Posted on: Wednesday, June 8, 2005

Letters to the Editor

Red-light running now a common occurrence

Thirty years and several hundred thousand cars ago, one rarely saw a Honolulu driver run a red light; today, of course, it behooves the cautious motorist to look both ways and proceed slowly when the light turns green. This is simple survival.

But how did we get to this point? I think it has been a gradual process, a slow unraveling of obeying a basic rule of the road: A driver must come to a full stop at a red light or stop sign before turning right. The popularity of the "Hollywood stop" has slowly eroded the meaning of stop signs and red lights until they have become yield signs for most drivers. Those drivers who still do come to a complete stop before turning right on red risk being rear-ended or yelled at.

Recently I was in a line of cars streaming right through a red light, and as I gradually came to a full stop, I was greeted with angry honking as the SUV behind me jammed on its brakes. There would have been nothing unusual about this except that the SUV had a blue light on top and the guy waving me through the light was an HPD officer.

Legacy Lands bill is critical for Hawai'i

On behalf of the Conservation Council for Hawai'i, I would like to thank the many state legislators, organizations, watershed partnerships, private landowners, businesses and individuals who supported the Legacy Lands bill this past session. This far-reaching legislation is one of the most important environmental public policies enacted in the past 10 years.

With increasing pressure to develop land in Hawai'i, the bill would help fund the acquisition and protection of undeveloped coastal land, agricultural land and natural areas for future generations — places similar to those special areas we enjoyed when we were growing up. For me, it was "the River" behind "the Banana Patch" — a mountain stream habitat for 'o'opu and 'opae that has since been dammed and channeled to protect a subdivision.

The bill also would create permanent funding for our Natural Area Reserves System. The NARS includes some of the best native ecosystems on over 100,000 acres of state-managed land on Kaua'i, O'ahu, Moloka'i, Maui and Hawai'i. The reserves are part of the living Native Hawaiian culture, and nearly all are ceded land.

We urge Gov. Lingle to join dozens of organizations and individuals in this historic effort to preserve our irreplaceable natural heritage by signing the Legacy Lands bill. Doing so will complement this administration's bold proposal to protect state waters around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Tax burden should be on big companies

The mayor and City Council must put the total financial responsibility of water, sewer and electric utilities on the companies that build large utility users — like Home Depot, Costco, all the large up-and-coming condominiums, shopping mall expansion, stores, etc.

Their up-front money would be more than sufficient to pay for all sewer repairs, water pipes, potholes and electrical demand forecasts.

The taxpayer should not be expected to bear the financial burden that these large construction projects will create.

State can indeed legislate morality

The lambasting of Lt. Gov. Aiona is the propagation of an old liberal myth that is raised against people of faith, demonstrating a lack of understanding for true American politics, history and religion.

The myth: "You can't legislate morality."

Poppycock! All laws legislate somebody's morality. Even the absence of laws is a reflection of somebody's morality.

All political ideologies, even anarchy, demand that some system of laws be enacted to influence behavior, allowing one group to impose its morality on another.

There are no exceptions. It makes no difference which side of the political spectrum, whether based on religion or not, whether conservative, liberal or anything in between. As long as there are laws, or even a lack of laws, there will be legislation of morality.

Those who preach liberal gobbledygook (separation of church and state) need to read books prior to the 1950s about America — before the rewriting of its true historical roots — and discover that it was people of "faith" like our lieutenant governor and the foundation of Judeo-Christian teaching in our nation that made it strong and the place everyone wanted to be, defend and die for if necessary.

Cockfighting a means for spread of bird flu

We were pleased to see the editorial on the threat of avian flu (May 31) and the need to be vigilant if we are to successfully combat the threat. Cockfighting is the most likely way to have this disease introduced into our state.

In 2003, California, Arizona and Nevada were devastated by a highly infectious poultry disease that crippled the poultry industry, causing more than 2.1 million birds to be destroyed and costing taxpayers nearly $500 million to contain the disease. The disease was introduced at a cockfight and transported to other areas by gamecocks that were infected while at the event.

We need to crack down on the organized cockfighting industry, which operates illegally throughout the state, if we are to protect Hawai'i's birds. It is important that we eliminate cockfighting if we truly want to protect our state, our residents and our birds from these deadly avian diseases.

D-Day was ignored

I can't believe that on Monday, June 6, your paper as well as the other daily did not have one single story on the 61st anniversary of D-Day. This was the world's greatest land invasion in history, which eventually brought the end of World War II. The Allies lost thousands of men in this invasion. How can a newspaper forget such an important date? Yet there are stories printed that have no importance to most people.

Policeman's defense doesn't hold water

I was taken aback after reading the response from defense attorney Philip Lowenthal (June 3) regarding the Maui policeman convicted of extorting sexual favors.

Mr. Lowenthal argued for a sentence of probation and community service, saying that people who are thinking of becoming police officers might think twice of becoming one. He was quoted as saying "If you screw up, you're going to get hammered hard."

I had to read this twice. I believe that as a police officer, you're not supposed to screw up. If police don't follow the law and set an example, who will?

Marsh, beach area could have become great parks

The Windward residents and all O'ahuans missed a golden opportunity, 35 to 40 years ago, when two important sites were not developed properly: Kawai Nui marsh and Kualoa Beach Park — both large areas with great potential for development.

Kawai Nui was master-planned in the middle '60s when the Parks Department hired the talented "Red" Hill of the National Parks Service. He came up with a fantastic plan to make it into a major recreational area with the largest freshwater lake in Hawai'i and, around its edge, sports and park facilities. In the middle was a large, doughnut-shaped protected refuge for wildlife. This was to be a controlled nature study area.

The only thing that we developed was the model-airplane strip I designed for the north side. The rest died because of politics.

Kualoa Beach Park was acquired in the late '60s, and soon after I prepared a multiple-purpose master plan — one that envisioned beach use, camping (summer fun and private) and sports fields, meeting rooms and other facilities. All of the buildings were away from the beach — to the right side of the old airstrip and the present entry drive. A district maintenance facility and fire station were part of my plan.

Once again, it was politically/financially incorrect (for a Parks staff landscape architect to design such a facility), so an outside consultant was hired to prepare a master plan. That plan deleted the sports fields, meeting rooms and other facilities and the fire station.

As it turned out, the centrally located Kualoa Beach Park is the poorest-designed and under-utilized park in the system.

It breaks my heart, for each day that I drive past, I am reminded that for the past 30 years, we have been denied the facilities that we have needed so badly.

Education program uninspiring

This past year at Kalani, the administration started a new program called SLC, or Smaller Learning Communities. Under this program, students were put into heterogeneous "houses" with three core teachers for two years. At first I thought the SLC was a good idea, but I soon changed my perspective; many of my fellow classmates agree.

I discovered two things: We weren't given any rigorous work, and the SLC is focused on the low-motivation students.

The work I was given in my classes was easy. We expected something more rigorous. This year has been a review for my classmates and me. How do they expect us to get into college and get the career we want if we do not learn anything?

The closest rigorous class we got was the social studies honors class in fourth quarter. The class gave us extra work aside from our regular social studies work and required us to meet on our own time. Out of the 60 people who showed up for this, only 17 finished. The rest found it a waste of time.

This idea does not work because most of the students have commitments after school and it is extra work aside from the regular work. This idea will be repeated next year in honors biology.

The No Child Left Behind Act impacted the entire school year by gearing the SLC's main focus toward the unmotivated students. The SLC's purpose is to assist unenthusiastic students by altering the class structure and providing easier work; however, these changes do not benefit the semi-motivated learners.

In reality, the entire student body is left behind since the motivated students cannot reach their full potential. We are not left behind, but neither are we progressing. Instead, we are forced to review materials that have been previously taught.

The downside of the SLC is that it keeps us in heterogeneous classes — a team is only as good as its weakest player. The same relates to a heterogeneous classroom environment in which we can only proceed at the equivalent pace of the slowest student. We should be separated into homogeneous classes for student interaction in a better environment without distractions from impassive students.

The SLC will not benefit the students in the long run. When we graduate, we will not have met our full potential. The SLC is not an effective system for Kalani. In fact, even the unappreciative students have expressed disagreement with it. Kalani needs to implement the previous system or another alternative that satisfies the educational needs of all students, teachers and parents.