OIA HURTING REST OF THE STATE WITH CUTS

I was very disappointed in the recently announced state tournament cuts by the HHSAA board. As a student-athlete, I was saddened when they announced the cuts, especially since it hurts the chances of many athletes to make it to the big stage, yet I recognized its purpose in saving money during these tough economic conditions.

However, my opinion changed from sadness to anger and disappointment after I heard that most of the cuts were proposed by OIA athletic directors. As people may or may not know, the OIA subsidizes state tournament costs for its participating teams. They made many of these proposals because of the DOE-ordered budget cuts. However, instead of cutting costs by cutting the number of slots in the state tournament, the OIA could have eliminated their practice of subsidizing and ordered their teams to find a way to pay for state tournament costs. How might these teams be able to pay? By doing it in the same way all other teams in the state do it — fundraise.

Please stop hurting the rest of the state, OIA. You already have the most number of state tournament berths. No need to cut everyone else's by solving your own problem.

Ryan Lau | Honolulu

BUDGET CUTS

FURLOUGHS WON'T STOP STATE SERVICES

Aside from the fact that the unions must also make wage and benefit sacrifices for the next two years, please note:

You will be able to access unemployment benefit information, health services, certificates and licenses, property searches, etc. To suggest otherwise is misleading and a disservice to the public. Our governor has made it clear furloughs cannot be used as an excuse for poor service to the public.

Anne Niethammer | Honolulu

HEALTH CARE

EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE 'PUBLIC OPTION'

I watch in utter bewilderment as every Republican congressperson lines up at microphones to denounce the "public option." The "public option" is the outstanding health care plan that they have and is available to every federal employee. As a federal employee, I signed up for the "public option" and chose Kaiser from among many choices available in the early '60s.

For the nearly 50 years I've had the "public option" I've wished that everyone in America could have the health care I have. How the Republicans could denounce their wonderful health care plan and do their damnedest to prevent others from having access to it and still sleep at night is beyond me.

Rick Lloyd | Honolulu

SENATE BILL 1350

AFFORDABLE HOUSING: COLLABORATION KEY

Senate Bill 1350 will increase the "reserved" housing requirement for any kind of development in Kaka'ako. In the discussions, "affordable" is often used in place of "reserved" but the two words are not totally equivalent. "Affordable" sounds nicer.

People have told me, "Yeah, Kamehameha and General Growth should be forced to build more affordable housing."

What's lost in this is that Central Kaka'ako is made up of small landowners who will be adversely impacted by this bill. These small landowners do not have the resources to overcome this kind of impact.

Will Senate Bill 1350 help solve the "affordable" housing problem? If passing a law mandating "reserved" housing could solve the problem, then the "affordable" housing problem should have been solved long ago.

Senate Bill 1350 should be vetoed and instead, there should be a collaboration between the communities, the state, and the city to come up with creative solutions to solve the "affordable" housing program where everyone comes out a winner.

Dexter Okada | Kaka'ako

ROAD SAFETY

THE GAP BETWEEN CONCERN AND LAWS

I have been wondering why, if Hawai'i is so concerned about its motorists, motorcycle/moped riders are allowed to drive without protective helmets (I thought there is a law on this).

Also, if Hawai'i is concerned about safety of motorists, how come people are allowed to ride in the back of pickup trucks? (I've read of incidents of fatalities of pickup truck riders more than once.) Yet Hawai'i is so concerned about seat belts.

There seems to be some conflicting objectives on this.

Kini Olegario | Honolulu

STREAM DUMPING

ENVIROWATCH GOT THE WHEELS TURNING

On Thursday, June 11, Carroll Cox of EnviroWatch showed us how the endangered Hawaiian stilt was losing his little stream (Ma'i li'ili) as the city and county had been dumping trash for the past two years.

Next day the city promised to investigate. Then on Saturday we saw all those hardworking men cleaning up the mess. The wheels don't always turn slowly.

Hooray for EnviroWatch!

Barbara Ikeda | Mililani