and fallen in love with dolphins and whales through the laboratory's marine mammal outreach programs. In short, the lab has contributed a great deal to the understanding of dolphins and has highlighted Hawai'i as a place of excellence for the study of marine mammal science.

The passing of Akeakamai, Phoenix and Hiapo is tragic and has affected thousands of individuals locally, on the Mainland and abroad who came to the lab over the years to work with these extraordinary dolphins. Hawai'i should be proud of its laboratory and should honor the incredible legacy of knowledge that Akeakamai, Phoenix and Hiapo have left the world community. Let the record speak for itself.