Lawmakers: Pay attention to
message from the voters

Regarding your Nov. 14 story, "Revolt stymies legislative leadership," here we go again. I remember several years ago when Senate President James Aki and House Speaker Joe Souki showed us their arrogance in leadership. Now there is one pol down and out, and one pol to go.

Souki's helpful letter to a convicted felon should lower his status to a back bencher. A leader of people he is not.

It's time for the House "dissidents" to stand together and finish what the voters started earlier this month. Likewise the Senate. This is the first and best chance for new and old politicians to show us that they really want something other than politics as usual.

If there is a leadership stalemate when the session convenes, maybe the next Con Con will vote for legislative salaries not to commence until all wrangling is over and the chamber officially convenes to do business for the voters.

Reform, reform, reform.

Don Neill
Kailua

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Format change is needed
to pick Con Con delegates

Several of your readers have expressed the opinion that there should be no constitutional convention. True, unless there is a new format for selecting delegates, we certainly do not need a rerun of the fiasco known as the 1978 Con Con.

That delegation almost totally selected from state-appointed and government employees, and was a sickening display of greed and anarchist arrogance.

I was a life-long Democrat until then. I have voted Republican ever since.

The next Con Con delegation should be made up of and must have no more than the following: one-third state employees (all departments), state appointed employees, and their retirees; one-third business representatives; and one-third non-affiliated John and Jane Doe citizens.

Without this change, we will remain just another Third World area, feeding on money saved for vacations by those who can afford to come to Hawaii to spend it. Businesses are bailing out of this state as fast as possible.

Daryl F. Kayl
Keaau, Hawaii

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Writers pull no punches
during editorial slugfest

Congratulations on having two editorial columnists on your staff who are not afraid to "tell it like it is." I refer to the Nov. 15 and 16 commentaries written by Diane Chang and David Shapiro, respectively.

Chang's courageous remarks during a panel discussion before Leadership International on the "real Hawaii" are to be applauded. She pulled no punches in enumerating the problems too many of us refuse to recognize. Every member of the state Legislature should get a copy of her remarks.

Equally as provocative was Shapiro's view of Michael Jackson's "disturbing behavior," particularly when paired with news coverage of his already sold-out concert in January.

This infatuation with celebrity, no matter how repugnant the behavior of "heroes" like Jackson, Mike Tyson, Magic Johnson, Daryl Strawberry, ad infinitum, is a symptom of the collapse of standards throughout our country.

Lois Abrams

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Michael, Woody don’t care
about being role models

How does David Shapiro have the gall to condemn two of the greatest creative geniuses of our time (Volcanic Ash, Nov. 16)?

Artists such as Michael Jackson and Woody Allen never asked to be "role models." The reason that creative people express themselves in song or film is because that is the medium in which they best communicate their love.

The one thing that all Woody Allen films and Michael Jackson songs contain is love and heart. No one with this kind of creativity would intentionally harm and/or exploit a child, no matter what the accusers say.

Tony T.L. Young