Kealoha should serve
full prison sentence

Once again, a convicted killer is set to be released before serving his entire sentence. It does not seem to matter that Gabriel Kealoha did cause Police Officer Arthur Miller's death, that Kealoha was convicted of a crime, and that he was sentenced to a nine-month jail term. His parents are trying to convince the community that a great injustice will be done if their son remains in jail until December 1997, in order to serve his entire sentence.

There is no assumption of responsibility; there are no apologies tendered to Miller's family and colleagues, only a thinly veiled shifting of blame to the murder victim himself.

Miller was thrown to his death by Kealoha, not the other way around.

Nearly 16 years ago, on the last day of summer school at St. Louis High School, my 17-year-old son, Aquim Hiu, was stabbed to death by a classmate. There had been a brief scuffle. One boy pulled a knife and stabbed Aquim in the heart. Aquim bled to death; his killer was tried in Family Court and given probation and community service.

There, too, the parents refused to accept responsibility for their son's act of violence. There, too, no apologies were offered and no sorrow shown. There, too, one saw a certain self-righteous arrogance that proclaimed better your son than mine, a certain defiance that blamed the murder victim for what befell him.

Both Aquim and Arthur Miller are dead and nothing will bring them back. But some small measure of justice would be served, at least in Miller's case, if his convicted killer would be made to serve the entire nine months of an already very short jail sentence.

Evelyne Hiu

Miller's death resulted
from his own behavior

Although it is true that Gabriel Kealoha caused the death of Arthur Miller, it was the result of a drunken man tailgating a minor who pulled off the freeway to get the man to stop. Kealoha did not know that this man was a police officer, and why should he believe a drunk who shouldn't be behind the wheel of a car anyway?

The media continue to show Miller in his officer's uniform and depict him as a police officer in the headlines and in your tasteless cartoons.

As parents of children who drive, what message should we give them when they take to the road? Drive safely and defensively, avoid confrontations, but if confronted by an aggressive driver, drive to the nearest police station or a lighted, safe place with lots of people.

I'm almost certain that these were the same instructions Gabriel's parents gave him, but the driver pushed him too far. When he pulled over on the freeway, he had no intention of causing Miller's death. He only wanted him to stop bumping his car and let him get home.

I hope that my children are never put to the test, because if I had to choose between the life of my child and the other driver, the other driver would lose.

Pohaikalaokaanuenue Montero
(Via the Internet)

Tradition mustn't supersede
sense in phone book design

I wonder, is there any practical reason why various government listings are kept in a separate, haphazardly organized list in the phone book instead of being in alphabetical order with everything else? As a smart person once said, "Just because it's tradition, it ain't necessary, right."

George Kopeczky
(Via the Internet)

Dismissed OHA executive
performed tough job well

Linda Colburn's departure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs compels comment. Few can match her ability to work with the wide range of folk living in our community. Colburn is incomparable in her communication and facilitation skills. Her management skills have been well tested through tough assignments she has carried in the past. I'd clone her in a minute!

It is a disgrace to see a public servant of her caliber dismissed as she was. We who know and respect Colburn and her work thank her for her public service and her dedication to the well-being of the Hawaiian community. We know that it was the people, her staff, and her respect for what the office is there to do, that kept her at a thankless job. Linda Colburn stands on higher ground.

June Shimokawa

Face it, outsourcing
was a stupid idea

The Star-Bulletin should outsource the writing of its editorials. This step would be less expensive and less offensive than the paper's continuing defense of state Librarian Bart Kane's stupidity in outsourcing the purchase of books. Let Hawaii's trained librarians select the books that island readers need and want.

Charles E. Frankel

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Same-sex archive

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