HAMAKUA MARSH

IS THERE KINDER, GENTLER WAY TO CONTROL DUCKS?

Isn't there a kinder (if not necessarily easier or cheaper) way of implementing population control among the Hamakua Marsh ducks than shooting them?

Couldn't the mallard and muscovy ducks be captured, the males neutered (possibly by some expert avian vet willing to donate his/her time) and then released back into their habitat?

Alternatively, might it not be possible for the Department of Land and Natural Resources to round up the miscreants and offer them for adoption to anyone willing to care for them?

Since the dozen ducks referred to in Eloise Aguilar's Advertiser article on Sept. 20, have already met their doom, I hope at least the meat was given to some local food program or homeless shelter, so that a minimum of useful good may have been salvaged from their slaughter.

BOX OFFICE

STADIUM WILL HELP FANS WHO CAN'T TAKE STAIRS

In response to Sandra Conrad's letter to the editor on Sept. 27:

Aloha Stadium and the Interscholastic League of Honolulu have been working very hard to limit the operating costs of high school football games. One of the changes this season is the closure of satellite box offices.

The main box office has been designated as the official location to purchase tickets for the 2008 ILH football season. If guests attending ILH games are unable to make their way down the steps to purchase tickets at the main box office, a stadium representative will be sent to the turnstile gate to assist them.

We encourage persons with disabilities to request assistance from ushers, who will then arrange for assistance.

The ILH has communicated these new procedures to their schools. We have also posted signs at turnstile gates informing guests of the new procedures and are looking into additional ways to notify our guests.

On behalf of Aloha Stadium, please accept our apology for the inconvenience to the Conrad 'Ohana at the Punahou-Kamehameha game on Sept. 26. We hope they will continue to support ILH by attending future events.

TEACHERS

IMPORTANT FOR SCHOOLS TO BE DRUG-FREE AREAS

I served in the military for more than 20 years and was employed in the airline industry for 15 years.

In both careers, I was subjected to random drug testing. I never felt my constitutional rights were being violated since I am convinced that personal responsibility is not a check rigid enough to prevent individuals from takings drugs while performing their duty.

If there is another system that would guarantee a drug-free environment in places that must be drug free without infringing on our rights, let us hear about it.

We must sacrifice some of our individual freedom for the sake of a greater freedom.

Let them monitor my phone calls if it leads to dismantling an al-Qaida cell. Let them monitor my e-mail if it would prevent a predator from preying on a 13-year-old.

What have you got to hide? Shaping young minds who will eventually shape the future of humanity is not a concern grave enough for some people that it would outweigh the expression of their individual rights. Where are we headed?

FINANCIAL CRISIS

BAILOUT COULD RAISE RISK OF BOND MARKET CRASH

Many of us oppose Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's bailout for reasons not mentioned in the media, and we are not "nihilists" or "madmen" as some hysterical New York Times columnists claimed Monday.

Rather, we oppose it because we fear it could significantly increase the risk of a bond market crash, which would be orders of magnitude worse than a mere stock market crash.

A bond market crash driven by a gross oversupply of U.S. government debt would result in skyrocketing interest rates across the board on all adjustable-rate debt and all newly originated fixed-rate debt. Government, corporate and consumer borrowing costs would increase across the board, slowing the economy from both the demand and supply sides, and resulting in a stock market crash that would make Monday's crash appear just a blip by comparison, and a potential depression.

The bond market is the more significant and consequential component of our financial system. The true risk to our economy and our way of life is our government's management, or mismanagement, of the bond market, not the stock market.

Paulson's $700 billion bailout bill (likely more, due to loopholes in the language) drastically increases that risk.

AS USUAL, ORDINARY PEOPLE ARE THE VICTIMS

According to John McCain, the financial crisis has come about because of the greed of Wall Street financiers. We should not be surprised. If human beings are left to their own devices, greed will surely rear its ugly head.

"Let the marketplace decide" has been the mantra of Republican ideology and much of Democratic economic policy for years, as if the marketplace, an abstraction, can possibly possess a human capability to make choices.

Left to its own devices, the marketplace will be ruled by greed — it is inevitable.

But the real culprit behind the current crisis is a deregulated marketplace, and John McCain has clearly been a champion of deregulation throughout his political career. Would that we might hear him own up to his own complicity in this crisis.

The irony is that a Republican president, who, along with John McCain, has also championed deregulation and privatization, is now calling for the public ownership of financial institutions.

The president's proposal smacks of socialism — heaven forbid. I am not opposed to the public ownership of needed social institutions.

Yet, it seems strange to me that when it comes to Wall Street institutions such a deal can be worked out in a matter of days, whereas for years and years any thought of a single-payer system of healthcare administered by the government has been a taboo subject.

As usual, the real victims of the current financial crisis and the morally bankrupt health system that has been in place for decades are the ordinary folk who were persuaded to buy into high-risk mortgage schemes and who now must go into debt to the tune of $2,300 for every man, woman and child, so that Wall Street can continue to do business. One can only hope that it will not be business as usual.