Posted on: Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Letters to the Editor

Fluoridation advocate is missing the facts

This is in response to the March 25 letter from Dr. Peter Caldwell. It is the good doctor who is relying on "junk science and anecdotal claims" and misinformation from the promoters of water fluoridation.

The promoters, including the state Department of Health and the Hawai'i Dental Association, are touting the benefits of water fluoridation without providing convincing evidence. They ignore the simple fact that in spite of being fluoridated for many years, cities such as New York, Boston, Cincinnati, Detroit and Washington, D.C., to name a few, are reporting as high or higher tooth decay rates than are reported for Hawai'i. Knowing this, why would anyone believe that water fluoridation would benefit Hawai'i's keiki?

Rather than being critical of some of our legislators, Caldwell should commend them for their part in preventing legislation to fluoridate Hawai'i. And furthermore, Hawai'i's resistance to water fluoridation does not give Hawai'i the appearance of a "provincial backward state," as the good doctor suggests; it places Hawai'i alongside many countries, including nearly all of Europe, that do not add fluoride to their water.

Community center will help deaf people

On behalf of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, I would like to express our sincere thanks to former Mayor Jeremy Harris and his wife, Ramona, for their substantial support of our efforts to pursue the late Georgia Morikawa's dream of initiating the first-ever Deaf Community Center of Hawai'i (DCCH).

This facility will provide a gathering place and a "one-stop shopping center" for the deaf and hard-of-hearing people of Hawai'i and the Pacific Rim, improving the quality of services, expanding access to knowledge and information, preserving American Sign Language, deaf history and Hawai'i's unique deaf culture, developing deaf leadership, and establishing an effective network of agencies operated for and by the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

We will have a place where all deaf and hard-of-hearing people can go to advance their education, receive services and support, find an advocate, socialize and be accepted.

With the help and encouragement of the Harrises and the City and County of Honolulu, DCCH received Community Development Block Grant funds. The establishment of DCCH will be the beginning of a new era for Hawai'i's deaf and hard-of-hearing community, honoring its past, celebrating its present and exploring possibilities for its future.

Vote contradicts senator's position

To Sen. Dan Akaka: My morning newspaper reports that you voted with the GOP anti-conservationists to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil prospectors. This step contradicts the language on your own Web site trumpeting your commitments to environmental preservation and renewable energy.

Why would a Democratic senator from one American paradise authorize the despoilment of another such place? Your vote can only add momentum to the Republican efforts to sell off and mar our priceless wild lands.

Should you have another opportunity to affect the fate of ANWR, please reconsider your stance.

Join rally today for substitute teachers

Hawai'i's substitute teachers thought it was bad enough to have been underpaid since 1996. Yet a memorandum of understanding between the BOE and HSTA cut $7 per day from the pay of Hawai'i subs effective Jan. 24. Auwe, talk about salt in the wound!

On March 23, in the Senate hearing on House Bill 875, HD2, testimony was submitted to support or oppose giving Hawai'i subs their back pay from 1996 through 2000. Lead counsel for the subs testified the money owed to be about $13 million. The attorney general, lead opposition in both the court and the Legislature, testified the money owed to be about $21 million. Does that mean a larger class of DOE employees are owed back pay? Auwe, 'nuff salt already!

Good news is that Sen. Colleen Hanabusa announced that House Bill 875, HD2, would proceed as an appropriation measure. Apparently some of Hawai'i's senators think the subs deserve their back pay as mandated. We need more people who care about Hawai'i's substitute teachers to speak up as well. Please contact your legislators, and join us if you can at our state Capitol rally today, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

China's Anti-Secession Law sets back peace

China's National People's Congress, as it was closing a 10-day session recently, passed the controversial Anti-Secession Law by 2,896 votes for and none against. The law is tantamount to authorization of war, as it allows adoption of nonpeaceful means against Taiwan if necessary.

China's enacting such a law not only provokes Taiwan but also worries the United States, Japan and neighboring countries. Unfortunately, this comes with the European Union's recent plan of ending a 15-year-old ban on arms sales to China. In addition, China continues its military buildup. Some 700 ballistic missiles along its southeast coast threaten Taiwan.

Improving cross-strait relations is the best solution to this 55-year dispute. But enacting the law has jeopardized the improved cross-strait ties following last month's first direct air links.

Taiwan is a country with sovereignty, and a pluralistic and democratic society, and any change to the island's future should be decided by its 23 million people. To maintain peace and security across the strait is not only the will of the Taiwanese but the common expectation of the world.

Aloha Airlines CEO doesn't get message

I found the Sunday story "Interisland travel dwindling" both interesting and informative. I want to express my opinion pertaining to the quote by Aloha Airlines president and chief executive David Banmiller that "The Superferry won't have any effect on Aloha Airlines' success and our future" and that "most passengers will continue to choose the speed and convenience of jets."

Mr. Banmiller, it's no wonder your company has had financial difficulties. I would recommend you review your leadership and marketing qualifications, along with additional courses in customer service, if you plan on being a contender in the Hawai'i market.

Gov. Burns caught a wave into history

Today marks the 96th anniversary of the birth of John A. Burns, former governor of Hawai'i, and will pass quietly without much notice. Members of the Democratic Party of Hawai'i who are the inheritors of the Burns legacy will ignore this event as unworthy of their attention. They seem to have their own agenda now.

Burns' name is rarely spoken today, and most of the younger generation have never heard of him. Yet he had a great impact on Hawai'i's social and economic life. He was the author of great change, and we all enjoy the benefits of those changes today.

For those of us who were lucky enough to know Gov. Burns, he was indeed the "Quiet Man of Washington Place" and did "Catch a Wave" to make Hawai'i a better place for all.

Happy birthday, Jack! You did your job with honor and compassion and have earned your rest with the Lord. We still carry the memories of your aloha for Hawai'i. We have not forgotten you.

Let's find out what rail system would cost us first

In his March 22 article, Derrick DePledge wrote that the current rail-tax proposal would allow the counties the option of adding a one percentage point surcharge on the general excise tax. Is this correct?

Using an increase in the GET from 4 percent to 5 percent (a 25 percent increase) as a financing method would certainly cost the taxpayer more than one percentage point due to the GET's layering effect.

More cost information is needed before proceeding any further with a fixed-rail decision.

I don't believe that fixed rail will solve our freeway congestion, but I'm willing to listen if provided with some facts and with some cost comparisons with other solutions. No mention has been made, at least that I'm aware of, of the annual subsidy that would be required. Or is this so-called "surcharge" a permanent fixture, as most are?Ê

The Bay Area Rapid Transit is an example of a good fixed-rail system that started much smaller than it now is but the geographical layout is entirely different from O'ahu's and the Neighbor Islands'. Also, in considering the two regions' tax base, Hawai'i's pales in comparison to San Francisco's. What was the initial sales tax increase to build BART and what is it now?Ê

Talk about a rubber-stamp job. Congressman Neil Abercrombie, in his rush to spend federal funds and prove what a good pork-barreler he is, ignores the need for more facts. Perhaps if he had done his homework, we wouldn't be in this position.

Substitute teaching a grind for us

Johnny Brannon's report on the substitute teacher situation was on the mark. I taught English for 17 years, grades 7 through 12. It was stimulating, frustrating, tiring and the most fulfilling job that I had ever had. I loved it!

After retiring in 2002, I thought I would "sub" once a week to keep in touch with the kids and the work I adored. I had a bachelor of arts in English literature and a professional diploma for teaching secondary English when I was 45 years old. No special grants, no tuition waivers, I paid for my own schooling.

I started subbing for $119 a day (with no benefits), but that was OK, too. After all, it wasn't my main source of income. Then a few months ago, all of us subs were informed that our pay was being dropped to $112 a day. Why? Nobody has said. Not the state. Not the union. Deafening silence!

Yet, I was being called just about every day to teach subjects for which I was not qualified to teach: calculus, P.E., band, science, health and nutrition, special education (lots of calls from this discipline).

Keeping order in the class, taking roll and, more often than not, having the students watch videos for 50 minutes — and those were the classes where the teacher provided lesson plans and seating charts. For those who didn't or just wrote a few words on a scrap of paper, that's another story.

Well, this was my choice. One hundred twelve dollars for eight hours still sounded pretty good, until I factored in the 150 students who came into the classroom through the eight-hour day. That came to about 74 cents an hour per student. I'd be better off taking a dollar from each student as they walked into the room. I might even provide juice and snacks along with the lessons.

Jeanette Ma, who manages the substitute program for the Department of Education, says teachers can choose to go surfing if they don't want to work, and not even McDonald's pays as well. What an insult! Surfing? Working fast foods? How many credits, degrees and time do surfers and fast-food workers have to have to get their pay raises? How much time has Jeanette Ma spent as a substitute teacher? How arrogant! How insensitive!

But then again, that's no surprise to anyone who has been in the education system for any length of time. All the so-called standards and other silliness are dropped on teachers every year. Reinventing the wheel seems to be the main purpose of the DOE and the clueless Board of Education.

My husband (a former teacher and principal) and other retired teacher friends tell me to forget about the schools and their problems. After all, "You're retired. Enjoy your freedom!"

I wish it were that easy.