Letters to the Editor
RESTAURANTS
BRAZEN SMOKERS ARE ONES WHO CAN LEAVE
I was appalled by an Aug. 1 letter concerning The Shack. Apparently some people believe that they have a choice on whether or not they can smoke in Hawai'i's restaurants; however, I'm not surprised since law enforcement is barely raising a finger against it.
Smokers may think they have the right to smoke in restaurants, but don't others have the right to enjoy a simple meal without inhaling the harmful carcinogenic chemicals found in secondhand smoke?
It appears that these selfish smokers think that people who don't approve of smoking in restaurants should take their business elsewhere. Well, I'm sorry to point out that simply ignoring a problem does not eliminate it.
Attention, smokers: Smoking in Hawai'i's restaurants is against the law. The whole point of this law is to reduce patrons' exposure to harmful secondhand smoke. If smokers don't like it, they can easily step outside or smoke in the comfort of their own home, where innocent people are not put in danger.
Biscuit Motobu | Manoa
KAMEHAMEHA
ONE-SIDED COVERAGE OF RALLIES DISGUSTING
I was disgusted by your Aug. 7 coverage of the Kamehameha rallies on Aug. 6. The rallies, which were sparked by the recent court decision that Kamehameha Schools' Hawaiians-only policy constitutes discrimination, were the only thing that was covered by your paper.
Nowhere in the pages worth of coverage were differing viewpoints presented. Angry Hawaiians slammed the judges, the haoles and anyone else close at hand. Lawyers for the boy who challenged the school were only allowed four sentences to respond.
I understand that The Advertiser is a liberal paper and as such probably sides with the Hawaiian people on this issue. This does not, however, give The Advertiser an excuse to throw journalistic responsibility out the window. Opinions are to be kept to the editorial pages, not the front pages.
Richard Galluzzi | Pacific Heights
PAST IS PAST
HAWAIIANS SHOULD JUST BE AMERICANS
The dream of sovereignty is unattainable. The Akaka bill is a trap, codifying second-class citizenship.
There's only one way for the Hawaiians to go: just be Americans. It worked for the Irish, the Poles, the Czechs, the Germans, the Chinese, the Vietnamese; only the Native American is on a reservation today.
What is a cultural heritage worth if it means your children will be forever relegated to poverty? Put the past in a museum yourself before someone else puts you there forever.
Wayne Wisecarver | San Rafael, Calif.
FISH
HAWAIIAN FOREFATHERS CONSERVED DIFFERENTLY
The Aug. 2 editorial on fish preserves suggests that "old Hawaiians" would approve of "an aggressive system of marine preserves — around all islands in the chain." I disagree.
While our Hawaiian forefathers realized the importance of effective resource management practices (not limited to ocean resources), they also realized the greater importance of implementing such practices in the context of a balanced and reasoned approach.
There is no evidence that a ban of taking "around all islands in the chain" was ever imposed for the simple reason that ocean resources were deemed to be a critical and necessary part of daily sustenance. Without seafood, land-based resources arguably would not have been enough to feed all of the Native Hawaiians who lived here — and they realized that.
There is no evidence to suggest that ancient Hawaiians utilized an "all or nothing" approach and, contrary to the writer's opinion, would not have approved of such an "aggressive system."
Instead, they used a combination of: (1) limiting the taking of a few specific fish (reserved for the ali'i); (2) prohibiting the taking of a few specific species only during certain times of the year that coincided with their breeding period; and (3) the widespread creation/utilization of fish ponds to breed more stock.
In other words, people were allowed to continue using the ocean resources for food, while both conservation and proactive restocking efforts were continuously ongoing.
Albert A. Nakaji | Papa'ikou, Hawai'i
WAI'ANAE
EXTEND ZIPPER LANE
Regarding the zipper lane extension: Why is the state spending $8 million to $9 million to extend the zipper lane for only 3.5 miles? That's a waste of money. It should extend it from Kapolei so that the Wai'anae residents can have some kind of relief.
Angela Lundgren | Wai'anae
EARLY COSTS
TRANSIT DETRACTORS HAVE IT BACKWARD
David Shapiro says "Transit is a hard sell because political leaders have gone about it backward — tax first and ask questions later" (Aug. 3). It's the transit detractors who have it backward with their insistence on putting the cart before the horse.
Transit detractors are demanding to see plans and designs. How many architects would accept a design job, especially one this complex, if there is no money to pay them?
Detractors are demanding to know the total cost up-front. In any construction project, the sky is the limit when it comes to cost. In order to identify and control costs, considerable effort must be spent to identify and mitigate critical project components such as risk, project scope and time. Who is going to do this work if there is no money to pay them?
Detractors also demand a review of alternatives other than rail. Again, who is going to do this work and where is the money to pay them? How many companies are willing to volunteer their services for free to accomplish all of this?
Let's face it, transit detractors have one goal and one goal only: to do everything they can to kill any and all public transportation efforts. So far, they've succeeded in killing every effort to improve public transportation in Hawai'i; let's not let them railroad us again.
Debbie Stelmach | Kailua
OTHER STORIES
SPORTS IS OVERDOING IT ON MICHELLE WIE
There are so many different sports stories going on throughout the world, yet you have decided that Michelle Wie should be cover material on the sports section on practically a daily basis. What does this say for your breadth of sports coverage?
Even when Lance Armstrong won his record seventh Tour de France, his story was subordinate to Wie's and he actually won something. When was the last time Michelle Wie won a tournament?
When you print an article in the sports section on Michelle's clothing endorsements, something is seriously wrong. That kind of reporting, my friend, belongs in the Island Life section, if anywhere.
Most people here support Michelle as a good young golfer who represents Hawai'i, but it's overkill when you miss out on so many other good athletes and so many other sports because you are myopically focused on her every move.
Do your readers a favor and stop trying to make her a celebrity that she is not and do Michelle a favor by not adding any more pressure to succeed as a 15-year-old than she already has.
Chuck B. Leong | Kaimuki
CONSENSUS
WHAT'S SO DIFFERENT THIS TIME ABOUT RAIL?
"Transit proposals for O'ahu have been debated for at least 30 years, but each plan has been derailed by concerns about cost, failure to reach agreement over the technology, and a lack of political consensus at crucial times" ("O'ahu rail plans get federal approval," July 30).
This time is different?
We have no idea what technology will be used or what the route will be.
Originally, it was said that the excise tax needed to be raised one whole percentage point to finance rapid transit. Now it has been raised one-half of a percentage point. Want to bet we won't get hit with another raise if and when this project is started?
Political consensus, yes of course — the unions love it. Popular consensus? I don't think so.
Arthur Y. Sprague | Manoa
HARDSHIP
SHIPPING PRISONERS TO MAINLAND WRONG
Many thanks to Kevin Dayton for his reports on prison conditions. The public needs coverage of the world "behind bars." And inmates need to know that they are not forgotten.
I'm writing to express my opinion that shipping prisoners to private, for-profit facilities on the Mainland is a bad idea. Even if these prisons were well run, and many of them are not, it is hard to justify a practice that causes great financial and social hardship to inmates and their families. In any case, corrections should not be a business but rather a public service.
We all benefit from the public safety and rehabilitation services of well-run prison systems. Why not put our local resources into providing the necessities for humane, effective treatment of the incarcerated?
We do not have to build mega-prisons to do this. Modest but sufficient facilities run by well-trained staff would do the job just fine.
Marianna Scheffer | Retired correctional educator, Hilo
PUCK'S ALLEY PLANS DON'T ADDRESS PARKING, DRINKING
I believe the proposed "improvements" to Puck's Alley will not serve the interests of the community or its developer. Having lived in Mo'ili'ili for over a decade now, I have seen a multitude of businesses come and go. Many businesses find themselves unable to pay the rising rents while serving a youthful clientele. Renovating the area is sure to spike the rents even higher, but the clientele won't change. The only businesses that seem able to remain are the ones that make money serving alcohol to this same youthful clientele. Which brings up the next issue. Thursday and Sunday nights in Mo'ili'ili aren't very pleasant. The parking situation is miserable. Street parking becomes nonexistent. And then there is a flow of drunk, rowdy, college-age kids who stumble their way back to the dorms, screaming and yelling as they go and waking up everyone in earshot. It does no good to call police because by the time they can arrive, the offenders are gone. About the only positive in this whole redevelopment plan is that perhaps having the dorms upstairs from the drinking establishments will allow the drunks to take an elevator upstairs to their dorm instead of stumbling through the community streets. But of course, this won't totally remove this problem. The second issue is parking. A lot of the local apartments don't have sufficient parking, and residents have to compete for street parking with the crush of students trying to get free parking near school. Putting in a 125-room dorm in the area will only exacerbate this problem as its tenants also try to find parking. The article also mentions that Peter Savio is planning to build dorms on the old Texaco lot at the intersection of University and Varsity Place. Currently, this is a pay parking lot that gets lots of business when there is no street parking. Eliminating a much-needed parking lot and adding in a 250-room complex, even if it adds in parking for its own residents, will exacerbate the parking crunch on Thursday and Sunday nights.J.S. Johnson | Mo'ili'ili
EDUCATION
NO CHILD LAW LEAVING US BEHIND
If this be progress, strike me deaf, dumb and blind, for this is what the powers on high must think of us peasants anyway. The fact is that standardized test scores tell more about one's social class than they do about learning. Yet, by the year 2014, as decreed by No Child, the entire nation of American public school students will be "proficient" in math and language, which must mean we will all move into the upper echelons of the privileged class: Come on time, get to movin' for I is tired of this sufferin'! The Bush administration, once again, in broad daylight, has hoodwinked the public into believing the unbelievable. Hiding behind worn-out catchalls like "reform," "accountability," "standards," "raising the bar" ... all accoutrements to the emperor's new clothes, few of us seem to recognize the fix is in. Is it possible to legislate the skewing of the bell-shaped curve? All the while, if you listen very carefully, you will detect that "great sucking sound" created by the draining of our dollar resources as they are siphoned off into the coffers of the test makers, scoring services, their concomitant highly scripted "reform model" curriculums, and their textbook cronies — hello Harcourt and McGraw-Hill — all at the expense of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Come on, people, doesn't it just make you mad as hell? If we insist that standardized tests remain part of the annual public school ritual, let's reduce their high-stakes stature and have the results assume their proper place as a measure of minimum competency.Llewellyn Lloyd | Hilo
