Editorials
Wednesday, July 15, 1998

HHSAA’s secrecy is
a national anomaly

AN exhaustive survey by Star-Bulletin sportswriter Pat Bigold has revealed a dubious distinction for the state. Hawaii's high school athletic association is the only one in the nation to close its meetings to the public, while at the same time accepting taxpayer money and free office space in a public school. Such a need for secrecy, while enjoying the benefits of public aid, should be thoroughly investigated in the next legislative session.

The Hawaii High School Athletic Association is an anomaly among the 51 members of the National Federation of State High School Associations. A state-by-state poll uncovers only two other groups whose boards meet behind closed doors, because they are tax-exempt nonprofits. But neither the Michigan High School Athletic Association nor the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association receives a cent of legislative funding, and both own their offices. Meanwhile, the HHSAA receives $38,000 in grant money from the Legislature and uses rent-free office space at Stevenson Intermediate in Makiki.

Anthony Ramos, HHSAA president and a principal at Kamehameha Schools, has long insisted that the association's executive board has no obligation or desire to comply with Hawaii's open meeting laws. This is in stark contrast to the beliefs of other athletic association directors, like Jim Haugen in Montana. "We're talking integrity," says Haugen. "We try not to hide anything and that creates a comfort zone with people."

That explains the high level of discomfort among some legislators, parents, student athletes and sports enthusiasts over the HHSAA, especially since Ramos has declared no change in sight to its closed-door policy. How convenient that this organization reaps taxpayer money, uses taxpayer-funded office space and has taxpayer-paid principals as four of its five members, while claiming to be a "quasi-state" entity. Outrageous.

Murder of 3 brothers

THE firebombing deaths of three young boys as they slept has momentarily quieted street violence that threatens the fragile peace of Northern Ireland. Will the heinous incident deepen traditional hostilities or cause peace-seeking Protestants to distance themselves from their militant Orange brethren believed responsible for the bombing?

The Quinn brothers -- 10-year-old Richard, 9-year-old Mark and 7-year-old Jason -- were being raised by their Catholic mother as Protestants, so they could assimilate into the largely Protestant population of Ballymoney. The boys were buried in a Catholic cemetery following Mass away from Ballymoney, to which their mother never wants to return.

The child murders may have greater consequences than all the Ulster killings that preceded them. Parades that are held annually to celebrate the 1690 victory of the Protestant William of Orange over his Catholic father-in-law, King James II, proceeded on Monday, but were mostly peaceful. In a Catholic neighborhood of Dublin, residents who otherwise would have engaged in combat with the Orangemen marchers stood silently at roadside. Some held signs reading, "Shame."

Orange Order membership extends to all ranks of Protestants, and most support the annual marches in July as a cultural event. To Catholics, the triumphal marches are intimidating and provocative, tantamount to Americans boisterously celebrating the Fourth of July at Hyde Park or the annexation of Hawaii on the grounds of Iolani Palace.

David Trimble, leader of Ulster's largest Protestant Unionist party and head of the new coalition assembly, urged marchers to go home, lest they be associated with the child murders. Even the Rev. Ian Paisley, the Protestant extremist, denounced the bombing as "a diabolical, hellish deed."

Moderate Protestants and Catholics must resolve how to deal with the annual marches before a lasting peace can be achieved in Northern Ireland. The Quinn deaths might be the impetus to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table.

The Brawley lies

RACISM in the guise of civil-rights advocacy is no less abhorrent. When accompanied by defamatory lies aimed at working the public into a frenzy, it can be devastating to the victim. An attorney wrongfully accused by three self-proclaimed civil-rights advocates of raping a black 15-year-old girl deserves the verdict awarded to him by a New York jury. His accusers should be charged with the high price of lying.

The Rev. Al Sharpton and lawyers C. Vernon Mason and Alton Maddox made the accusations in 1987, while acting as advisers to Tawana Brawley. She fabricated a story about being abducted and gang-raped by six white police officers, then being left in a garbage bag near her home north of New York City. A grand jury saw through the hoax and returned no indictment.

Among those exonerated by the panel was Steve Pagones, then an assistant district attorney, who was accused by Sharpton, Mason and Maddox of being one of the perpetrators. Pagones was also accused of murdering a friend to guarantee his silence. In one of his numerous statements in press conferences, speeches and interviews, Sharpton said, "I am again repeating Steven Pagones was involved...and if I'm lying, sue us."

Pagones accepted Sharpton's dare and, after an eight-month trial, a jury of four whites and two blacks agreed that the trio had made defamatory statements that they knew to be false or spoke with reckless disregard for the truth. Brawley also was named as a defendant and was judged in default after failing to answer repeated subpoenas.

The jury that found the accusations against Pagones to be lies now must determine the compensation to be assessed on his accusers. The amount should be enough to shut the mouths of Sharpton, Mason and Maddox and to deter others from righteously hurling ugly untruths.

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