Posted on: Monday, May 10, 2004

Letters to the Editor

There are reasons gays don't report harassment

Regarding Derrick DePledge's April 18 article "Few gays report harassment at school": That is just the point. Few of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students who face harassment in the schools report it. Why? Because unlike other groups that are targeted, LGBT youth must "out" themselves to report the harassment.

Moreover, LGBT students fear retaliation from students or further harassment from teachers and administrators.

Another problem is that many LGBT students do not even know that they are protected and that they could report the harassment they are facing.

The truth is that LGBT students are being harassed. We know both from studies and personal reports that harassment of LGBT students is commonplace in our schools. According to the GLSEN National School Climate Survey, which included students in Hawai'i's schools, 84 percent of LGBT students reported being verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation, and worse, 82.9 percent reported that faculty never or rarely intervene when present.

This isn't a competition to see which group gets harassed the most. And even if the numbers were as low as the reported 16 cases, harassment is harassment and is unacceptable.

Rumsfeld lost sight of the real issue: war

I am troubled that our distinguished and learned senators are "appalled" at the atrocities being committed by Americans on Iraqi detainees. Since when is war civilized?

To psych our young soldiers into murdering other human beings, don't we have to instill fear and hate? Don't we have to dehumanize the "enemy" and have a strong feeling of superiority and self-righteousness? This is why war should be the absolute last resort. And this is why Donald Rumsfeld (and people like him) should resign.

In other words, it's not because he closed his eyes on what was going on in Iraq; it's because he lost sight of the real issue: War is not pretty, and we should not have initiated the war on Iraq based on personal ideology, questionable intelligence and without the support of our allies.

Contemporary sociology debunks Hayek's beliefs

In the April 26 Island Voices, Robert Rees justifiably asserts that "F.A. Hayek should be panned not praised for the 'Road to Serfdom.'" He links Hayek's "survival of the fittest" beliefs to similar ideas of very early sociologists Herbert Spencer and William Graham Spencer.

As a retired sociologist, I must point out that those century-old illusions have been rejected by contemporary sociology. Today, research in sociology shows considerable evidence of the harm of "laissez-faire" ideologies. Virtually every field of sociology (population, community, crime, family, medical, etc.) demonstrates that social intervention has had many benefits for individuals and for groups.

Moreover, Rees offers much evidence of Hayek's misreadings of Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations." In addition, Adam Smith had noted the necessity of adequate wages for labor and the harms of poverty. Ideologues also seem unaware that he was a professor of moral philosophy and a very early forerunner of sociology.

Among the early works of Adam Smith was his widely lauded "The Theory of The Moral Sentiments." Highly religious, he saw human concern for others as deity-inspired. In describing astronomy, he saw planets as moving under divine guidance by "an invisible hand."

Later he used the "invisible hand" in the marketplace to explain the way that even human selfishness was being guided divinely into human well-being. Claiming that Adam Smith accepted neglect and death for those alleged to be unfit is totally unwarranted. His views are accurately described by Rees as obviously contrary to those of Hayek.

How about positive PR on public employees?

I am a member of Unit 3 of the HGEA. We are long overdue for our raises. Many of my fellow Unit 3 members do not like the bad publicity we are receiving from the governor about the many needed programs that will suffer because we are demanding our raises.

Nobody is criticizing UHPA and the HSTA for their demands for raises. They have had substantial raises in the last few years. We have not.

I think that the HGEA should publicly stand up for its members. Instead of a commercial of what the HGEA is, how about one that explains that we have not had a raise in over two years or how we are the ones who always make the sacrifices for the state and the budget, or how low our pay is? While the cost of living goes up all around us, we have to bite the bullet and live within our meager means. The public does not realize that we, Unit 3 (the little people), make up the majority of government employees.

Without us, government operations would cease to exist. We really get tired when the public goes off on us and that they pay our salaries. Well you know what? We are taxpayers, too.

It's really discouraging that we read daily in the newspaper that the governor does not want to give us our raise, and in another section, we see that HGEA executive director Russell Okata is one of the highest paid executives in the state of Hawai'i. Is that where our dues go?

I think that our dues should go to public relations for the public employees who have the stigma of being "state workers." How about some positive PR for our public image and how deserving we are of our raises? We are very hard-working for the little pay we receive. Many of us go above and beyond what we are paid, yet we are still dedicated to our jobs.

This future scientist will need a good lab

My name is Emma Daily and I am 9. I am in third grade at Hanahau'oli School. My homework is to voice my opinion. I think the University of Hawai'i should have a lab for DNA research in genetic diseases.

Hawai'i's people are so many races mixed together that we could lead the world to find many cures for all diseases. I want to be a DNA biologist. I want to live here and work here. I will need a good lab.

I hope my idea will be considered. Thank you!

Speech and debate team winners were left out

I'm sure Mike Gordon didn't mean to slight the Kahuku Speech and Debate Team in his May 4 article "Iolani, Kahuku excel in academic contests." He probably just wasn't aware that all the news he could want about Kahuku can be found on the wonderful Kahuku High and Intermediate School Web site www.kahuku.org.

The lead article on the site this week tells all about the Kahuku Speech and Debate Team and its members. Since Mike didn't include Kahuku names in his article (although the Iolani Science Team members and coach were named), please see the list of Kahuku award winners and their achievements on kahuku.org.

Thanks for reporting the great things that happen in our schools. Teachers, students, staff and principals all should be recognized for these sorts of exciting, excellent achievements.

States with bottle bills aren't having problems

Lowell Kalapa wrote in these pages recently about the beverage-container deposit system being a tax. But what is a tax if not a cost — in this case a cost that cannot be avoided?

Currently the cost of beverage-container waste is being borne by the environment and people (and our visitor industry), which have to put up with (or pick up) beverage-container litter.

All the beverage-container deposit arrangement does is shift most of that environmental cost to those who benefit from the sale and consumption of a pleasure-food product with zero nutritional value that causes actual health deficits. How did Lowell miss this point?

Seems like a good shift to me. Thank goodness the Legislature, and finally the governor, agree.

Of course the startup, like any somewhat major change in our consumption pattern, will be rough and objectionable to some — in some part (and unfairly) due to lingering resistance from those who profit from the product's sale. But are those same companies making great profits today in the 10 other states where it's been ongoing for over 20 years? Yes, of course — there is absolutely no shortage of their products in Oregon, Iowa, Maine, etc. And have those companies figured out how to do it efficiently in those 10 other states? Of course.

And rest assured that the people of those 10 other states have been benefiting from more recycling and much less litter. And that no such state has ever rejected its ongoing beverage-container deposit system.

Come to think of it, maybe we should try such an arrangement for filter-tipped cigarettes.

Kaho'olawe is beautiful, sacred, not 'inhospitable'

Regarding the May 3 letter by Jon Anderson on Kaho'olawe: Mr. Anderson, you stated in your letter that Kaho'olawe is "inhospitable." Have you ever been to the island?

I know of hundreds of people, maybe even thousands, who find the island more than inviting. I find the island to be beautiful, peaceful and very hospitable — not to mention sacred.

Kaho'olawe is the only island named after a major Hawaiian god, Kanaloa. Members of the Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana, both past and present, know this and fought and won the stoppage of desecration to the island. Their motto of Aloha 'Aina was the anthem that called many to their cause. The motto was not just a rallying cry but a way of life that is still practiced by many today.

Therefore, Anderson's ideas of developing Kaho'olawe as a desalination plant, wind farm, casino and rubbish dump are totally against what the island was liberated for. I applaud him for trying to come up with ideas to help the state, but they are not good ones.

We have to stop with the "If we run out, buy more or make more" mentality. It is time for some serious urban regional planning strategies and time to stop treating the Islands as a continent. We have reached the plateau of population on some islands for their resources to adequately sustain them.

And what have our politicians done to help the Islands? Have they put a moratorium on development? Immigration? Non-recyclable goods? It's time for the politicians to do something for the Islands that they can be really proud of.

Let us not make the same mistakes on Kaho'olawe as we did on other islands. We should leave it as a cultural site used for educational and religious purposes only. When the island is turned over to the recognized Hawaiian sovereign entity, I hope it does the same.

'Fuzzy thinking' claim on traffic cameras blurry

Doug Carlson's April 8 Island Voices commentary about fuzzy thinking in photo enforcement of traffic laws left me out of focus or "fuzzy" with regard to his assessment of proponents' and opponents' views.

Describing the DOT program manager's stance that "even 1 mph over the speed limit merited a citation" as fuzzy thinking was way off the mark. If anything, that sort of hard-line intolerance is certainly distinctive and not at all fuzzy. It was conservatism most refined.

At an early task force meeting attended by the traffic-camera vendor and DOT, Mr. Carlson submits that suggestions "didn't pass the common-sense test." What sort of "common" sense would prevail at any meeting of strictly proponents?

Then Mr. Carlson attacks opponents, accusing them of cornering the market on fuzzy thinking. He quoted Rep. Kika Bukoski as saying "If this goes through, there's going to be a camera on every pole watching us" and accused him of classic fuzzy thinking or deliberately trying to confuse the issue.

I believe Rep. Bukoski was merely trying to prevent a dangerous precedent from being set. It's much like the old saying, "Once a camel gets his nose under the tent, you've got a visitor for the night." Once a new regulation — even a temporary one — is created, there's the very real possibility of damaging permanence.

The commentary, upon ending, attempts to whip our consciences and trap us into thinking that we cannot support anyone's personal freedom if it should endanger or cause the loss of someone's life. No amount of regulation is going to make the streets safe short of keeping everyone off them. I believe a harmony of regulation, deregulation and education can help, but a surefire cure is quite beyond the reach of anyone.

To be herded like cattle through a chute, inspected, photographed and punished for any variance outside the dictates of conservatives and profiteers seems to be the antithesis of freedom, the same freedom the automobile has brought to the people of our great nation.

Let's tie up the camel and get a good night's sleep, but don't let's hang ourselves with the rope.