HAWAIIAN GRAMMY

CATALUNA SHOULD FOCUS CRITICISM ON SYSTEM

Lee Cataluna will undoubtedly ruffle some feathers in the community with her scathing remarks about Tia Carrere, but she should have focused her attention on the problems with the award itself instead of writing this sensationalist piece.

Quite frankly, the Grammy awards have turned into an over-hyped popularity contest. The system in which awards are given is flawed, as it allows any member of the academy to vote in any category it wishes. This turns the award into a name-recognition award, also known as a popularity contest. Let's not demean the artist who won the award. Let's just be truthful about what the award really is.

It's time to be honest about this award by not giving it so much value, and remember that the best award a musician can ever receive is the admiration of a listener who is moved by what is created. I believe there are people who admire and respect Carrere's music, and that's her true award as a musician.

SCHOOL SCORES

SAT IS A CRITICAL STEP FOR STUDENTS, THE STATE

Regarding the Feb. 6 article entitled "School spending up in Hawai'i but scores down, study says": It is disappointing to hear Hawai'i's low ranking dismissed as meaningless on one hand, and used as an excuse to cut educational spending on another.

The SAT is a critical step for Hawai'i's students to get to college, and Hawai'i's employers and communities benefit when youth are prepared to succeed in higher education. How Hawai'i's students score on the SAT and other college admissions tests has a big impact not only on the lives of individual students and their families, but ultimately on the future economic health of our state.

There is also little evidence in the study to support the claim that increased educational spending is incapable of increasing those test scores.

At College Connections Hawai'i, we have found that spending a few hundred dollars per student to offer SAT preparation courses does make a meaningful difference in both scores and in acceptance rates to four-year universities. Yet while education funding may have risen in Hawai'i overall in the past few years, specific funding for SAT preparation has been cut rather than increased.

Improving the SAT scores of Hawai'i's youth is a worthy and important goal. It is also a goal that we can achieve, as long as we as a state are willing to commit resources to that task.

VOTE BY MAIL

IMPORTANT EXPERIMENT GOOD FOR BIG ISLAND

Hawai'i's County Council asked the Legislature to allow a countywide vote-by-mail pilot for three election cycles.

SB1608 and HB1646 require no new funding and use the existing absentee ballot procedures. This important experiment can help Hawai'i decide if vote-by-mail helps registered voters participate and saves money, too. We need to do something; our turnout is amongst the lowest in the nation. Thank you, Hawai'i County Council! All the Legislature has to do is say: Yes!

B&BS

HAWAI'I IS SPECIAL AND SHOULD REMAIN SO

Your editorial on Bill 6 (B&Bs Jan. 22) correctly states that many communities around the country allow bed-and-breakfast homes in residential areas. What you failed to mention is that many other communities expressly prohibit them.

Even if all communities around the world allowed B&Bs in residential areas, is that a good enough reason why we should also? Does one size fit all? We pride ourselves in being special and different, and we truly are. But not for long if we continue to strive to be the same as any other place.

B&Bs in other areas are mostly seasonal and not found concentrated in residential areas near extensive hotel accommodations. Nor are they found within a few feet of homes with open jalousie windows where they infringe on the safety, privacy, peace, and sleep of hardworking local residents. In no other place do they impact the housing availability and prices, displace a native people from their homes and shores, threaten the survival of local culture, and diminish the quality of life in residential neighborhoods, the way they do in our unique and vulnerable Hawai'i.

To justify the passage of Bill 6 based on experiences in non-comparable areas shows an ignorance of who we are, where we live, and of the price extracted from our residential communities, and from our future, for the sake of being like everybody else.

LOCAL THEATER

HONOLULU COULD USE MORE LIVE PRODUCTIONS

This past Tuesday, I attended the live play "World Buffet" at a small playhouse in Chinatown. The play was put on by The Actors Guild and was an original work by Eric Nemoto.

I was not sure what to expect when I was invited to attend this performance and was delightfully surprised by this production. The writing was very clever and very funny. The cast was excellent.

We need more live theater in Honolulu. For a city the size of Honolulu, we have limited venues like these. I hope everyone who enjoys live theater will support theater groups like The Actors Guild.