Our United States Constitution holds that we aren't allowed to discriminate by race, yet our politicians have attempted to create a racial group called "Native Hawaiians" in order to form a separate group of Americans who are different from other Americans.

Is this Alice in Wonderland, Hawai'i-style?

William Jardine | Waimea, Hawai'i

LOCAL EXPERTISE

HERE'S REST OF STORY ON THE FISHERY ARTICLE

The article "Variety of big fish drops sharply" in the July 29 Advertiser was doubly disappointing. It was disappointing because no comment was sought from the considerable local expertise available on the tuna and billfish populations at both the University of Hawai'i Pelagic Fisheries Research Program and the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center.

If you had bothered to seek comment, Advertiser readers would have learned that the analysis discussed in your article is a highly controversial interpretation of a small subset of the available information.

The Advertiser article is also disappointing because it was published just one week before fisheries scientists from 25 Pacific countries are to meet in New Caledonia to examine options for regulating the very fisheries discussed in the article. Until last December, there were no legal means to regulate the largest tuna fishery in the world.

Under the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, a new treaty that came into force last year, it is now legally possible to regulate fisheries for tuna and marlin in the high seas. The clamor generated by the "junk science" that you so uncritically published makes it difficult for serious conservationists to address practical problems of fishery regulation on the high seas.

John Sibert | Manager, Pelagic Fisheries Research Program, Joint Institute for Marine & Atmospheric Research, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, UH-Manoa

UH TUITION

NEW AID AVAILABLE FOR LOW-INCOME STUDENTS

I agree with Cecilia Graybeal's July 31 letter to the editor, "College education can be readily available." Education is the key to improving one's life and, collectively, our communities. Unfortunately, many young people are held back by the thought that no matter how hard they try in school, college is not a financial reality for them.

College tuition is on the rise and will continue to increase at the University of Hawai'i for at least the next five years. Because of this, my colleagues and I created a new opportunity, called the "B-Plus Scholarship Program," for low-income, ambitious young public school graduates. The B-Plus Scholarship Program was funded at $1.5 million over the next two years to provide full scholarships at any campus of the UH system for eligible individuals. The B-Plus Scholarship Program will benefit public high school graduates who have cumulative grade-point averages of 3.0 or better and are considered low income according to the Hawai'i Department of Education's guidelines for students qualifying for the free and reduced lunch program.

I, too, believe that "with hard work and determination, the goal of higher education should be readily achieved by those who really want it."

Clayton Hee | Chairman, Senate Committee on Higher Education

PROPERTY TAXES

EQUITABLE SOLUTION IS TO LOWER THE RATE

Mayor Mufi Hannemann wants to give residents a "fair and equitable" property tax break. Any tax relief other than a reduction of the property tax rate will be unfair and inequitable to some segment of residents.

The simple, fair and equitable solution is to lower the rate!

Richard Y. Will | Waikiki

KAMEHAMEHA

JUDICIAL ACTIVISTS ARE BANE TO PRIVATE SECTOR

Once again judicial activists have intruded into an arena where they do not belong, namely telling a private institution, Kamehameha Schools, that it must admit anyone, no matter the background.

The judiciary has no business telling private institutions what they can and cannot believe or do, except where there are clear violations of criminal law.

Private institutions are different from public ones, and the former should be free to follow paths that suit the needs of their constituents. If Kamehameha Schools were a public, taxpayer-financed institution, this would be another matter. I empathize with Hawaiians on this issue.

There needs to be a resolution, passed overwhelmingly by both houses of Congress and signed by the president, informing the judiciary categorically that unless a private institution is involved in crime, such as property damage or physical harm to persons, it deserves and has, as Justices Brandeis and Holmes argued, "the right to be let alone." Judges and justices who intrude into private institutional matters are displaying intolerance and discrimination, and often fostering abuse, and should "cease and desist."

Phillip C. Smith | La'ie

AUTHENTIC

HAWAI'I CAN TAKE PRIDE IN NEWEST CRUISE SHIP

The Pride of America is as her name implies. Having just returned on the inaugural voyage from San Francisco, I can say the ship has an excellent Hawaiian lecturer, kumu hula and Polynesian entertainment.

The moment of great pride and honor was the raising of the Hawai'i flag upon entering Hawaiian waters. It seemed as if the entire ship, crew included, were on deck to witness this historic moment.

When "Hawai'i Pono'i" was played, all of us locals took pride in singing. This is the "pride" the ship represents, not rice or fake flowers.

Peggy Hubacker | Honolulu

HARRY KIM

WHAT DO NONPARTISAN POLITICIANS STAND FOR?

The Aug. 2 letter about the possibility of Harry Kim running against Gov. Linda Lingle, saying that Republican Kim is admired for running a nonpartisan administration, first begs the question: Is Kim Republican or nonpartisan?

More importantly, however, it raises the larger question of what is a nonpartisan, what does one stand for? Does he or she disagree with the platforms of both major political parties? When you vote for a nonpartisan, how do you really know what you are getting? From TV ads?

Charles Prentiss | Kailua

KARL ROVE

KEEP THE SPOTLIGHT ON

Karl Rove should be front and center until the truth is revealed.

William Staub | Wai'anae

VACATION RENTALS

BUYERS KNOCKED OUT OF MARKET

Those who are running vacation rentals can talk all they want to about how wonderful it is to be able to give visitors the unique opportunity to experience our local communities, but that's nothing more than a clever PR spin. The bottom line is that it's a very lucrative business and the owners aren't doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. What they are doing is exploiting the very communities whose charms they're touting to make a buck. Vacation rentals aren't new, but now they've become big business, and it's time to put a stop to them in our neighborhoods.

People have complained about how they change the tone of a neighborhood, about the extra cars and traffic, the noise that comes from people on vacation partying and the disruption that comes with a steady flow of transient renters in a residential neighborhood.

All of these things are valid complaints, but as a Realtor, what really concerns me is how this trend is going to affect our residential market and our residential buyers. With inventory as tight as it is and prices at an all-time high, buyers are already having such a tough time trying to find a home.

What happens to them when you throw investment huis and individuals who are dealing in vacation rentals into the mix? These groups and individuals have more money to spend and can pay more because they aren't looking at that home as a principal residence but as a commercial venture.

Yes, we've always had investors in real estate, but vacation rentals up the ante. A home that would rent for, say, $3,500 per month as a long-term rental can rent for $500 a day with a five-day minimum and be booked from now straight through December. These people are looking at substantial returns, they have more capital to invest and they can outbid our buyers who are just trying to find a home. They have the financial clout to knock our buyers right out of the market. Granted, they aren't interested in all of the houses out there; they just want the ones in nice neighborhoods close to the beach just like the rest of us, but they have the upper hand. On top of that, what happens to our long-term renters? Where do they go? When your kids want to move out, what will be available for them? Where do young couples live before they can afford to buy their own home?

It's amazingly shortsighted to be trying to figure out how to tax the income these people are making off their illegal rentals. Our officials need to take a good look at the big picture and what they would be throwing away and jeopardizing for the sake of getting a tiny percentage in taxes of the money these people are making. It's a poor trade and not one I'm interested in.

Who benefits? The investors who are running commercial ventures in residential neighborhoods. Who's hurt by them? All the rest of us who have to live with them as transient neighbors, our kids who can't find anything close to an affordable rental and the buyers who will get pushed out of the market.

Instead of trying to make the best out of a bad situation that's gotten out of control, it's time to step up and enforce laws already in effect and to remember why they were put there in the first place.

Lynn Wells | Realtor, Kailua

WEIGHTED STUDENT FORMULA CRITIQUE WAS FULL OF MISTAKES

Rep. Lyla Berg | Vice chair, House Education Committee