honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Thursday, April 28, 2005

Letters to the Editor

Our keiki need $1M to boost their literacy

Hawai'i's legislators have a chance to make a mark this session with funding for an important bill that helps students learn how to read and understand what they read.

Reading mechanics, such as phonics, are taught in the first three grades, and most children learn to decode the sounds of the written words. But Hawai'i's children, like most other K-6 students in America, are missing the information that is required for advanced levels of reading comprehension, which is why reading scores in the early grades here, and across America, are stuck in neutral.

Hawai'i's franchised new-car dealers have hopes of helping put things in gear during this key legislative session.

These community-oriented business leaders, along with many legislators, hope to see $1 million in state funding for Part III of House Bill 841 SD2 — which would help create a new research-based curriculum to develop students' critical and creative thinking skills.

To craft some of the original curriculum bill's language, the auto dealers enlisted the help of nationally recognized core curriculum experts like E.D. Hirsch, Jr., professor emeritus of the University of Virginia, and author of national best-selling books like "Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know."

Auto dealers have annually sponsored the "7 Cars for 7 Teachers" (use for a year) program, and have erected the 5,000-word Wall of Words display at the First Hawaiian International Auto Show for many years to emphasize the need for a rigorous language arts/core content curriculum like the one proposed in the bill.

This year, with $1 million in funding, the curriculum idea will achieve liftoff. It is believed that Hawai'i's students could accelerate to near the top in state comparisons of student reading scores in just 72 months.

David H. Rolf
Mililani



Soldier's care package paid for anonymously

Our son, Billy Jr., whom we are very proud of, is presently serving with the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry Regiment, 29th Brigade Combat Team in Iraq. He asked us to send him his prized 'ukulele. Since we wanted to make sure that the 'ukulele got to him in the same condition we sent it, we decided to have it packaged at Kinko's Kane'ohe.

The morning of April 21, while being helped at the counter, I mentioned to a woman standing in line behind us that my son was in Iraq and he had asked us to send him his 'ukulele.

Because it would take an hour, we decided to leave and come back. When we came back to pick up the package and pay, my husband was informed that the woman who had been in line after us had already paid for the packaging.

She had written on the receipt: "We appreciate the sacrifice your family is making to have your son away. God Bless!" She left no name or number, but I wanted her to know that my husband and I are extremely touched and appreciative of her generosity and aloha.

Sharon Dolan
Kane'ohe



Aikau wasn't original North Shore lifeguard

I mean no offense to either Wayne Harada or the memory and family of Eddie Aikau, but I find a real need to right some misinformation in the April 19 TV review "How it would go for Eddie Aikau."

Eddie Aikau was not the first lifeguard on the North Shore or at Waimea Bay. HPD Sgt. Buddy Adolphson was the first official "lifeguard," appointed by Chief Dan Liu, and the first person to save a life from the surf at Waimea Bay.

Sgt. Adolphson patrolled the North Shore from Ka'ena Point to the outskirts of Kane'ohe every weekend and holiday from prior to 1951 until way past his retirement in 1965. After his retirement he put his rescue board onto a Jeep and continued his rescue efforts on his own time as a service to the community well into the mid-'80s. Sgt. Adolphson told me, prior to his passing, that Eddie Aikau followed him, and in Buddy's words, "I taught that kid everything he knew about reading the ocean."

It is wonderful that Eddie's memory is being kept alive and given media attention, but let's give credit where it is really due. You only need to research the Advertiser's archives to confirm that the real hero of the North Shore, who is credited with saving close to 200 lives from the surf, is Sgt. Buddy Adolphson.

Laura Warren
Wahiawa



Funding imperative for cable access on Maui

I'm sure you are aware of the recent attempt in the state Legislature to hijack cable access on Maui. Cable access is one of the few platforms remaining to citizens for truly democratic discourse. It is also one of the only ways that the public can make use of the so-called "public airwaves."

Therefore, it is imperative that cable access on Maui be shored up with an infusion of state dollars. I urge legislative leaders to vote for funds to undo the damage to cable access on Maui in the current legislative session.

This is not an issue that affects only Maui, or only Hawai'i. The eyes of the rest of the nation are watching, to see whether public interests or corporate interests will be protected in this matter.

Bobbi Dykema Katsanis
Seattle



It's not art, and it shouldn't be tolerated

After reading David Lindo's April 20 letter in regard to establishing designated areas for graffiti, I felt I had to respond.

First off, the comparison between graffiti and street racing, public skating, hiking, etc., does not pan out. With those activities, not much damage is left behind. With graffiti, there is a lot of damage to property.

Designating certain areas to be graffitied on has been attempted in other places with disastrous results. Not only is the designated area graffitied on, but so is everything else around it.

Graffiti is not art but vandalism and should not be tolerated anywhere, anyplace or anytime, whether the area is seen by the public or not. What message are we sending to the vandals if we allow it?

Also, because designated areas have shown not to work, it wouldn't save money.

Finally, the public cannot be apathetic to this problem. Look around O'ahu. Graffiti is everywhere and it is ruining the beauty of the island.

Tourists don't come here to see ugly graffiti. Residents shouldn't have to, either.

Mike Nelson
Waikiki



GET increase bad for residents, business

As a concerned citizen and member of the Hawaii Association of Realtors, I strongly oppose raising the general excise tax because it would increase the cost of living and of doing business in Hawai'i.

The proposed GET increase from 4 percent to 5 percent amounts to an astonishing 25 percent increase in a tax that is applied repeatedly, in pyramiding fashion, to all goods and services in Hawai'i.

The GET adds substantial hidden costs to the price of all goods and services we buy. It is a significant component of Hawai'i's high cost of living, already one of the highest in the nation. Raising the GET would be bad for business, bad for the economy and bad for the people of Hawai'i.

Kim Lineham
Realtor



Don't let misinformation sway you on gas cap law

The gas price cap law will bring fair gasoline prices to the consumers of Hawai'i and also allow refiners and wholesalers to make a reasonable profit in Hawai'i. Why did the Legislature pass this law?

The documents from the antitrust lawsuit filed by the state in 1998 brought out overwhelming evidence that the people of Hawai'i were being gouged at the pump. The refiners and wholesalers were given every opportunity to present their case before the Legislature, but they failed to bring forth any information that had any merit or substance.

In fact, the refiners and wholesalers' testimonies at the Legislature continually contradicted the arguments that the oil companies stated under oath before a federal judge. The real reason for the high gasoline prices in Hawai'i is the use of big oil's market power to maximize profit.

The complexity of this issue cannot be explained in a few hundred words. Our group of concerned citizens who assisted the Legislature in drafting the current law consists of former oil company executives, an economist, a law professor, an antitrust attorney, an accounting professor, a former retail dealer and former chair of the Petroleum Advisory Council, which investigated the high gasoline prices in Hawai'i. We brought the truth to the Legislature and Sen. Ron Menor has spent hundreds of hours to build an understanding of this complex issue and championed the gas price cap law.

The latest study released by the PUC shows that from 1999 to 2004 there was a potential savings to Hawai'i consumers of $45 million a year. Claims that retail dealers will not pass on any reductions in the wholesale price and that there will be no savings to the consumers has angered many retail dealers. Studies have found retail dealers to be fiercely competitive and dealers have historically passed on wholesale price reductions to the consumers.

The gas price cap law in Hawai'i will work and has worked for four years in Newfoundland with great success. What harm can it do? We already pay the highest gasoline prices in the nation and prices rarely if ever come down despite huge drops in crude oil prices. The law is about to be implemented; now is not the time to be swayed by misinformation, scare tactics such as shortages, or misrepresentations of the Hawai'i gasoline market.

Frank Young
Spokesman, Citizens Against Gasoline Price Gouging; former chairman, Petroleum Advisory Council