RECRUITS

ARMY IS LUCKY TO HAVE PFC. CLAYTON BEAVER

What a great story on Clayton Beaver, the 40-year-old new Army recruit who is now doing so well (Page One, Nov. 22).

The Army is lucky to have him. Guys like him who bloom a little late are usually the best bloomers and stay shining for a long time.

He has found direction, has lots of energy to put into it and will not let anything stand in his way.

He seems great with people and that goes a long way. His rough past will only benefit him more. He defends the homeland, God bless him.

ECONOMY

DATA SHOW ISLES GOOD PLACE TO DO BUSINESS

For years we've heard that Hawai'i is a bad place to do business. But if that really is the case, how do we account for the following?

Outrigger has just invested more than $400 million in its new Waikiki Beach Walk; Nordstrom is about to open its 400,000-square-foot department store, one of its largest nationwide; Starbucks keeps opening stores, with now more than 70; Whole Foods is coming with four stores: Walgreen plans 30-plus stores; Target is coming with four stores.

One has to believe the big boys, with their sophisticated research, know a good thing when they see it.

But what about the little and medium-sized businesses? How do they see Hawai'i as a place to do business?

That picture seems pretty wholesome, too, when you look at new-business formations. At random, I took three issues of a local business publication and found the following numbers of new businesses recorded weekly with the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs: Aug. 31, 240 new businesses; Sept. 26, 211 new businesses; and Oct. 26, 236 new businesses.

If those numbers are correct, that means thousands of new businesses are being started annually in Hawai'i. All of these facts hardly make Hawai'i seem like a bad place to do business.

I have owned four small businesses in Hawai'i. When they did well, it was because of me. When they didn't perform well, it was because of me. It wasn't the state, or regulation, or whatever.

ACLU

WHERE'S PROBABLE CAUSE IN DRUG TESTING?

If the ACLU has an agenda, it is that of the Founding Fathers, who fought a revolution to secure the very rights Ben Clinger (Letter, Nov. 20) would so eagerly relinquish. If that's to be characterized as progressive, so be it. I actually think it's quite conservative.

What the ACLU is doing is fighting to preserve one of our fundamental rights from further government encroachment and circumscription, an all-too-present danger in this post 9/11 world.

Mr. Clinger claims to have read the Constitution, but he must have skipped over the Bill of Rights, in particular the Fourth Amendment, which states, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause." Where's the probable cause, Mr. Clinger, in random drug testing? There is none. It paints all teachers with the same ignominious brush of suspicion.

I, a proud and drug-free teacher, applaud the ACLU for taking up this cause, especially after the quislings who make up the HSTA leadership abdicated their responsibility in this most critical of issues.

Mr. Clinger can surrender his basic liberties if he likes, but as for me, I stand with Ben Franklin who once wrote, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

ALOHA FROM COLORADO

PRIMO STORY SPARKS FOND MEMORIES OF ISLES

I read the Nov. 18 article about Primo Beer making a comeback. What a hoot. I was in the TV commercial for Primo back in the early 1980s. I can still remember the jingle, even though I moved away from the 'aina in 1989.

My pu'uwai is still there, and I remember my 20 years in Honolulu as I attended and graduated from the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

I now live in Boulder, Colo., where I teach hula kahiko and hula 'auana. There are many ex-Hawaiians living in Colorado.

I miss you all. Me ke aloha pumehana.

DRIVER'S LICENSE

HAS GOOD VISION, BUT STILL FAILED CITY'S TEST

Comments made by Loren Lee (Letter, Nov. 9) and Harold G. Loomis (Letter, Nov. 19) regarding a specific fault with the city driver's license test are well taken. They call attention to the fact that the city test has been viewed by the general driving public for years as being flawed and unfair in more than one way.

City Director of Customer Services Jeff Coelho's response to the comments made by Loren Lee and Harold G. Loomis merely implied that the test is good because the same standards of vision measurement are widely used on the Mainland.

I call upon Mr. Coelho to explain the following actual situation involving my experience with the city's test: Though I have excellent far vision without the use of glasses and can read the finest-size print with ease using glasses, I failed the city test. With and without glasses I found the entire test tape screen to be blurred; I was not able to recognize a single character.

A test of my vision made by an optometrist soon after found that my vision results were well within the requirements for driving. I had my driver's license renewed using the optometrist results.

Having failed the city test once before, I had written to the city's department of licensing pointing out flaws with the test. The city spokesperson at the time replied with this gold-plated answer, "That's what the DOT (Department of Transportation) said to use."

THEBUS

'AINA HAINA CHANGES REFLECT RIDERSHIP DATA

Lee Cataluna's Nov. 20 column, "What's to like about bus plan?" misleads readers into focusing on a small portion of Route 1 instead of looking at the entire improvement plan. Making adjustments is sometimes painful when ridership does not justify the level of bus service. But our bus system has to adjust to changes in traffic, population and ridership.

TheBus now carries 225,000 daily passenger trips on 525 buses. Route 1 is our largest route and serves customers between Kalihi and Hawai'i Kai. Our ridership data indicate there are about 24,000 daily passengers on Route 1, including about 160 'Aina Haina passengers.

Currently, we route 134 bus trips through 'Aina Haina and another 72 trips that pass on Kalanian'ole. This level of service is greater than other communities with greater ridership. After the change, 'Aina Haina's service will be similar to service provided to Maunalani, St. Louis, 'Alewa and Pacific Heights and many other communities.

The Route 1 changes will provide major improvements in reliability and effectiveness for most riders. Our goals are to eliminate bus bunching, provide faster service, increase ridership and provide a level of service appropriate to the ridership and population. Far from cutting service, we are adding almost $2 million of new service in December geared to areas with the most overcrowded routes.

Ms. Cataluna states no one told residents of the East Honolulu plan until it was finalized. This is not true. Between April and July, the Department of Transportation Services conducted seven community meetings where the proposed changes were discussed. Meetings were publicized by handing out fliers on buses and by posting signs on area bus stops.

Finally, it is inappropriate of Ms. Cataluna to associate the unfortunate death of an elderly man trying to cross Kalanian'ole in a nonsignalized intersection in Wailupe with changes to bus services in 'Aina Haina. We designed our 'Aina Haina community circulator service so as to minimize the need to cross Kalanian'ole Highway.