Public school optimism story was appreciated

Your Nov. 7 story "Optimism rising in schools" was a delight. First, it is a welcome change to read a positive story about anything in the mainstream media. Second, after years of negativity about our public schools, they are now reporting major progress.

The sentence that caught my attention most read: "Even schools that have been unable to meet all the (No Child Left Behind) criteria are encouraged that they have clear targets and have developed strategies to hit them." Too bad the story didn't come before the election — it would have belied the incessant carping of Democrats nationally against the No Child Left Behind Act, which is one of President Bush's major achievements. Your story effectively rebuts that criticism, pointing out that "educators say (No Child) — more than anything — has forced struggling schools to take a hard look at their programs and find ways to boost student achievement."

Award-winning Campbell High principal Gail Awakuni also gets it right when she says: "I think it's a collective effort of everybody realizing that change is here and we all need to work together for the common good of improving education."

I would hope our legislators and governor are paying attention.

Bottle bill only makes life more complicated

The new 5-cent "bottle deposit" is really a very hefty, unnecessary and wasteful food tax. If you buy a case of 24 sodas at the typical sales price of $6, the tax will be $1.20. That's a 20 percent tax! This is a no-win 20 percent food tax. This is a broken campaign promise by Linda Lingle, who promised to veto it.

This is a loser to consumers. We consumers will not recapture the money we pay in deposit by returning the cans. Not when you factor in the time we will lose from doing gainful work washing the cans three times, storing them, returning them, waiting in line at the deposit center and the gas and wear and tear on our vehicles to do it. It is a loser for us. Can you imagine anyone who makes only a few dollars an hour wasting an hour and gas to get back a few bucks? Since it won't be worthwhile for most to do it, they won't, and it will be just one more useless tax and price increase on their food.

It is a loser economically and environmentally for our society. You can add to all the unnecessary expenses we will each incur personally (as above), all the expenses business and government will spend for the deposit facilities, workers, layers of new bureaucracy, subsidizing costs for recycling materials that cost more to recycle than to make from scratch, etc. Plus the environmental costs due to the waste of water to wash the vessels and the fuel used to transport and recycle.

This "bottle tax" is wrongheaded and has been rejected by large Mainland cities already. It should be recycled into the rubbish bin of bad ideas. Repeal it now!

Carlisle's comments missed the mark

Regarding Peter Carlisle's remarks on the approved amendment to the state Constitution to privilege a victim's communications with medical professionals:

First, intelligent people cast a blank vote when they don't fully understand an issue or candidate; only fools vote for what they don't understand. A constitutional amendment shouldn't be passed if only a minority of voters understand it.

Second, technical legal issues, such as what should be admitted as evidence in a criminal trial, are best decided by people with the training and experience to understand those issues. That's why we have a Supreme Court.

Third, it's fundamental that in any trial, all pertinent evidence should be considered so that the court may render an accurate and just decision. This amendment could result in false convictions.

Fourth, there are better ways to protect a victim's privacy, such as having a judge examine these communications for pertinency before allowing them to be admitted as evidence.

How any of that squares with common sense I'll leave to your judgment.

Fallujah cartoon was disgusting, shameful

Dick Adair's cartoon showing an American GI torching a thatched hut marked "Fallujah" is as disgusting as anything I've seen in The Advertiser in a long time. Its evocation of the worst moments of Vietnam has no relation to the current fighting in Iraq, and it betrays his lack of understanding of the differences in the wartime experiences.

I am accustomed to The Advertiser's ultra-liberal position on most issues, but this cartoon is an offense to all in uniform and goes far beyond the boundaries of normal politics. Adair should be ashamed of himself; I'm certainly ashamed of him.

People need to be careful on the road

Some drivers on O'ahu don't care about other people's safety. Whether you're a pedestrian or a driver, you need to be careful when out on the road. I don't like the following types of drivers:

• Those who try to race you just because you have a Honda, Acura or a "racing type" of car.
• Those who don't let you merge on the freeway.
• Those who turn on pedestrians while they are in crosswalks. How would you feel if you got a call saying your loved ones were killed in an accident due to some driver's carelessness?
• Those who run red lights. In doing so, they could kill someone.
• Those who tailgate. Just one wrong move could cause a chain reaction.

O'ahu drivers need to be more careful. Please show some aloha!

Hawaiians in 1897 against annexation

One of the key points most often overlooked is the fact that Bernice Pauahi's people were Hawaiians and not Americans. With the issue of the unlawful belligerent occupation by the United States of Hawai'i, this is still a major point of contention, and the United States is governed by the laws of occupation.

The people's plebiscite was held in 1897, called the Ku'e Protest Petitions, and they rebuked the U.S. invasion and were against annexation.

The United States could not take the Islands through treaty and decided to do it through its own internal resolution against the people's wishes. The United States continued to violate international law by passing the illegitimate Statehood Organic Act, voted on by Americans and not by Hawai'i subjects. There was no international body to oversee the elections, and the choice avoided independence for our lawful nation.

These are facts most U.S. citizens are not aware of. We want the United States to get out of our country.

Aggressive rudeness brought on their loss

Democrats have themselves to blame for losing the presidential election.

Their images were negative: George Soros spent millions of dollars on deceitful attack ads. Michael Moore and the Hollywood crowd spewed their venom. Rude, belligerent demonstrators disrupted the Republican National Convention and Vice President Dick Cheney's Hawai'i appearance. Angry "Bush is a liar" sign-holders distracted motorists driving past the Federal Building.

I did not see similar disrespectful actions by Republicans. No demonstrators disrupted the Democrats' convention or Alexandra Kerry's appearance here. Nor did they hold "Kerry is a liar" signs.

I did not dislike Kerry, just too many of those who supported him.

Sports reporter has done excellent work

In a recent About Women column, Leila Wai had to defend herself as a qualified female sports reporter. For the past year, she has done an excellent job of reporting the news, especially that pertaining to Hawai'i's youth athletes.

In a time of war, economic troubles and negativism, Leila's reports on local athletes performing well in sports and in the classroom are refreshing and necessary. Way to go, Leila, and keep up the terrific work you are doing informing us of the student athletes doing so well here and on the Mainland.

UH college has failed to pay attention to key work

In her response to Maris Abelson's Oct. 21 letter, Ania Wieczorek (Letters, Nov. 5) stated that the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources has only a handful of genetic engineering projects, but failed to indicate that until recently the college had 60 to 70 research staff members working on biotechnology — a level of support not shown for any other agriculture program in CTAHR.

While most of the biotech studies haven't resulted in a viable product, institutionally, CTAHR still places biotechnology as a centerpiece of its research agenda to solve problems faced by diversified crops in Hawai'i.

Overall, the college has failed to pay attention to organic farming, sustainable agriculture and integrated pest management — while it continues to support biotechnology, pesticide research and other aspects of industrial agriculture.

While she is obviously correct that papayas are not indigenous to Hawai'i, they are naturalized, and now represent part of the cultural heritage of these Islands. Contamination of our traditional varieties by genetically modified organism (GMO) papaya thus threatens the biodiversity of our state.

Although CTAHR is not responsible for labeling GMO crops, it should assume the responsibility for contamination of organic and backyard crops by GMO crops. If someone's cattle ended up in a neighbor's garden, causing damage to the neighbor's vegetables, would not the cattleman be held liable?

Finally, with regard to testing, the Federal Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Agriculture do not perform testing on GMO crops. They use a volunteer system. How can appropriate health and environmental assessments be done when the government accepts data provided by the producers of the product being tested? Isn't this a case of the suspect monitoring himself?

The GMO papaya was approved despite a recent report indicating that the papaya ringspot virus coat protein is a potential allergen (G. Kleter and A. Peijnenburg BMC Structural Biology 2002, 2, 8-19). The EPA and USDA ignored this risk when approving the GMO papaya and have done no follow-up studies.

Why is it that we need to rely on scientists from other countries to find health hazards in our food? This volunteer testing system is dangerous for our communities and our children.