MICHELLE WIE

QUESTIONABLE MOTIVE BEHIND DISQUALIFICATION

As Mark Rolfing said, Michelle Wie's disqualification was a travesty.

Michael Bamberger had ample opportunity to express his concerns about Wie's drop on the seventh hole before she completed her round on Saturday. Instead, he waited one full day, ensuring Wie's disqualification for signing an incorrect scorecard.

He says his motives were to protect the integrity of the game but his actions speak to other motivations. Which story makes the bigger splash: Wie penalized two strokes for an illegal drop or Wie disqualified? The answer's obvious. He took a minor infraction and turned it into a major one, thereby smearing Michelle's reputation and overshadowing Annika Sorenstam's brilliant play at the Samsung World Championship. A real nice guy!

It's also a little disconcerting that LPGA officials allowed themselves to become accomplices in this farce. It seems like they went out of their way to find a violation. Maybe Michelle would be better off playing the men's tour. She'd probably get a fairer shake.

REPORTER ONLY SOUGHT TO UP HIS PR VALUE

I highly question the self-aggrandizing integrity of Sports Illustrated reporter Michael Bamberger, who now will be known as "The Man Who Beat Michelle Wie," making himself famous (or infamous) at her expense.

He could have easily called her caddy aside before Michelle hit her so-called bad drop or, at the least, told her or her caddy before she signed her card. Such was not to be since that wouldn't have gotten his name printed around the world as a giant-killer, and upped his PR value.

Congratulations on your honesty, Mr. Bamberger. You used it very advantageously to enhance the only person who fared well by your selective veracity — yourself.

YOU CAN FORGET THAT EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

It'll be a snowy day in Waikiki before Michelle Wie grants an exclusive interview to Sports Illustrated.

KAHALU'U

INTERSECTION BADLY NEEDS A TRAFFIC LIGHT

Regarding the Kahekili-Kamehameha intersection and the roundabout that is "not going to happen" (Advertiser, Oct. 13): Can we have a traffic light, please?

It is a very long wait at times turning left toward Kane'ohe onto Kahekili from Kamehameha, especially on weekends when all the traffic is headed back to town from the North Shore.

There are other traffic lights along Kahekili where there is much less cross traffic than at the Kamehameha intersection.

When I first suggested this traffic light more than a decade ago I was told it was not possible because of the roundabout that was being considered.

Meanwhile, many of us continue to risk our lives making that left turn across two lanes of Kahekili.

COVERAGE

THERE'S MORE NEWS THAN JUST THE GAS CAP

What's going on? Has everyone lost their mind? I'm talking about gas prices and the media coverage of the infamous "gas cap."

"Gas cap" has appeared in the headlines at least once a week since the cap was introduced. I believe there are more important and interesting topics for The Advertiser to address, and I'm probably not alone.

I urge everyone to get over the gas prices. Don't let something like 30 cents rule your life, unless you drive an SUV!

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

ALLOW MORE RENTALS IN EXISTING NEIGHBORHOODS

From neighborhood boards to the governor's office, every politician in the state seems to have a solution to Hawai'i's affordable housing crisis. The easiest and most cost-effective option, however, is never raised — revise our 'ohana housing ordinance to allow more rental units in existing neighborhoods.

Under the current rules, 'ohana units, in most subdivisions, are limited to 700 square feet, must be in a single structure and must be occupied by extended family members. Based on personal experience with several recent residential building permit applications, it is clear that enforcing these restrictive regulations is one of the top priorities in the review process. Even so, one does not have to look far in any neighborhood to find illegal rental units.

Nationwide, studies have shown that increasing rental housing in existing neighborhoods can provide more jobs close to where people live, reduce economic ghettos, increase public transit ridership, increase property values and provide extra income to older homeowners. Reducing urban sprawl has been the policy of the City and County of Honolulu for decades, while our well-meaning land use ordinances encourage carpeting 'Ewa and central O'ahu with new subdivisions.

Home prices and homelessness have reached record proportions. More flexible and realistic rental housing regulations can provide relief to both homeowners and potential renters. Private enterprise will provide the funding and initiative. Our elected officials must make sure that bureaucracy does not stand in the way.

PRISONERS

TAX DOLLARS RARELY REWARD CRIMINALS

Greetings from New Jersey, the anything-but-liberal state where drug laws have always been draconian. Mess with drugs here and you will go to jail — that is, if your daddy is not a big-time politico.

Criminals are rarely rewarded with tax dollars, as Erich Wida talks about in his Oct. 10 letter "Don't reward criminals with our tax dollars." If caught or suspected in a drug crime, suspects forfeit cars, homes, bank accounts and any item government deems. And then there's loss of license, incarceration, fines and certainly payment for mandated services rendered in a drug sentencing. How is this a "reward" by our tax dollar?

Wida's marijuana felon friend served eight years in a New Jersey prison at a cost to taxpayers probably in excess of $250,000, not to mention the social "cost" to his family.

I am sure he is a model citizen today, but the cost to taxpayer and family is unconscionable, as much so as the marijuana law that sent him to prison. I suggest Wida apply his prison hawk demeanor to our elected officials, or those who sell foreign influence to Congress. Maybe then we will have inmates worthy of our tax dollar?

PENSION

ALOHA AIRLINES MUST STAND BY EMPLOYEES

Unless one has worked for someone for many years only to see their promised pension reduced, one would not understand how the Aloha Airlines employees must feel. And add to that other concessions they have made.

A local company with local values needs to stand by its employees and retirees. In the end, Aloha Airlines is not planes, it is employees. The new proposed buyers need to get this and fund promises made.

I would be happy to do my part as an Aloha customer by giving up my free flights as these liabilities are surely worth something. C'mon, Aloha owners: Do the right thing!

HAWAIIANS

LEAVE WESTERN ATTITUDE BEHIND WHEN IN ISLANDS

The collision between Hawaiian and Western culture began when a white man claimed to have "discovered" Hawai'i. This imperialistic attitude resulted in the unbridled spread of western diseases that decimated our people; the imposition of adverse possession and quiet title to steal our land; and the overthrow of a legitimate Hawaiian nation.

This attitude is pervasive today. For those who perpetuate such colonialist rantings, take your intergenerational ignorance and get over it.

This is not an issue of the past; it is now. The illegal overthrow resulted in taking of ceded lands that belonged to the Kingdom of Hawai'i. These lands are being used by state and federal entities without adequate compensation to Hawaiians.

You call us racist for using the term "haole." Like any term that denotes race, it is not the use of the word that makes it racist; it is how you use it. Don't tell us what words to use. Pau already.

For the developers who, in public, pretend to be our friend, we know what you, your team of lawyers and sellout political friends scheme in private.

A substandard archeological survey is more than a "misspelled word." These surveys have been the sword used to sever our history. You will not bulldoze the last remnants of our cultural connectivity by pretending our ancestors do not exist.

So hang your Western attitude on the coat rack as you enter our Islands. We are more than skinny hula girls and Don Ho lookalikes happily strumming our 'ukulele. We are an indigenous people whose ancestors were here long before you and your relatives came to our pristine shores. If you don't want to hang up your coat, then catch the next boat out.

If you choose to stay, come out of your gated enclosures. Look at us. Hear our voices. We are Hawaiian.

LEFT-WING MANIPULATION OF WAR FACTS DISGRACES U.S.

In a Sept. 25 opinion piece, Stephen O'Harrow made 10 points of comparison between the Vietnam War and the current conflict in Iraq. This self-styled "specialist on Vietnam" is now a specialist on Iraq and has cleverly twisted events past and present to make his points.

By weaving an intricate web of half-truths, misleading suppositions and revisionist history, he has come to the inescapable conclusion that President Bush has single-handedly led our country into the "greatest single blunder in our national history." That's quite a charge. But then O'Harrow's larder seems to be full of this kind of bombast.

Peppered throughout the article are anecdotal comments: Vietnamese shouting from the balconies, "We were on your side all the time" as the Commies roared into town; "For every jihadi killed there, they can recruit two new ones"; and so forth. Oh, yes, and it's those nasty Republicans like Nixon and Ford who were responsible for Vietnam.

The exit will be a bloody mess, he says. Well, perhaps so, but the whole thing started with a bloody mess in Kuwait, segued into 10 more years of a bloody Saddam and then to a great big bloody mess on Sept. 11.

Vietnam was a bloody mess and I personally saw plenty of it first hand in 1969 and 1970. Try as I might, I can find few similarities to the two conflicts, save one that stands out loud and clear. O'Harrow, Jane Fonda and the like (along with the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong) learned their lessons well during Vietnam and have honed their skills. Al-Qaida and their splinter groups follow the same template. That is to manipulate the media (and thus the public), undermine the United States military (and thus our fighting men and women in the field), then translate that into retreat and capitulation to terror.

The mantra from O'Harrow and the left rings clear: forget the facts and my country as long as I can bloody George Bush in the process. It's a bloody disgrace.

SCHOOLS

LET'S HELP STUDENTS SUCCEED

The Sept. 25 article "School board struggles with spending formula" is very typical of our public education system in Hawai'i. In addition to the challenges schools will face with budget realignments, there is a tidal wave of changes that will hit the public schools next fall.

Under the Reinventing Education Act of 2004, an omnibus education reform law that passed last year also known as Act 51, the Department of Education is poised to implement a new way of educating Hawai'i's children. Act 51 consists of a coordination of 13 state initiatives that implements comprehensive education reforms in Hawai'i's public schools. These reforms will significantly impact curriculum, performance standards, assessments and student programs.

Many results from these reforms will be positive although there also may be some consequences. Some existing programs and elective courses may be eliminated or scaled down in schools that cannot sustain them.

Much of the implementation process involves parents and community leaders as the key stakeholders in the accountability process. For too long many parents and community leaders have become complacent, leaving the education of our children in public schools to the "system" in hopes that all was well.

Countless statistics indicate that our "system" is failing and in need of reform. Many parents are unaware of the reforms that are planned for the schools their children attend. It is especially evident in secondary education when parental involvement tends to drop off.

Now more than ever, all stakeholders, especially parents, need to take an active role in their children's education from pre-kindergarten through the 12th grade. Take an active role in your school PTA, start a booster organization, offer to tutor students or donate a new book to the library.

Through the collective works of many individuals the success of schools is inevitable. We can't have our children in public schools "treading water" any longer.