SENATE RACE

RETAIN LEADERS WITH RESPECT, SENIORITY

Rep. Ed Case cites "transition" as a reason to vote for him. Succession planning principles expose flaws in his position. Commitment to the office ensures continuity and seniority-building. Ed Case has shown no commitment to any office, having run for three different offices in six years.

He cited seniority in his race for the U.S. House, but has since abandoned that office. Effective leadership is essential for a successor leader. In his short three-year tenure in Congress and his time in the state House, Ed Case has shown no ability to inspire or to lead. None of his colleagues in his own party supports him, and he brings no record of accomplishment. Common sense calls for retention of respected leaders who continue to deliver value through their seniority and respect. Because of his seniority as a ranking member of the Veteran Affairs Committee, Sen. Dan Akaka incorporated an amendment into the immigration reform bill that will help reunify Filipino World War II veterans and their families. Ed Case failed to advocate his bill for these veterans.

Finally, a novice does not anoint himself as the new leader. Ed Case's "transition" is simply arrogant ambition.

JUDGE AKAKA ON HIS RECORD, NOT HIS AGE

I have watched the discussion of Sen. Akaka's age over the past few weeks and it seems that Rep. Ed Case feels the need to undermine his House predecessors' basic premise about age, disability and gender discrimination.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. If we are going to judge Sen. Akaka, we should do it on his record not his age.

I am sure that if Rep. Case had attacked on the basis of disability or gender, we would be outraged. Our forefathers in the U.S. Congress were wise enough to know that age also was not something that should be discriminated against.

MILITARY

WATADA FOLLOWING LAW, EXERCISING HIS RIGHTS

In response to Mike Gordon's article on some Japanese-American veterans objecting to Lt. Watada's refusal to deploy to Iraq (Aug. 22), we ask: What is a U.S. soldier's accountability to the rule of law in time of a pre-emptive war by the U.S. that violates U.S. commitments to Articles 41, 42, and 51 of the U.N. charter, eight of the guarantees in the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the U.S. War Powers Act of 1973?

We all agree that we must defend our nation when the country is under attack or threatened with armed aggression by another nation or extra-governmental force. But if another nation has not attacked the U.S., must military officers give unthinking obedience to orders made illegal by violations of international law?

Loyalty to the rule of U.S. law and U.S. commitments to international agreements is the essence of loyalty to the United States. Lt. Watada is simply exercising the very rights, freedoms and sense of accountability to the law that members of the 442nd Regiment so gallantly fought to protect for all of us. We should support Lt. Watada for following his moral compass and the law.

SPORTS

UH FOOTBALL PROGRAM TOO COMMERCIALIZED

Those concerned with how commercialized University of Hawai'i sports have become were further distressed this week when we learned we will not be able to watch UH home football games on a broadcast channel on the same day, and when it was joyously reported that the UH football program will net about a half million dollars by playing Alabama next week.

Santa Clara University canceled its football program because it was using too many resources. The University of Chicago did the same thing in 1939. The Stanford University football program become so commercialized in the 1990s that advertising banners ringed the stadium. Only intervention by the university president could get the constant bleat of advertising removed from the public address system and the sides of the stadium.

UH is reported to be spending about $1,666 per person for the football team's trip to Alabama, far more than we taxpayers spend for a brief visit to the Mainland.

It is not enough to send the roster of 60 players, but the football program finds it necessary to send an additional 32 people. For every two players, the football program reportedly finds it necessary to send one coach or trainer or hanger-on.

The latest popular ranking of colleges in America shows that UH is a third-ranked school academically. Multiple millions of dollars spent on football each year likely has reduced academic quality — as commercialized collegiate football did decades ago at Chicago, as it did at Santa Clara University in 1993, as it almost did at Stanford in 1998.

HAWAI'I COIN

QUARTER SHOULD DEPICT DUKE RIDING A WAVE

The article "Quarter For Your Thoughts" (Aug. 24) sets forth five design themes selected by the Hawai'i Commemorative Quarter Advisory Commission as a guide for a "special state coin."

One design depicts a surfer on a longboard with Diamond Head in the background. That is a great theme, but needs one important modification. The surfer depicted on that wave needs to be "The Duke" (i.e., Duke Kahanamoku).

A depiction of The Duke surfing off Waikiki would represent Hawai'i's sense of place (surfing, beautiful weather and ocean, gentle trade winds, and Waikiki) and appeal to our world visitors. More importantly, it would put forth our ambassador of aloha, Duke Kahanamoku, and all that he represented — aloha, hospitality, courage, strength, determination, aloha 'aina, traditional Hawaiian culture, etc.

We should be so lucky as to have the father of modern surfing and an Olympic gold medal swimming champion riding a wave off Waikiki on our state coin.