UH PRESIDENT

MCCLAIN HAS HANDLED POSITION SUCCESSFULLY

I disagree with Mark Valencia's recent negative comments (Letter, Jan. 23) about the president of the University of Hawai'i.

David McClain's spirit and demeanor are the epitome of the successes that UH has enjoyed all across the board. His leadership and inspiration have captured the hearts and souls of past and present students and alumni, and he has become a cornerstone and icon for this great institution.

Thank you, Mr. McClain, for stepping forward and tackling your demanding assignment in such a successful and humble way, and keeping UH on the upper cutting edge of the academic and athletic arenas.

VOTING

PUBLIC FINANCING BETTER WAY TO GO IN ELECTIONS

I think Richard Rowland, advocating to keep "government on a tight leash," (Letter, Jan. 14) has entirely missed the point of publicly financed elections.

We pay a much higher price for special-interest funded elections, through favors and legislated giveaways than we would for publicly financing elections.

Kick lobbyists to the curb and encourage new candidates to represent us. Voter-owned elections would promote private-sector individuals to run for office, the very outcome Mr. Rowland desires.

TRANSIT

PUSH TO RAIL IS, INDEED, SOCIAL ENGINEERING

In his Jan. 4 Island Voices column, urban planner Jeff Merz says sarcastically that we would have citizens believe that rail transit is being forced upon people "by some sinister, liberty-robbing, social-engineering bureaucracy."

You are darn right, Mr. Merz, many of us ordinary citizens do believe just that — and with good reason.

The dictionary tells us social-engineering is "the management of human beings in accordance with their place and function in society." In other words, manipulating our behavior using government regulation according to how planners believe we should live, rather than letting the free market demonstrate how we, as individuals, want to live.

Let's start with the urban planning bureaucracy's efforts to restrict highway building, and thus our use of automobiles, in favor of public transportation. This despite the fact that the use of public transportation is declining locally, nationally and in developed countries everywhere, never mind how much money is thrown at it. That is social-engineering.

For example, our local planning bureaucracy has devised a transportation plan through 2030 that will spend 60 percent of the total state and city transportation budgets on public transportation even though it will carry only 5 percent of trips. Conversely, they plan to spend only 40 percent on roads and highways when they account for 95 percent of all trips — and, in addition, the overwhelming number of public transportation trips that will still be carried by buses on highways, even with rail.

Such distorted spending is also social engineering.

LICENSE REVOCATION

NOT EVERYONE ALLOWED TO HAVE SECOND CHANCE

The governor pardoned seven people. Why can't people who got their driver's licenses taken away for life and have stayed clean and sober for more than 10 years and have not gotten in any trouble for more than 10 years also have a second chance in life?

She vetoed their chance of having the privilege of having their second chance in life.

TEACHERS

BOE'S DRUG TESTING VOTE NOT UNANIMOUS

Here we go again.

Just to set the record straight, there was no unanimous vote from Board of Education members on the teacher random drug-testing issue.

There are 13 members on the board, and only seven were present at the general meeting.

Six of us could not make it because it was changed at the last minute to the fourth Thursday of the month instead of our scheduled third Thursday.

Inclusiveness seems to be a problem with the new leadership of the board.

Please stay tuned when we meet on the third Thursday of February, when this will be discussed again.

TIME FOR BOE, HSTA TO START GIVING BACK

Donna Ikeda and the Board of Education want us to believe the money needed for drug testing would be better spent on something else for the classroom.

Like what? We hear this every year, yet nothing gets added to our classrooms. Our teachers make more and more money, get more and more days off, but as far as improving our classrooms, zero.

It's time for the HSTA to put up or fold up.

We've weathered strikes from them and constant complaints about what they don't have. Well, they've now got the high salaries and they've got the days off. It's time for HSTA and the BOE to start giving back.

Forget the ACLU and just start doing your job. A better job. You claim to hide behind the right to privacy. How about our children's right to a decent and safe education? Wake up, Hawai'i. Pretty soon it's time to vote.

EDUCATION

WHEN WILL THERE BE CHANGES AT DOE, BOE?

A successful coach leaves due to substandard facilities, absent leadership and an inattentive management that failed to allow the program to meet its potential.

Note that the university's final letter addresses June Jones' concerns, where five of seven points are related to leadership and management and only two to money.

Jones walked, the community reacted and within days heads were rolling.

The same issues of substandard facilities, lack of maintenance or upgrade plan, and an obtuse statewide school district plague our public schools, despite per-student expenditures right at the national average, according to NEA statistics.

Parents have walked away from the public school system for the significant financial hardship of private schools or the rigors of home schooling, or they even leave our state, all in an effort to avoid our public schools.

When will the BOE and DOE experience the dramatic and necessary changes that the University of Hawai'i has?

BEAUTIFICATION

IT'S WASTEFUL TO SPEND $4 MILLION ON KAHEKILI

Not everyone in Kane'ohe supports the wasting of more than $4 million to beautify Kahekili Highway.

Yes, it is ugly. No, the state's project to spend more than $4 million will not succeed.

I have lived in Hawai'i nearly 50 years (most of it in Kane'ohe) and I have never seen a public roadway beautification with landscaping succeed. Why? Because in Hawai'i any kind of planting takes an enormous amount of maintenance.

I have seen both the city and the state attempt these projects over and over. Not one has succeeded, because once in place they are ignored and become weed patches or worse.

A better and free solution is to simply lift your eyes up from the roadway and gaze upon the majestic Ko'olau mountains.

Nobody is going to mess up that view (so long as government doesn't allow some developer to block the view or plant big trees that will do the same). The Ko'olau are clearly visible now over the entire distance of this misguided beautification project.

RECYCLING

CITY NOT DOING ALL IT CAN TO PUSH RECYCLING

In response to Mufi Hannemann's claim that he is trying to do everything he can to obviate the need for a landfill: More than 70 percent of O'ahu voted for a comprehensive curbside recycling program on the Charter amendment in 2006, after Hannemann killed plans for curbside recycling.

The pilot program has only begun recently in three communities to evaluate its effectiveness.

However, the only thing being evaluated is the willingness of some people to take the initiative and responsibility to care about the environment. No evidence exists, anywhere, that questions the effectiveness and necessity of a comprehensive curbside recycling program.

Successful curbside recycling programs operate in more than 10,000 cities nationwide. Honolulu is the largest city in the country without a curbside program.

Mandate recycling and fine those who choose not to, it is not a choice that we can afford.

Mufi has ignored 70 percent of O'ahu and the law; he is not doing everything he can. Just because Mufi is the one in charge, we as a community must not use his negligence as an excuse for being terribly irresponsible.

Let's do our part by reducing our waste and being conscious consumers. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

CHALLENGE TO STORES TO END DISPOSABLE BAGS

About a year ago, I bought two reusable grocery bags that were less than $2 each.

Since then, I have refused disposable plastic bags. That is two visits a week to the grocery store and three plastic bags a visit, resulting in 312 fewer plastic bags blowing around O'ahu, Maui or Lana'i, wrapped around coral reefs, around turtles' necks, and in the dumps.

While in Tahiti just over a year ago, my wife and I bought some groceries. When we did not have bags, we were charged $1.25 for a bag that could be used for over a year as well.

So I have to ask Foodland, Safeway, Times, Longs, Star Market, Tamura's and every market why they are buying and footing the cost for trash that is seen around our beautiful Islands when they can set a standard.

Can Hawai'i do away with disposable plastic bags without government telling us to do so?

IN MEMORIAM

DOC MCKINNEY — A HEART FILLED WITH JOY AND LOVE

Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there, to serve some sort of purpose.

You never know who these people may be, but when you lock eyes with them you know at that very moment they will affect your life in some profound way. "Doc" McKinney was that person. Doc's death should not be unnoticed.

Doc had a heart filled with joy and love that was true. He was trustworthy and faithful, and was always there to help people.

I had the opportunity and privilege to work with Doc for more than 25 years. He was a man of high morals, and had the highest standards of ethical conduct of any veterinarian that I have worked with in the livestock industry for more than 50 years.

Many people, and especially those in the Hawai'i agricultural and livestock industries, were blessed to have Doc come into their lives.

He contributed so much that benefited Hawai'i's people.

Doc is a very special person and even though he may have "passed" from this Earth, he will always remain in our hearts.