Posted on: Tuesday, May 3, 2005

Letters to the Editor

Military recruiters should be in schools

In an April 7 letter to the editor, William Shapiro asked "Should the Air Force recruiters really be in our high schools?" The answer is, resoundingly, yes. And they should have the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard recruiters on campus as well.

Not only are our military men and women performing in one of the most noble of professions, they protect us from enemies both foreign and domestic. Does he expect all of our wonderful service men and women to come from the other 49 states?

In addition to protecting us, the military teaches youngsters self-discipline, order, time management, self-respect and respect for others and a host of other skills sorely lacking in many of our youth today. It gives our youth a chance to leave the Islands and learn there is a big wide world full of opportunity out there. And Hawai'i is always here should they choose to return.

The learning opportunities are too numerous to mention here, but for starters there is medicine, mechanics, electronics, computers, logistics, nuclear technology, communications, personnel, clerical, space technology, etc. These skills are readily transferable to the civilian field when the tour of duty is complete. In addition, they get free medical and dental coverage.

If Mr. Shapiro knows of another opportunity to get in the best physical shape of your life and learn these valuable skills while being housed, fed and paid well in a guaranteed job, I'd like to know about it. Let's not shield our youngsters from advancing themselves.

We should be more critical of warnings

A very good study, "The Culture of Fear: Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things" by Barry Glassner, puts a heavy burden on the media for this misplaced fear. Too often the media simply report uncritically what they are told by presumably responsible persons.

So our mayor tells us that we must do whatever is possible to save one life in a fire in a condominium when almost all loss of life by fire occurs in private houses. For the most part, these lack both smoke detectors and sprinkler systems.

So also the media recently reported a cancer research study that concluded that "those who eat the largest amounts of processed foods have a 67 percent higher risk for pancreatic cancer than participants eating the lowest amount of that food." That sounds really scary! But the overall rate is critical if we are to make sense of this.

We were told that there were 482 cases in the study of 20,000. We had to do some simple arithmetic. It tells us that this is a 2.4 percent rate. But putting aside the fact that all sorts of other cancers far exceed the rate for pancreatic cancer — not reported in the story — we must note that simple arithmetic also tells us that a 67 percent increase of a 2.4 percent rate raises the probability of getting pancreatic cancer to 4 percent. Well, that's bad, but is a 1.6 percentage point increase in the probability enough to cut out the Vienna sausage?

We could save a great many more lives if, for example, we did something about our lousy healthcare system.

Military research opposition growing

The Navy University Affiliated Research Center is not simply a "funding mechanism," as Patricia Cooper writes (Letters, April 21).

Rather, the UARC would be like a marriage between the Navy (sponsor) and the university (provider) that would turn what is now faculty-directed research into military-directed research, essentially research on demand, dictated by the needs of the sponsor. As such, even information about unclassified contracts could be declared "privileged" and therefore secret.

UH-Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert has met fierce Native Hawaiian resistance on the UARC. Although he claims to have consulted with the Kuali'i Council, the primary body representing Native Hawaiian interests at UH-Manoa, in fact, he only met with a couple of members of the council. The official position of the Kuali'i Council, as expressed at the Nov. 18 Board of Regents meeting, is, "Since the American military has done more to damage our ancestral lands than any other entity, we cannot support the establishment of a UARC at the University of Hawai'i."

Opposition to the UARC is clearly growing. More than a hundred faculty members have signed an open letter against classified research, and hundreds more students and supporters have signed petitions against the UARC. Informal polling of the faculty indicates that most oppose the UARC but are too afraid of political repercussions to express their opposition publicly.

Rail system on O'ahu an exercise in futility

The justification for raising taxes to fund a rail system on O'ahu is to alleviate traffic mess.

But a rail system won't alleviate the traffic mess that we have here on O'ahu.

In Chicago, trains run right smack in the middle of the Kennedy and Eisenhower expressways. But traffic moves at turtle speed during morning and afternoon rush hours in those expressways.

Chicago has a massive rail system. But traffic is still a mess in the morning and afternoon rush hours in that city.

A rail system to alleviate traffic gridlock on O'ahu will just be an exercise in futility.

The billions to be spent in the construction of a rail system and the millions needed to maintain it and feed a fat and arrogant rail system bureaucracy are better spent in increasing the capacity and redesigning of the Lunalilo, H-1 and Moanalua freeway system.

Construction of an underground bypass similar to that of a Mainland city may be another solution to solving O'ahu traffic problems.

Rail tracks running right smack through the center of O'ahu would be an eyesore and a big mistake.

Traffic makes life on O'ahu an ordeal

I am in the Navy, stationed at Pearl Harbor aboard a destroyer. I have been living on O'ahu for three years. In 2007, I will either be leaving the Navy or transferring to a new duty station (perhaps another command in Hawai'i, I'm not sure).

This is truly one of the most amazingly beautiful places on Earth, and in my experience the people have been welcoming and kind. But after three years of fighting the traffic on this island, I can also honestly say that I will think long and hard before extending my residency here. The traffic is horrendous.

It has gotten to the point that I don't leave base between certain hours. If I'm going out to eat, I wait until 7 p.m. when traffic is light. If I have to schedule an appointment, I make sure it's early afternoon, no matter what hoops I have to jump through at work to get the time off.

For several months, I split my time between base and a residence in 'Ewa Beach. I truly enjoyed the time in 'Ewa. But after a few months of fighting the traffic each morning and evening, I gave up and moved back to base full time.

The amazing thing is that during off-peak hours, the one-way trip took about 15 minutes. During peak hours, however, that short road trip turned into, at times, a two-hour ordeal.

Will the proposed rail transit system solve the problem? No. Will it help? Yes, indeed. If it is planned and implemented correctly.

State shouldn't fix transportation problem

If we fix the transportation problem, more people will move here and the problem will worsen.

It's time for the Legislature to decide just how many people our water supply, roads, land area, electric generation, etc., can support and stop issuing new-construction permits as we approach that number.

My state representative seems to agree legislators wouldn't touch that issue. (And that would be a real stretch for a group that can't even agree to post sex offenders' names on the Internet!)

More homeless shelters? That's an invitation for more homeless people to move here. Increase the excise tax so we can increase the standard deduction? What are we, idiots? Gasoline prices too high? Not as long as every window I see on our freeways is rolled up. Prisons in Hawai'i? That's an oxymoron. Prisoners don't deserve to live here. Texas is fine.

It's not about greed for those who are affected

Coqui frogs are about greed? Really? I tell you what, Mr. Wayne Johnson (Letters, April 20), how 'bout I arrange to drop off a few thousand "beautiful" little frogs in your neighborhood?

Oh, excuse me, frogs can't live in concrete jungles like Waikiki. They sure do love the jungles where I live, and are annoying, loud, disrupting and a disturbance to the peace. It's not about greed for those who live with them. If anything, $9 million isn't enough!

Men's volleyball program needs a coaching change

It's time for a new coaching staff for the University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team.

I commend coach Mike Wilton for the job he has done with the program, but his coaching style is keeping the team in a rut and is causing restlessness among the fans. He is surrounded by talented players, but doesn't seem to bring out the massive amount of potential they possess.

I know it's not easy keeping the players happy with playing time and fielding seven on the court at one time. I do not think his method of having competition at each position at every practice for playing time is a good thing. That should be done during training camp and the beginning of the season to find the best seven and a few role players to get the program to its goal of bringing back a national championship to the university.

When making the push for the MPSF playoffs and beyond, there should be a set seven. The constant changing of lineups disrupts any kind of cohesiveness and rhythm.

For years, coach Wilton had the luxury of having a Terminator on the team with the likes of Yuval Katz and Costas Theocharidis to consistently bail the team out. These past two years, there hasn't been a real go-to guy even though many would say Pedro Azenha is that person. He's been streaky at times. In a recent match against Long Beach State, Azenha couldn't get untracked and was getting frustrated on the court.

During the break between games one and two, I saw former Warrior Theocharidis talking to Azenha about how to control and channel his emotions. That's something a coach should be doing. A coach should also control his players' emotional outbursts on the court when teammates can't control the player. Long Beach State coach Alan Knipe was able to get his team to overcome big deficits.

In game four when the 49ers started pulling away, the Warriors did not look like a confident team on the court, walking around with slumped heads and shoulders after getting blocked or making hitting errors. Coach Wilton didn't seem to make any adjustments to the float serves of Long Beach State, which gave them so much trouble.

The men's volleyball program at the University of Hawai'i needs a coaching change to bring in a fresh breath of air to the program.

Guitarist an inspiration to us all

It's never too late to say thank you to our local singer and songwriter Jack Johnson and guests Jackson Browne, John Cruz, Ozomatli, G. Love & Special Sauce and Kawika Kahiapo & Kaukahi for the second annual Kokua Festival on April 16 at the Waikiki Shell.

The energetic, massive crowd of locals and tourists alike were singing, swaying and dancing. This was definitely one exhilarating experience I will not be able to forget for quite a while.

I was drawn to see Jack Johnson play his guitar because I was inspired by his resilience. I learned that Jack experienced a traumatic surfing accident that cost him 150-plus stitches on his head when he was in an elite surfing competition at the age of 17.

Nevertheless, I was amazed to learn something about Jack — he didn't give up on his life. He went on to go to college to pursue a degree in film production in California. Yes, he is also a revered movie producer of two surfing films: "September Sessions" and "Thicker than Water." What an inspiration to teenagers!

Along with his music, Jack founded the Kokua Festival with his wife for the education of environmental awareness in our public schools. What a wonderful accomplishment. In addition to creating jamming and soul-soothing music, he has created an opportunity for elementary students to learn about saving our environment through his three Rs song, "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle."

Why is this significant? Well, currently I'm teaching my intermediate school students how to write up an executive summary that presents issues within our community to various local executives. I definitely used Jack's cause for the Kokua Festival as an example for saving our beautiful environment — one of the many pressing issues we are facing in Hawai'i and around the world.

I also attended the festival so I could bring my experiences back into the classroom. My students are curious to learn how to ameliorate existing problems on hand. They are our keys to solving our future problems, too.

I would also like to thank the "seed" teacher at Sunset Elementary School for her generous donation of flower and herb seeds. I'll have my students plant those seeds at the end of the school year so they can grow during the summer. The growing seeds will symbolize our students' growth in their knowledge that they develop from school.

Thank you, Jack Johnson, for your third album, "In Between Dreams," which I made a part of my dreams to kokua our students to achieve their dreams, too.