Private sector snoozed
while new law was passed

A forest full of bears sleeping in their caves, the private-sector giants -- banking, utilities and the hotel industry -- passively snoozed through the legislative session, accepting the government's incremental chop of the economic forest around. They awakened only when the meat within their own caves was threatened.

So it happened during the 1997 legislative session. The play-along, get-along, private-sector bears didn't give a wink to the reciprocal beneficiaries law. They thought it would apply only to government workers.

Then boom, with a stroke of the governor's pen, the bears woke up and began to growl. Claiming they were tricked and deceived, they cried out that meat was going to come from their own caves.

But listen, watch and wait as some new meat is tossed in. You will hear not another growl nor see another bite. The bears will fall fast asleep and never will you hear the faintest roar to the lies of Matsunaga, Mizuguchi, Cayetano and Chumbley.

So it is in the mystical bear forest called complacency.

Brian C. Buckley

Lots of cultures
eat pig's feet, intestines

Andre Wooten -- in his July 19 View Point column attacking Kalaheo High, its school administration and the state's educational system -- is guilty of the same transgression he is preaching against. When he describes pig's feet and intestines as slave food, replete with feces and bacteria, he insults the majority of people in Hawaii.

Asians, Malaysians and Polynesians all eat pig's feet and intestines. In fact, the delicacies are so popular they are offered at many Chinese restaurants and served at family luaus. I'm elated when my wife serves me "slime food," as Wooten calls it.

I'm certain the Kalaheo teachers and students involved didn't associate the eating of pig's feet and chitlings as an insult to blacks. It is time to forgive everyone's ignorance before it becomes unjustifiable hate.

Tom Shimabuku
Kailua

People have good reason
to suspect government

It comes as no surprise to learn that a majority of Americans believe their government is involved in major crimes ("Americans increasingly suspect Uncle Sam," Star-Bulletin, July 3): from the assassination of JFK and others, running drugs in our inner cities, invasions of other countries, stirring up wars and supplying weapons to both sides, and the accidental downing of a civilian aircraft (TWA Flight 800) in military practice airspace, to corrupt contract dealings, money-making and -laundering schemes, working hand-in-hand with the criminal underworld, to the murder of U.S. citizens at Waco, Ruby Ridge, etc.

Those who think it is unpatriotic to think the worst of a government forget how and why our nation was founded in the first place. It is now acceptable, even fashionable, to express an opinion contrary to government dictates, and to question government when it does things we think are contrary to our beliefs and threatening to our freedoms.

The way that we operate the many secret government organizations should cause ALL Americans to wonder what is going on. How many of you can even name the many cloak and dagger operations we have: the CIA, FBI, IRS, INS, DOD, DAG, CIC, CID, PIG, PAC and others you haven't even heard about.

We have government organizations so secret that Congress cannot even mention their names in public. And that's a fact -- right here in the United States of America -- in the democracy, the government "of the people, by the people and for the people" that we founded just 221 years ago.

Keith Haugen
(Via the Internet)

Flight attendants
are concerned about safety

As a flight attendant for the past 10 years, I read Charles Memminger's July 9 column on his experience with "the friendly skies" with great amusement. In my personal as well as professional life, I too have encountered such behavior from flight attendants as well as the traveling public.

With this understanding, I still took great offense to Memminger's attack on the professionalism of flight attendants in safety-related situations.

His experience with the flight attendant who fell apart after experiencing severe turbulence is not a reflection of those who accept daily the responsibility of placing the welfare of passengers above their own.

Has he forgotten the highly publicized acts of heroism exhibited by flight attendants who have sacrificed their lives? Has he ignored the dedication of flight attendants as a group to provide a safe environment for the traveling public?

The next time Memminger witnesses an individual succumbing to emotion, please feel compassion for that individual. Do not taint the name of an entire group.

Carrie Williams
Honolulu

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