ABERCROMBIE

NO EXCUSES, LET'S PASS HAWAIIAN HOUSING BILL

In the March 22 Honolulu Advertiser, Congressman Neil Abercrombie blames the Republicans for the failure of the Hawaiian Housing Bill in Congress.

Does he really think we are that stupid? I've been following the debate over all of our Native Hawaiian issues for years. Those of us who have the privilege of making Hawai'i our home have the utmost obligation to seek justice for our Native Hawaiians.

When the Democrats were in control of Congress in the early 1990s, they blamed the Republicans. Now that Congress is once again controlled by the Democrats, they are blaming the Republicans for this bill's failure.

Congressman Abercrombie, you're in the majority, stop making excuses and pass the housing bill for Native Hawaiians.

LEGISLATURE

BILLS TO HELP NURSING EDUCATION HAVE STALLED

We are all aware of the nationwide nursing shortage causing critical problems in the healthcare system. Hawai'i is no exception. It is estimated that, by 2020, 61 percent of Hawai'i's current nursing workforce will have retired without a correlating influx of new nurses.

Hence, it is alarming to even imagine the shortage of nurses we will have in 2020 if this trend continues.

Many people attribute the current shortage of nurses to a general lack of interest in the nursing profession. Others attribute the shortage to the increasing number of physicians moving out of the state. However, it appears that a major problem lies in the fact that there is also a shortage of people who are qualified and willing to teach and train future nurses here in Hawai'i.

It was a relief to hear that the governor had proposed HB 1351 and SB 1437. These bills are aimed at establishing and funding a statewide nursing consortium that will be responsible for planning, implementing and evaluating programs designed to support nursing education, with a specialized emphasis on geriatric nursing.

Unfortunately, the governor's bills have stalled in the Legislature. These two bills reflect the governor's focus on higher education and its importance in improving Hawai'i's future, not only in healthcare but for the general welfare of all Hawai'i residents. I hope that the Legislature will support such measures.

SIDEWALKS

ALA WAI BIKE RIDERS ROUTINELY BREAK LAW

I live on the Ala Wai across from where the pipes are now taking up the sidewalk and know what the person who had the accident was referring to (Letters, March 22).

Almost daily, when walking my dogs, I am confronted by "hell-bent" bike riders who do not even say "excuse me." Most do not have lights in the front or back of their bikes as they think they own the sidewalk, which they do not.

If police want to enforce the law and make some money for the city, hide in the bushes at Nahua and the Ala Wai as they are doing at the old Tower Records location at Ke'eaumoku and Makaloa. I have seen them more than once jumping out of the bushes and tagging cars for intersection/crosswalk infractions (that's good).

UH FOOTBALL

IT'S DIFFICULT TO RENEW WHEN ALL GAMES NOT SET

University of Hawai'i football fans are upset that Athletic Director Herman Frazier has not produced a final, complete schedule for the fall 2007 season. There are two slots that need to be filled. How can people renew their season tickets when they don't know the schedule for the home games?

What makes it more irritating is that UH has a highly touted quarterback, Colt Brennan, who is being groomed for the Heisman Trophy.

The quality of the teams he plays against will sway how voters perceive him. So far, UH, a Division 1-A school, has one Division 1-AA team on its schedule. If a second is also scheduled, it will not count toward the wins required to play in a bowl game, so it's like throwing a game away.

As time marches on, however, fewer Division 1-A teams will be available.

There's now a groundswell of opposition, and calls for Frazier's firing are being heard.

Sometimes, you need a nudge to find a more suitable niche in life.

MIDEAST

BRING OUR TROOPS HOME FROM WAR ZONE IN IRAQ

"An army abroad is but a small service unless there be a wise administration at home." Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

Please bring our loved ones home from Iraq.

TRANSIT

DJOU RIGHT TO QUESTION PLANS FOR NEW SYSTEM

Mayor Mufi Hannemann wants $4.1 million to set up an office to run the rail system, although he has yet to choose a system to build.

Mayor Hannemann convinced the City Council to raise the general excise tax on O'ahu to fund the rail system, but now wants to spend at least $1 million for further study of what the impact of a system would be on other city operations.

At the same time, Bill Brennan (Letters, March 21) accuses Councilman Charles Djou of stonewalling the plan to build the rail system. Once again, Mayor Mufi is attempting to blame someone else for what is his responsibility. He is also about to waste taxpayer dollars on yet another study for a project that has been over-studied for the past 40 years with nothing to show for it.

Councilman Djou has every right to question what the mayor and his administration are doing. If Mr. Djou does not ask the serious questions, then it appears no one will.

The citizens of O'ahu deserve to know the answers. In fact, we all should demand the answers before another dollar is wasted on a project that may never be built.

RECENT PARKING WOES HIGHLIGHT ROUTE ISSUE

Your article (March 23) about the problems finding a parking place at the airport during spring break highlight the utter stupidity of the recent City Council vote to skip rapid transit to our airport in favor of Councilman Romy Cachola's district of Salt Lake.

We must demand another vote on this most vital issue and do it right.

Our airport and university must be served. Salt Lake should not trump all of O'ahu.

JUDICIAL APPOINTMENT

SEN. HEE DID HIS JOB IN CONFIRMATION PROCESS

The Senate, at both the state and national levels, has the grave duty of confirming executive and judicial appointments. The confirmation process ensures that qualified appointees serve the people.

An example of the process gone wrong is the U.S. Senate's largely party-line confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as president Bush's attorney general. Reports on Gonzales' role in the administration's use of torture on terrorist suspects barely raised a bump in the Senate's rubberstamp approval in 2005.

His unfitness for the position is becoming increasingly clear as he clumsily defends the Bush administration's dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys who did not play political ball.

The Hawai'i Senate, through its constitutional duty to advise and consent on key gubernatorial appointments, protects the people of Hawai'i from rubberstamp confirmations. That is why we should thank Senate Judiciary Chairman Clayton Hee for thoroughly scrutinizing the nomination of deputy prosecutor Glenn Kim to the Circuit Court bench.

It is easy to testify for someone's appointment, but very difficult to question it in the glare of television camera lights and when the powerful news media take a contrary position.

In our culture that prizes everyone paddling the canoe in the same direction, it takes courage to publicly challenge a gubernatorial appointment.

Senator Hee could have easily taken the other route and been a nice guy in rubberstamping Kim's appointment, but he rose to fulfill his constitutional duty to ensure that judges, with their broad discretionary power in applying the law, have the judicial temperament to serve the people with respect and compassion.

Senator Hee did his job. The public expects no less from any of its public employees.

HANSON COMMENTARY

PERSIANS BELIEVED IN TOLERANCE AND TRUTH

In his March 22 commentary about the Spartan hold-off of the Persian army ("Is '300' historically factual or inaccurate?"), Victor Davis Hanson concludes, "Only in Greece was there a constant tradition of unfettered expression ... such openness was found nowhere else ... freedom of expression explains why we rightly consider the ancient Greeks as the founders of our ... civilization ... far more like us than the enemy who ultimately failed to conquer them."

Oh really? Uniquely, it was the Persian kings who promoted religious tolerance amongst their subjects, allowing conquered Jews, Babylonians, Egyptians and Greeks freedom of worship (contrast that with the Romans). Most of the Persian kings also maintained a no-slave policy revolutionary for that age. This openness is why the Persian King Cyrus is the only gentile who was designated a messiah (a divinely appointed king) in the Old Testament.

I find them rather like us, hopefully. On the other hand, the ancient Persians considered the truth so important that a lie was, in some cases, punishable by death.

On that basis, given Dr. Hanson's record, maybe they didn't have so much in common with us, after all.

MUNICIPAL FACILITIES

LEEWARD GOLF COURSES HAVE BEEN IMPROVED

Over the past few weeks, I had the opportunity to golf at the three Leeward municipal golf courses. Although these golf courses are not up to par with the private ones, I was encouraged to see recent improvements.

The greens of the Ted Makalena Golf Course are in top shape after being converted to the tough, salt-tolerant Paspalum grass. The bare spots of many fairways are getting greener with the installation of their new irrigation system.

Many of the greens at the West Loch and 'Ewa Villages Golf Courses are also being converted to the Paspalum grass and the putts are running truer. The large number of wiliwili trees killed by the wasps have been removed and the heavy overgrowth of bushes has been tended to.

While there are many more improvements to be made, hats off to the staff of the Leeward municipal golf courses for making these recent ones. Your pride in maintaining these golf courses is obvious.