Posted on: Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Letters to the Editor

'Just compensation' for conversion a myth

Letter writer Mary H. Shelton ("Just compensation in leasehold conversion," Sept. 6) argues that our ali'i trusts would not lose an income stream when their leasehold interests are condemned through Chapter 38 since just compensation received for the leased fee interest could be invested and the fee owner will continue to have an income stream.

Ms. Shelton should familiarize herself with the King William Charles Lunalilo Trust Estate. After the king died in 1874, his will required his trustees to sell his land and invest his money prudently. Those investments went sour, and today the Lunalilo estate has no assets other than Lunalilo Home in Hawai'i Kai and the land under it, and the trust must constantly raise funds to maintain the operation of the home. The kicker is that Lunalilo left an estate even larger than the one left by Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, founder of Kamehameha Schools.

Turning Ms. Shelton's argument on itself, leasehold renters should take the money they would use to pay for the leased fee interest and invest it wisely. They could then use that money to buy fee simple property, rather than asking the government to help them take property they knew from the beginning was not theirs for the taking.

New Stryker brigade will only burden us

Thank you to Derrick DePledge and The Honolulu Advertiser for the article discussing the detriment of the proposed Stryker brigade to Hawai'i's already overburdened educational system ("Schools say Stryker will overburden system," Sept. 16).

These "weapons of mass destruction" will only add to destruction of our fragile ecosystem already attacked too much by the military. Some Hawaiian families have been waiting years for cleanup. There are already too many people on our small Islands driving too many vehicles on our overburdened roads, using our overburdened water system and our overburdened landfills, destroying what is of value — a way of life.

Support of the Strykers by Hawai'i's congressmen and governor is ill-advised and should be stopped now.

Commission's record shines despite attacks

This is in response to Pam Lee Smith's (Letters, Sept. 17) inappropriate attack on the Hawai'i State Commission on the Status of Women's former executive director, Allicyn Hikida Tasaka. Ms. Smith resorts to the politics of personal blame, and distorts the real facts of Tasaka's record at and resignation from the HSCSW.

Since Tasaka's tenure at the HSCSW, she has brought to the forefront women's issues like pay equity, violence prevention, access to healthcare, and family leave. During the past 15 years, as president of the Japanese American Citizens League and member of the Hawai'i Commission on Civil Rights, Tasaka has also been a champion of civil rights, ensuring equality and social justice not only for women, but for ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians, the disadvantaged and the disabled. Under Tasaka's leadership, the commission remained tenaciously focused on advancing the cause for women and minorities throughout Hawai'i and the nation.

Taking personal pot shots at one of Hawai'i's premier civil rights leaders is not the real issue. Instead, Ms. Smith should be more constructive by lobbying the governor to release and/or increase the measly $95,000 a year to keep the commission alive.

Thank you; I paid your aloha forward

A number of years ago on a working trip to O'ahu, my wife and I were having less than an ideal introduction to your Islands. What I thought was the capper in a long series of bad luck occurred when we were driving just off the Nimitz Highway onto the H-1 when traffic suddenly came to a stop in front of us. We were unable to stop in time to avoid bumping a blue van in front of us. A woman who appeared to be Hawaiian got out, inspected her bumper and pronounced, "No damage and have a nice day." Our time on the Islands got better from that point on and my presentation went well too.

I thought of her today when an old lady ran into my rear bumper while I was sitting at a stop light. I pulled into a parking lot, inspected the damage, and told her the dent was so slight she just shouldn't worry. She looked about as relieved as I felt that day three years ago and she told me she had been having a really bad day up until then.

If there is a chance of that wonderful lady from O'ahu seeing this letter, I just wanted to say: Thanks, I passed your kindness on.

Farmers, others need to know of crop sites

Judge David Ezra's recent ruling that the Hawai'i locations of biopharmaceutical crops be disclosed may seem like a radical step in the United States, but the disclosure of all types of genetically engineered field trials is common practice in the rest of the world. In most other countries, you will find large signs indicating exactly where genetically engineered field trials are growing. Nearby farmers are often notified of genetically engineered crops in their region.

It is critical for farmers and gardeners to know if biopharmaceuticals, or crops with drugs or chemicals inserted into them, are being grown nearby so that they can protect the food supply from unwanted contamination through pollen drift. Knowing the locations of genetically engineered experimental crops is also critical to health workers so they can link negative health effects to a nearby crop that causes harm. Currently, traceability is impossible.

While the health effects of the inhalation of genetically engineered pollen remains widely untested, the newest research by Terje Traavik, Ph.D., indicates that an entire village in the Philippines was sickened by pollen from nearby genetically engineered corn.

Running on empty

No running yards, no running defense, no special teams gains, no wins.

Priority isn't winning

After watching the UH vs. Rice game on ESPN, it has become obvious that June Jones's goal is not to win games but to be the coach whose quarterback breaks the NCAA passing record.

Several times on third down and short yardage, it was pass rather than run West Keli'ikipi, who, at 266 pounds, would have easily gotten the first down. In fact, he never got in the game!

Why stress football?

It upsets me greatly when the headlines in the sports section in both Honolulu papers are about the UH football team. So much hype about June Jones and his boys, who do not produce — and all that money for that sport!

How about the UH women's volleyball team, which is 8-0 into the season! Now that is a sports headline! How about stories profiling the women of the team? Lots of great, young, scrappy and determined new volleyball faces. Let's hear more about who they are on the UH women's volleyball team!

Highway maintenance: State is holding up its end

In response to an Aug. 31 letter, we would like to reassure the public that the state Department of Transportation continues to make maintenance and landscaping a high priority.

The DOT has made tremendous progress in road surface work in the past several months. Among our larger projects, the town-bound lanes of Moanalua Freeway have been completely resurfaced from Aloha Stadium to Kalihi and we've already begun work in the 'ewa-bound direction. We've also made significant progress on the resurfacing of Likelike Highway. Repaving work is also planned for Nimitz Highway through Kalihi; Kamehameha Highway though Ka'a'awa; Kalaniana'ole Highway near Castle Junction; and Farrington Highway in Waipahu.

We've been looking at new ways to deal with continuous problems of debris and overgrown weeds on our highways. In the past, a significant part of the problem stemmed from landscaping contractors who would acquire bid contracts and, for various reasons, not complete their assigned jobs.

Breach-of-contract legalities notwithstanding, the end result was wasted time and effort, leaving DOT to start the entire bid process again to find a new landscaper. This also led to less-frequent highway maintenance.

A new DOT policy requires a performance bond from new contracted landscapers. This is the equivalent of a security deposit paid by renters on a house or apartment. If landscapers break their contracts, they forfeit their bonds.

Landscaping maintenance projects are ongoing throughout O'ahu's roadways. In July, crews began extensive work on the H-2 from Pearl City to Wahiawa, an area covering approximately 130 acres. Crews last month began work on the H-1 in the Waiawa area and also along Fort Weaver Road. In September, we are on schedule to complete landscaping maintenance on the H-1 from Kalihi to Kahala.

We ask for the public's patience while we complete these projects. And as always, we need everyone's help in preserving the 'aina by not depositing trash on our roads.

Every vote deserves to count

I was told that, as an official election observer for the County of Hawai'i, I was charged with the duty of being the eyes and ears of the public. I would also like to be its voice.

As I see it, the big election story stemming from Saturday's Primary Election has to do with the state's open primary ballots and voting instructions.

A total of 9,559 voters in the state of Hawai'i (5.9 percent of turnout) had all of their primary partisan race votes disqualified due to cross-party voting. This happens when a voter tries to vote more than one party's ticket. As all of the party tickets were displayed on one side of the ballot, it was easy for voters to presume that they were to vote in all four party races (the digital machines at the polling places do not permit cross-party voting).

Certainly, the problem was much worse for mail-in absentee ballots. A total of 5,559 voters in the state (7 percent who used these ballots) had their partisan race votes disqualified. We did slightly better on the Big Island, where 461 voters (4 percent of those who used these ballots) had their votes disqualified.

These figures compare unfavorably to the 2002 primary election, where 2 percent statewide and 1.1 percent of Big Island absentee mail voters had their partisan race votes disqualified.

The problem was less severe at the election-day polling stations, where voters could get immediate answers to their questions, but it was still disconcerting. Statewide, exactly 4,000 walk-up voters (2.5 percent) had their partisan votes disqualified. Again, we did slightly better on the Big Island with 313 voters (1.6 percent) suffering disqualification.

Still, these figures are worse than 2002, which were a 1 percent disqualification rate statewide and 0.7 percent on the Big Island.

Fortunately, this will not be an issue in November's general election. But obviously, we are not moving in the right direction with ballot design, instructions and voter education.

I do not buy the argument that these voters are "too stupid to vote properly" and therefore, do not deserve to have their votes counted. I do not think it is possible that the number of "stupid voters" has tripled in the past two years (if anything, the lessons of Florida in 2000 have taught us to be much more careful individually in how we vote).

Serious thought and effort need to go into fixing this very serious problem in future primary elections.