Try adopting pets instead of cloning

Experimenters at Texas A&M University have cloned a cat, but they won't officially announce it until they are sure the cat is healthy. That may never happen.

The journal "Science" reported last year that cloned animals have been plagued with health problems and even normal-looking clones have abnormalities. The world's most famous cloned animal, Dolly the sheep, has arthritis and, say her creators, may not be a true clone as she appears to be the age of her surrogate mother. Ninety-eight percent of cloning attempts are failures.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals could have saved Texas millionaire John Sperling the more than $3 million he poured into the creation of this cat. We would have told him that animal shelters are filled with kittens and cats who need good homes and families to love.

Sperling should have tried his local pound first, instead of bringing more animals into the world -- especially as the cats are likely to suffer from a variety of unexpected ailments.

Kathy Guillermo
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

Adequate skills are not enough for college

Before the university professionals mandate what they wish for their upcoming classes, president Evan Dobelle should check the history of the association between universities and high schools. Programs such as School-to-Work were instrumental in educating high school teachers about the needs of community college students. Student teachers have come into the high schools for years to observe veteran teachers, and then taught with them. So the knowledge of what is required in post-secondary education is not a mystery.

Part of the problem is determining the purpose of a high school education. If it is to prepare all students for college, then what happens to those students who don't want to attend college? What about those who want to work or join the military? And let's be honest -- the skills one needs for college English (analytical writing, literary knowledge) are not necessarily survival skills.

The skill levels deemed "adequate" for high school will allow a person to survive in society, if the student has met those levels. But adequate levels are not college levels. The community colleges accept all applicants, no matter their skills. The university has higher standards for high school graduates (grade-point averages and SAT scores, for example).

Students who are held to high standards from the first year of schooling will be better prepared for post-secondary education. But remember, not everyone should be a doctor or lawyer. When a pipe breaks in the middle of the night, isn't it nice to know someone decided to study plumbing?

Mary Ellen Kamau
Hilo

[Quotables] "Just seeing this feels good again, but it's sad. We used to sit under this and eat lunch in the summer, throw snowballs around below it in the winter. This was a meeting place for a lot of people, and it means a lot." Paul Summerfield New York City futures broker who lost several friends in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, speaking about "The Sphere," a sculpture that sat in the center's plaza before the buildings fell on it. The 45,000-pound sculpture, created by Fritz Koenig in 1971, was dedicated at its new temporary location at Battery Park during a ceremony yesterday to mark the six-month anniversary of the attacks. "What the decision means is that when you act like a candidate, when the average person in Hawaii would see you as a candidate, then you need to resign." William Deeley Lawyer of Russell Blair, a former judge and state lawmaker who filed the court challenge to force Mayor Jeremy Harris to resign to run for governor. Circuit Judge Sabrina McKenna ruled that Harris is 10 months overdue in his constitutional obligation to resign when he became eligible as a candidate. Harris's attorney, Robert Klein, had argued that eligibility referred to the filing of nomination papers.

Lawsuit against OHA furthers racism

Retired attorney H. William Burgess and attorney Patrick W. Hanifin, on behalf of 16 plaintiffs, are trying to kill the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, as well as the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act ("Suit alleges OHA discrimination," Star-Bulletin, March 5).

Said Burgess, "We seek to end both programs."

His claims that these programs are 'racist' because they help only Hawaiians are oblivious to the plight of the Hawaiian people.

Burgess and his predominantly Caucasian plaintiffs are the real racists, rubbing salt into the wounds of the Hawaiian people.

Can anybody be so ignorant of Hawaiian history as to deny that Hawaii was illegally overthrown and that the Hawaiians deserve justice and compensation?

United States Public Law 103-150 is our nation's apology, an acknowledgment that the overthrow of the Hawaiian nation was illegal and immoral.

As an American of Hawaiian, Japanese and Caucasian ancestry, I am angered at the sick irony of this lawsuit. It has the same attitude as those who overthrew Hawaii -- that they will take away land and power from these non-whites because they feel entitled to it.

Burgess and friends hope that Hawaiians will be stripped of everything they deserve. These frivolous and abusive lawsuits are against everything Jesus taught.

Rev. Todd Wetmore
Sacred Earth Church

Lawmakers should repeal traffic cameras

The state Department of Transportation and a small faction of our state Legislature still do not see the big picture.

The hue and cry by the citizenry of Hawaii has been overwhelmingly against these traffic enforcement cameras. The mayors from Honolulu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island counties do not want these traffic cameras on their roadways. Every day the traffic court judges are throwing out these camera citations for various reasons.

The legislators should do the right thing and totally repeal this traffic camera enforcement program. If they still want this program in the future, they can set up a referendum vote in next year's elections and let the people decide if they want to let these traffic cams back on our highways.

Steven T.K. Burke
Pearl City

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