LOST EQUIPMENT

THANKS FOR RETURNING TEAM'S SOFTBALL GEAR

This letter is just to send out a big mahalo to the person(s) who found and returned our softball equipment to the Manoa park office on July 22.

The equipment was forgotten on Saturday and we had not realized that it was missing until Monday. Many friends and Manoa Parks and Rec personnel helped to search for the lost equipment. My daughter was very upset, since all of her equipment was in that bag. Along with her bag was the Manoa Girls Athletic Club's softball equipment, a chair and a backpack.

We thought we would have to replace it all, but thanks to the honest people of Manoa, it was returned. They didn't leave their name, so hopefully they will see this note of great thanks.

Coach L. Kimura and family | Kailua

IRAQ

OUR CONSTITUTION DIDN'T HONOR WOMEN, EITHER

The Thursday cartoon by Margulies shows the Iraq constitution crushing women's rights.

Did you know that the United States started out the same way? Our Constitution states clearly that "all men are created equal" (note: men, not Men), and women were not included; they had no rights.

It took 150 years, well into the relatively modern 20th century, before women won their first right, the right to vote. It might take Iraqi women just as long.

Ted Chernin | Punahou

IS ANYBODY LISTENING?

MAINTAIN BUS STOPS; WATCH FOR PEDESTRIANS

Just a few pet peeves of mine to air.

1. Who takes care of the bus stops — cleaning, painting, monitoring? Two bus stops in particular: one in front of the Tower Video on Kapi'olani Boulevard and the other one at Pensacola Street and Kapi'olani. Both have trash and cigarette butts strewn all around. The one at Kapi'olani and Pensacola and the fence and surrounding area up to the McKinley fence are a veritable ashtray and trash can. It needs to be cleaned up. The Tower Video stop has two cement planters that need the butts cleaned out of them and maybe planted with some nice plants.

2. Why do we allow homeless people to sleep at the bus stops? In the morning I see people standing around and not sitting down at the stops because the homeless are there. Mostly, again, on Kapi'olani and one in Waikiki on Kuhio Avenue, but I'm sure this happens all around the island.

3. Have all the landscapers been taught by the same person? Trees pruned to nothing. Looks ugly.

4. Pedestrians have the right-of-way in crosswalks. Remember not to pull into the crosswalk and be in a hurry to get through the light and almost mow me down in the process. More police officers need to be watching and writing tickets. Mahalo.

Kent Gearhiser | Honolulu

SCHOOLS

DUE PROCESS HEARINGS EXACT A HEAVY TOLL

Larry Geller ("Special needs at stake in court," July 24) portrays the Department of Education as a nameless, faceless bureaucracy with his comment that while due process hearings are difficult for parents, they are "a piece of cake for the DOE ..."

Mr. Geller, the DOE is made up of dedicated, hard-working professionals who practice their craft with their students' best interest at heart. I don't know of a single teacher who does not want each and every one of his students to succeed.

In a due process hearing, a teacher must testify to actions taken in good faith, then defend those actions when cross-examined by an often antagonistic attorney. The process is frightening and intimidating and has driven a number of my colleagues from the profession.

The financial and emotional cost of due process is extraordinary and exacerbated by the fact that often the litigants must continue to work together once the hearing is completed.

Regardless of the eventual outcome of Schaffer v. Weast, the process exacts a heavy toll from both parties.

Rebecca Rosenberg | Kailua

TAXES

RAIL SYSTEM WILL BENEFIT ONLY THE MINDLESS

Tax us for rail or build a jail. Which one would better serve us now, not 30 years from now? We are being taxed but the problems still remain. A rail system will only benefit the mindless. We spend millions in other states that do not deserve our tax dollars because its only focus is profit, not welfare, or rehabilitation.

Incarceration is big business, we live in a short-term state that has one goal: tax, tax and more tax. Why are these guys still in office making unsound decisions?

R. Aragon | 'Ewa Beach

COAST GUARD

DIFFERENT DUTIES CALL FOR KEEPING NAVY SEPARATE

Regarding Harry Boranian's July 22 letter about "putting the Coast Guard back in the Navy":

In the past, the U.S. Coast Guard could be, and was, assigned under the operational control of the Navy during wartime.

However, the service retained its own administrative command structure, uniforms and still reported to the Coast Guard operational command. Plus, it still had to perform the many other duties detailed in Title 14, U.S. Code, and was never completely assimilated into the Navy.

The Coast Guard is charged with protecting the coastal waters and ports of the U.S. — empowered by treaty to board foreign flag vessels for inspection and, if need be, to seize those vessels and arrest the crew for violating U.S. laws and territorial waters. The U.S. Navy, as a component of the Department of Defense, cannot do the latter because it would appear as an act of aggression against a foreign power with the resulting diplomatic uproar.

The Coast Guard is right where it belongs, as a vital component of the Department of Homeland Security.

Ask any active duty or retired Coast Guard person and you'll find they do not want to be integrated into the Navy.

One more note, the Coast Guard, established in 1790, is the longest active maritime service of this country, due to a 12-year period when the Navy was not in existence. Semper Paratus.

Jim Fromm | U.S. Coast Guard retired, Waipahu

MEMORIAL PARK

ROD TAM PICKING UP RUBBISH LEFT BY OTHERS

The job of the sanitation engineer is one that most people are not willing to do and rarely thank him for doing, thinking that compensation for the task makes up for the scorn and humiliation he must endure.

In this way the role of the politician is similar to that of the rubbish collector: he tries to clean up the mess others have made or ends up getting the stench all over himself.

Councilman Rod Tam seems to have become the latest media darling for everything wrong at City Hall. The recent coverage of a meeting for the bankrupt Honolulu Memorial Park cemetery smears him for negotiating a losing situation.

Councilman Tam was wise to exercise caution in the presence of a lawyer for the opposing side, knowing that in this age of televised people's court, "everything you say can be held against you," especially by the media.

There must be a funeral service company that would be willing and able to resolve the dilemma of this cemetery and the families whose relatives are buried there. Rod Tam should be using his time more efficiently rather than picking up rubbish left behind by those who expect others to do it. Let the dead rest in peace, and let the living fulfill their life purpose rather than sling dirt.

Melissa Yee | Honolulu

DANNER OP-ED

LILI'UOKALANI MISQUOTED

Jade Danner, in your Sunday paper, misquoted Queen Lili'uokalani as saying: "The world cannot stand still. We must either advance or recede. Let us advance together."

"Let us advance together" are not the queen's words. They are the words of John Berry of the Department of the Interior, first used in a speech at 'Iolani Palace bandstand in late 1999.

David Ingham | San Francisco

TAXPAYER MONEY

'BEAUTIFICATION' PROJECTS ARE NOT 'NICE TO HAVE'

One might have thought from early on that it wasn't going to be "business as usual" because of the new mayor's "nice to have, need to have" standards but it appears nothing much has changed at all.

The Parks and Recreation Department is a good example: Wasteful spending and new projects that are burdensome on the people.

The new Ala Wai Park basketball court renovations and "beautification" projects are a perfect example. Almost $400,000 and six months to replace working courts that have daily players, working lights and trees already in place. Out come the trees, out come the courts — pushing the local basketball players off the courts and into the streets until mid-January.

Is this really necessary? And why so long? Did anyone ask the players or the neighbors if they really needed it? Or is it just "nice to have" and work for a contractor? The potholed parking lot could have used a fix for sure.

And why is it the Parks Department felt the need to spend the time and money to emasculate the adjacent stream that flows into the Ala Wai? Beautiful bougainvillea ripped out along the canal and lush green foliage along the banks cut back to the ground. And despite their claims to the contrary about spraying poison, the banks of the stream remain awfully brown and lifeless a week later. Nice to have?

Tom Drolet | Honolulu

DAVE SHAPIRO

REPUBLICANS WOULD BE STRONG WITHOUT LINGLE

Dave Shapiro's July 27 column fails to understand why Republicans are so upset at Gov. Linda Lingle. For example, he says, "But on the transit tax, the governor's waffling is as much the source of her trouble as the substance of her views."

Anyone with political savvy is resigned to the waffling — to politicians deceiving the audience at hand by telling them whatever they want to hear instead of the truth. Conservatives are mad at the substance of what Lingle's done: not vetoing the Democrats when they raised the general excise tax, the conveyance tax and the minimum wage.

So Dave Shapiro got it all wrong when he said that if Lingle loses next year, it will "prove again that the greatest talent of Hawai'i Republicans is self-destruction."

When you're a Trojan and you see a gigantic wooden horse parked outside your city, and you hear rustling and clanking from enemy soldiers within, self-preservation demands that you burn the bugger, not haul it into your city for a second term.

Jim Henshaw | Kailua

TOTAL FIREWORKS BAN COULD PUT END TO 'URBAN DANGER'

So, again we face a fireworks dilemma. Fire Chief Attilio Leonardi has called for a ban on fireworks for the Fourth of July.
Why? Why not a total ban, including New Year's? The reckless use/abuse behavior will happen at New Year's just as on July Fourth. The professionally done displays are so much more enjoyable for all, not to mention safer.
I grew up in Honolulu years ago, and we did burn fireworks. Honolulu, however, now is far different from Honolulu then, when fireworks were not the urban danger that we cannot now tolerate. There are too many people living in far too close proximity to permit safe fireworks use.
Chief Leonardi has documented the throwing of firecrackers at other people in Sand Island Park on July Fourth, as well as the costly fireworks damage.
People should not have to adjust their lives around fireworks users to enjoy a holiday. To check into hotels, wear masks and worry about pet safety and welfare, etc., are all unnecessary.
Furthermore, and most important, our state Constitution, like many others, contains language that, in essence, says "to promote the general welfare" of its citizens. In this respect, where are our political leaders in standing up to promote our general welfare concerning fireworks?
Promoting our general welfare is far more important than permitting fireworks use.
Imagine how much good could come from using all the fireworks dollars for supporting essential, nongovernment-funded community or charitable needs, rather than "burning up" the dollars and causing devastating injury, damage and even death.
What fireworks-related catastrophe must we endure before positively eliminating this intolerable urban danger?

Shay W. Auerbach | Honolulu