A very special day for 22 Girl Scouts

For the past three years, an elite group of well-deserving Girl Scouts has earned the Girl Scout Council of Hawai'i's prestigious "Priceless Award" for selling more than 700 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. The cookie program enables the council to offer the Girl Scout program to girls throughout the state.

This year, 22 Girl Scouts, statewide, were honored: Carlyn Abramo, Alexa Blalock, Emily Cheung, Kaha'owai'olu Fujimori, Allie Galati, Danielle Guist, Paige Hanohano, Kiana Hayes, Allyson Holtz, Krysten Irion, Samantha Ng, Alysa Oshiro, Adria Pang, Serena Perry, Sade Reuarin, Kara Anne Saiki, Kate Shepherd, Elizabeth Sugahara, Audrey Thompson, Kelsi Watanabe, Jasmine Wong and Kristen Yamaguchi.

On May 14, the girls went on a "Mission: Possible Honolulu Mystery Tour." They spent the day getting clues, guessing who matched the clues and riding a private trolley to meet mystery guests at various locations throughout Honolulu, including Veronica Kaneko, managing director of McDonald's Restaurants in Hawai'i; American Idol finalist Jasmine Trias; KSSK's Michael W. Perry, Larry Price and Sweetie Pacarro; Honolulu Police Department museum curator Officer Eddie Croom; Sgt. Deborah Wilson and Officer Sharon Walden of the HPD Mounted Unit; Honolulu Fire Capt. Debbie Eleneki; American Idol contestant Jordan Segundo; KHON 2's Jai Cunningham and John Veneri; and Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann.

Mahalo to everyone involved for giving each girl a truly priceless experience that she will long remember and cherish.

University tenure a drag on education

Regarding Victor Hanson's op-ed concerning tenure: There is one negative aspect of tenure that he did not discuss and of which few people are aware. This is seen mainly in smaller schools having fixed enrollment and therefore a fixed faculty size.

In this case, you can have the highest performing faculty, but if the world changes and you need Middle East or Asian culture and language professors, your option is to wait for a Latin professor to die before you can offer modern exposure for your students. Therefore, many institutions become slow-turning battleships.

The only option for the university is to seek funding for an endowed chair in the in-vogue field of education sought by the tuition payers.

Water scarce because public doesn't care

The only way to save our water is for everyone working together to preserve our resources. Water is becoming scarce because the public doesn't care.

In a May 4 letter, Mark Middleton argues that if we are running out of water, why is the government approving new buildings? The population is increasing due to many people moving here to the Islands and the state can't help it. This is one way the state brings in money.

The government doesn't have control over how the people use their resources. It is trying to warn us we should be more cautious with our use of limited resources. Only we the people can save water if we care. If people are so worried about conserving water, then advertise it and stop making the government look bad. Blame yourselves for your carelessness and ignorance.

Shapiro's potshots at Sen. Hee unfounded

Add David Shapiro to the list of those taking unfounded potshots at Sen. Clayton Hee from a safe distance. I doubt that he has even spoken to Hee about any of his presumptions or conclusions as stated in his May 11 column.

Consider his statement, "Hee is too impatient to wait even one full session before grabbing for power," implying he wants to be Senate president. That is dead wrong. Hee is comfortable in his positions as committee chairman and majority floor leader and has never told me or any other senator that he wants to be president. Never.

Shapiro says Clayton Hee "rudely browbeat" UH regent nominees. The fact is Hee provided not one but two hearings for certain controversial nominees. Sens. Suzanne Chun Oakland and Gordon Trimble publicly thanked Hee for holding the second hearing and being fair to both nominees.

Make no mistake, Hee always asks hard questions and prefers direct answers. He does his homework and expects others to do theirs. And he does ask a lot of questions. He certainly doesn't shy away from controversial issues and he votes his conscience even if the vote is 24 to 1.

Is Sen. Hee assertive? Yes. Does he speak his mind? Yes. Is he willing to advocate for his values and principles and defend those with similar persuasions even in the face of overwhelming opposition? Yes. Is he the destructive monster that some would make him out to be? Not to me. I know, because I was there.