Legislators should swelter in heat like public students
Regarding all this "hot air" about no air-conditioning in the public schools, the solution is simple. Turn off the air-conditioning in the state Capitol. Let the adults in charge of the money sweat like our keiki. Then perhaps they'll be more aware of the daily b.s. that our children must endure.What can be more important than doing all we can do for students today, so they can be all that they can tomorrow?
R. Horita
Mayor's grandstanding is jeopardizing public safety
I am simply amazed by Mayor Harris' new theory of "Dilbert Management." First, tell your executives to do more with less, then penalize them when they comply so no one will know how incompetent you are. That way, you too can, one day, become governor.Harris instructed Police Chief Lee Donohue to reduce overtime spending for the 1998-99 fiscal year. After careful analysis of crime trends, minimum manpower requirements and other pertinent facts to assure public safety, Donohue requested an overtime budget of $14.1 million.
Harris waved his magic "Dilbert" wand and reduced the police budget to $8.5 million. Then he told the chief to make do with less and to cut back even more. Now, Harris threatens to move the police finance division over to the city Finance Division.
It's not the police chief's fault that the administration lost over $20 million in Ewa Villages. Harris should take responsibility for his mistakes and leave politics out of police work.
It's the general public that will suffer most when literally hundreds of police officers finally leave Hawaii in frustration.
Alexander Garcia
Mililani
HPU is coercing landlord to deny lease to Clubhouse
Your Sept. 4 editorial on the Clubhouse/Hawaii Pacific University issue has grossly mischaracterized my position. You wrote that "Miike's assertion that opposition to his department's plans amounts to discrimination against the mentally disabled is a gross distortion of civil-rights laws," and set up a false dichotomy between my position and people's constitutional rights to voicing their opposition.I recognize people's first amendment rights to voice their opposition, but HPU has gone beyond that. It has filed lawsuits seeking court orders to restrain and enjoin the landlord from proceeding with the Clubhouse lease.
HPU's principal basis for seeking such remedies is its allegations that Clubhouse participants are dangerous and that "the proposed Honolulu Clubhouse will cause the crime rate in the surrounding neighborhood to soar."
In doing so, HPU is seeking to coerce the landlord to engage in discriminatory practices and asking the court to compel that coercion. How your paper can conclude that I have therefore engaged in "a gross distortion of civil-rights law" is beyond my comprehension.
Finally, your editorial states that the Downtown Neighborhood Board also opposes the Clubhouse plan. While some board members may have such an opinion, I do not believe that is the position of the board.
Lawrence Miike, M.D.
Director, State Department of Health
Miike's characterization of patients is wrong
State Department of Health director Larry Miike is not telling the truth about the mental health facility he wants to locate on Fort Street Mall.I was at the Downtown Neighborhood Board meeting when Miike described Clubhouse patients as "just fine" and said they are "just like you and me." He has said that Clubhouse clients are required to take their medicine.
However, the rate of noncompliance for schizophrenics can be as high as 60 percent. There is also a tendency for the mentally ill to mix their medication with drugs or alcohol and there is a bar in the Blaisdell Hotel.
People with mental illnesses also "cycle" -- that is, they may still be taking their medicine but the dosage may be too great or too low. They do not know that until it is reflected in their behavior.
The people who live and work downtown have every right to be concerned about having such a facility in their neighborhood.
Gail Dickey
Retired Psychiatric Nurse
Kaneohe
HPU opposes anything 'invading' its turf
Hawaii Pacific University should be ashamed of its NIMBY stance against the Fort Street Mall location of the Clubhouse. It has opposed Safe Haven, the "Sandwich Ministry" and now the Clubhouse. I see that, in addition to teaching business, it also teaches intolerance.Maybe HPU should be looking for a new location if it cannot learn to get along with its neighbors.
Deborah Peck
Federal government is taking advantage of local officials
Are Ben and the Dems looking out for our best interests? Judge for yourselves:1. Does 580 = 9,196 on Oahu? Hawaii gets about 580 acres of dry Barbers Point scrubland from the feds in exchange for 9,196 acres of moist Lualualei Valley, which the Navy gets to keep using.
2. Our federal government has had stewardship of Pearl Harbor for a hundred years, but now the Navy says don't eat sealife caught in its waters. When will the harbor be restored?
Where are your readers' voices?
William Speed
Kailua
(Via the Internet)
McGwire's feat is a hit with politics-weary public
Hooray for baseball! For at least one day, Mark McGwire knocked Bill and Monica off the front page of the newspaper.Perhaps there is hope for traditional rationality to prevail over mass voyeurism!
Wally Johnston
Kailua
Clinton's immorality must not be accepted
The most important characteristic of a leader in carrying out his responsibilities must always be integrity. When our leaders display a lack of integrity, we need to go against the tide of seemingly popular opinion and voice our disappointment.One's choice of heroes is very revealing about one's own character. When polls indicate a reckless disregard for integrity in our leaders, we are giving our children the message that cleverly evading the consequences of immoral or illegal behavior is more important than integrity.
This is a dangerous precedent and an injustice to our children.
Betty Gubler
Laie
Misdeeds of president cannot be justified
For eight months, two-thirds of the American people have said that what Bill Clinton does in private does not detract from his leadership. Meanwhile, pundits have marveled at his ability to carry on with public business in spite of investigation pressures.This is his ability to "compartmentalize." Yet it should be clear that this alleged compartmentalizing is wishful thinking.
Witness the irony of his departure to pep talk Boris Yeltsin on economic matters just as the hot air gushes out of our stock market balloon.
Witness Saddam Hussein's blatant disregard of Clinton's strong words of reprisal if inspections are blocked. Saddam and other terrorists have heard Clinton's vows of strong action and know them to be empty.
We now know that his "I feel your pain" on health and education, and his vows of commitment on a host of social issues were rhetoric as well. We have learned how sincerely he can offer us a lie.
We need to wake up and open our eyes to the reality of character, and its importance to leadership. We cannot compartmentalize honesty, integrity and commitment. This is as true of the lives of our leaders as it is true of our own lives.
Rev. Robert B. Fraser
Starr has made Americans ashamed of their country
I have become very angry about the Clinton scandals. But I'm not mad at Clinton, even though I wish he would have shown better judgment.Instead, I am angry that we continue to allow Ken Starr, aided by a Republican Congress dominated by the religious right, to use more than $40 million of our tax dollars to pull down a constitutionally elected president who has fought successfully for most of the environmental and social issues I care about.
I am angry that we sit back while an out-of-control special prosecutor operates outside the Constitution to expose the intimate details of a man's private life, putting all of us through this national shame, and stalling progress on badly needed domestic and foreign policy.
I am especially angry that, in this time of peace and economic growth in our country, Starr has stolen our ability to feel good about ourselves and what we've accomplished.
Bruce Justin Miller
Kaneohe
(Via the Internet)
Write a Want to write a letter to the editor? Let all Star-Bulletin readers know what you think. Please keep your letter to about 200 words. You can send it by e-mail to letters@starbulletin.com or you can fill in the online form for a faster response. Or print it and mail it to: Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802. Or fax it to: 523-8509. Always be sure to include your daytime phone number.
Letter to the Editor
