DRUG TESTING

CONTRACT A VIOLATION OF TEACHERS' CIVIL LIBERTIES

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." So reads the 4th Amendment to the Constitution.

I didn't realize that when I joined the Hawaii State Teachers Association I authorized its leadership to negotiate this right away.

The new contract is a clear violation of our civil liberties and an overreaction to the sensationalized arrest of a couple of teachers and the self-righteous rantings of a few politicians.

The overwhelming majority of teachers are hardworking, law-abiding citizens who shouldn't have to bear the additional indignity of being labeled suspected drug users.

LEGISLATURE

IT IS NOT DIFFICULT TO DEFINE ANIMAL CRUELTY

Oh please, legislators, defining felony animal cruelty is not rocket science.

Forty-two other states have already done it.

Here are some hints: Kicking your dog once is maybe only a slimy thing to do, but kicking your dog hard enough or often enough to cause injury is — animal cruelty.

Trimming your dog's toenails is good, but cropping her ears at home, with scissors is — animal cruelty.

Starving your dog, drowning your dog, beating your dog to death is always animal cruelty.

See how easy that is? Do we want the Aloha State to be among a handful of backward states that don't recognize the seriousness of cruel behavior perpetrated against defenseless creatures, be they animal or human?

SELECTION SYSTEM

UH REGENT EDITORIAL MISSED 3 KEY POINTS

Your editorial of April 23, "Leaders must rethink regents selection plan," misses three important points.

In November, the voters amended the Constitution because the present regent selection system is not working properly because it is too politicized.

In 2000, the Constitution was amended to grant the University of Hawai'i autonomy and to give it an independent legal status separate from the state. As a direct consequence, UH is no longer a state agency and should not be governed as such with the governor appointing the governing board subject to Senate confirmation.

In 2004, the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges recommended to governors of all 50 states that nonpartisan advisory councils help select board of regents candidates. The governor could have created such a council with the stroke of the pen, by executive order, as did governors of several other states, and appoint all the members of the council. The governor chose not to do so.

The Legislature did follow the association's recommendation, and drafted legislation similar to SB 14. The association testified in favor and congratulated the Legislature for following its recommendation.

OCEAN POINTE

SPEEDING ON PARKWAY SPARKS SAFETY CONCERNS

I am a resident of Ocean Pointe in 'Ewa Beach.

I have witnessed on numerous occasions excessive speeding on the newly opened Kapolei Parkway, which cuts through the residential housing area of Ocean Pointe. An accident is inevitable if a traffic signal is not installed at the intersection of Kapolei Parkway and Keone'ula Boulevard.

I have witnessed and have personally come close to being hit by speeding cars as I have tried to merge onto Kapolei Parkway while driving my children to school.

I know that the cost of a traffic light can be $50,000 or more, but I believe that the lives of our family and friends are priceless.

ELECTIONS

GOV. LINGLE RIGHT TO VETO POPULAR VOTE BILL

Gov. Linda Lingle did the right thing vetoing the "popular vote" bill in the face of expensive full-page newspaper ads that encouraged support of the bill.

The U.S. Constitution established the Electoral College to protect the interests of the smaller states by granting them a proportionately larger number of presidential electoral votes than more populous states (eg., California, New York, etc.).

It scares me that a lobbying organization buys expensive ads that so blatantly misrepresent the truth. It scares me even more that the popular media aren't carefully following the money behind this effort.

BUSINESS

HIGH-TECHNOLOGY JOBS INCREASING, PAY WELL

Kudos for Advertiser reporter Sean Hao's April 24 story "1,328 new high-tech jobs for Hawai'i," which reported that Hawai'i ranked No. 4 in the country for high-tech job growth between 2000 and 2005. The ranking is from the recently released American Electronics Association annual survey.

The job-creation numbers more than triple when other sectors that were not part of the survey — biotechnology, alternative energy, film & digital media, ocean sciences and astronomy — are included. Those sectors have been fueled by Hawai'i's Act 221 tax incentives.

According to the Department of Taxation, Act 221 companies alone have created 4,234 jobs between 2000 and 2004. The Tax Department reports that in 2004, more than 100 Act 221 companies paid $118,990,775 in salaries and spent $258,325,431 in Hawai'i.

The AEA survey found that Hawai'i's high-tech jobs paid an average of more than $63,000 per year.

The Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism has produced similar data that found in 2005 the average salary in Hawai'i's science and technology research and development sectors to be $57,458.

As a parent, there is no question that I want my children to have the opportunity to work in these high-paying sectors without leaving home.

I suspect that most other parents in Hawai'i feel the same.

LEGISLATURE

PROCLAMATION BASED ON FAKERY, NOT HISTORY

Hawai'i history-twisters wrote a resolution making April 30 "Hawaiian Restoration Day."

HCR 82 says "in a proclamation dated Feb. 25, 1894, President Cleveland declared that 'April 30 [of every year] be set aside as a day of solemn fasting, and prayer for the injustice to me [President Grover Cleveland] and my great good sister [Queen Lili'uokalani] for her speedy return to the throne.'"

False! It's a fake proclamation — a sarcastic 1894 editorial against Cleveland. The history-twisters were informed last year of this, but went ahead. The Associated Press reported it as fact in dozens of newspapers!

Now, they're doing it again. My written testimony to a Senate committee last week proved the Cleveland proclamation is fake. But the committee passed HCR 82 unamended. Another propaganda circus is planned.

Do the facts matter?

KALAHEO

DANGEROUS SITUATION ON NEWLY PAVED ROAD

A big thank you to the city, after seven long years, for finally finishing the sewer/road project on Kalaheo Avenue in Kailua.

It's a relief to have the use of that road again. However, it never ceases to amaze me how projects around O'ahu never really hit the mark.

A City Charter amendment was passed last year to make our island more bike and pedestrian friendly. Kalaheo Avenue from Kailua Beach to 'Aikahi Park is a heavily traveled pedestrian and bike corridor. When the new pavement was laid down, it did not go all the way to the edge of the road, leaving a 1-inch lip of new pavement running down the middle of the "old" pavement. That makes it more dangerous and difficult to bike, jog or stroll.

What could have been a gold star for Kailua and an excellent bike path is instead a sorry situation that continues to ignore the fact that there are other ways to travel besides cars.

AVIATION

BLUE ANGELS AIR TEAM SHOULD VISIT HAWAI'I

A letter writer recently asked the Navy to call off the Blue Angels air show scheduled for later this year, concerned over the recent crash of a Navy Blue Angels jet in an air show.

If we were to follow the letter writer's logic, we would never travel by plane, bus, train, car or motorcycle. Aviation has proven safer than most modes of travel.

Our armed forces aviators are the best in the world. To call off the air show because of a single crash is absurd.

MIDEAST

U.S. MUST FIND WAY TO END FIGHTING IN IRAQ

The Advertiser on April 12 contained an article about Iraq with a description of a scene so awful it truly took my breath away. I had to stop reading, and instead gave my son a long hug and then went outside to look at the stars for awhile.

I doubt that a horror writer could have come up with such an image, yet here it was having actually happened.

The awful events at Virginia Tech have distracted us from the horrors of Iraq, but think about it — two, three, four times as many people die in Iraq every day, week after week, month after month, year after year. And as at Virginia Tech, each of those deaths is horrifying and painful and spreads its pain to the victim's family, friends and colleagues.

The U.S. lit this fire in Iraq with lies and distortions, and we fanned it with incompetence and nepotism.

Now our politicians give us two choices; send more troops to fan the flames some more (or move them around) or make like arsonists and leave.

There is a third choice. We need to decide that ending the fighting is our goal. We will have to negotiate with people we don't like and who don't like us, and we may to do things we don't want to do. But it's the only way the U.S. can get out of this mess with at least a fragment of dignity.

The killing of innocents has to stop.