Letters to the Editor
Monday, October 7, 1996

AJA was right
to keep Blanchette out of league

I totally agree with the AJA Baseball League's decision about Bill Blanchette. This is not discrimination, it's a cultural tradition. If people are offended by it, they're nuts.

It has been an AJA tradition to only admit people with Japanese blood into the league. If this weren't allowed then we would also have to let any ethnic group into the Kamehameha Schools, Cherry Blossom Festivals, Narcissus Festivals and Barrio Fiesta. All of these activities are ethnic traditions.

These traditions existed way before Billy Blanchette and I were born. To make adjustments for just one person because he was an All-American at the University of Hawaii is silly.

Kevin Kawamura
Kahului, Maui


Japanese should let all races play ball

If the Americans of Japanese Ancestry baseball league is the only game available during the winter, it should not close its doors to non-Japanese in the name of culture and tradition; instead it should open its doors to all in the name of aloha, life, liberty and the pursuit of fair play.

Like the Asahis, the AJA league should let the sunshine in.

Richard Y. Will


All of those koa benches should
be at state Capitol

Your Oct. 3 article about the Capitol's koa benches completely missed the main point ("State's 40 koa benches are all present and accounted for").

The benches were purchased as part of the overly expensive Capitol renovation project. If your writer had done any research, he would have found quotes from the Department of Accounting and General Services (DAGS) comptrollers confirming that the koa benches were bought for the state Capitol and would be moved there from the State Office Tower (Star-Bulletin, May 25).

DAGS tried to justify the price of $1,700 per bench, claiming the luxury koa furniture needed to fit in with the newly renovated Capitol. Therefore, the koa benches should not be at the State Office Tower, especially with some hidden behind a movable wall.

Taxpayers were forced to pay for these extravagant koa benches. At least put them in the state Capitol where the public can sit on them while waiting for hearings to commence.

Rep. Cynthia Thielen
Minority Floor Leader
State House of Representatives


Conspiracy theory
slowed primary election vote count

Don't blame the late vote count in the primary election on either Dwayne Yoshina, the chief elections officer, or Russell Mokulehua, the volunteer head of the Elections Advisory Commission. There were two reasons for the lateness.

One was a group of conspiracy theorists claiming that the 1994 election count was inaccurate because of a flaw in the computer software. They probably think the CIA, the Cubans and the Mafia did it from the grassy knoll in Dallas. To stop these people from making wild statements about the fairness of the balloting, the elections people ran a test to prove that everything worked perfectly.

Second, much of the delay was caused by budget cuts that reduced by half the number of ballot reading machines. This meant the count took twice as long. It's that simple.

Yoshina and Mokulehua deserve our thanks for taking so much trouble in the face of criticism to eliminate any doubts in the fairness of our election system.

Now let's see if the conspiracy theorists will come up with any more paranoid fantasies to waste taxpayer time and money in the general.

Larry Meacham
Executive Director
Common Cause Hawaii


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