End battle between 'Bows and Warriors
Here's a compromise ...When the University of Hawaii football team loses a game, let's call them the Rainbows and when it wins a game, let's call them the Warriors. That should make the two opposing forces happy, and all of us who support UH athletics, the coaches, and, most of all, the players, will keep cheering for the entire entity.
They are the professionals we trust to make decisions that are in the best interest for all concerned. Joe Moore is not the professional in this area, and he certainly didn't get his facts correct regarding the new music before airing that tidbit. As for Mufi Hannemann, his emphasis with Moore on "Rainbow Warriors" reflects his arrogance.
Honolulu
Don't dismiss tests as indicators of success
Lou Salza, head of Assets School in Honolulu, recently wrote (Star-Bulletin, Sept. 9) stating that "SAT scores neither predict how students will fare in college nor do they reflect what they have learned or accomplished in school."At Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich., of the thousands of full-time students specially admitted to the university during a 14-year period who did not meet the school's minimum SAT or ACT test score requirements, incredibly, only 1 person graduated. Consequently, in 1990, the special admissions policy was discontinued as it gave false hope to students.
Declining SAT scores do not necessarily reflect less learning, but they do accurately measure specific educational accomplishments that help students succeed in college. However, low SAT test scores are simply low SAT scores. They cannot prevent a person from succeeding if there is a strong desire and willingness to work.
Aiea
Candidates should think like the little guy
My run for Congress cost me a $75 filing fee. With a $0 campaign budget and out-of-the-box thinking, I showed I can do a lot with a little. That is how a mother has to manage finances. It cost me less than 15 cents for each vote I received. One candidate spent $37 per vote.I ran to educate voters on the process and try to help lift the apathy of voters. I accomplished that goal in a small way with 518 votes.
We need leaders who can improvise and are in touch with budget limitations. Campaign signs were outrageously over-done this year. They are an expensive and egotistical waste of money.
We need leaders who will ease the crisis situations in education, housing, wages and health care.
I hope the remaining House candidates, Ed Case and Mike Gabbard, will realize the hardships of everyday people. There is a serious need to find solutions to America's problems before spending billions more on war and elsewhere. Good luck and congratulations to all the winning candidates.
Nonpartisan candidate U.S. House of Representatives
CBS memo story puts us back at square one
CBS, in particular Dan Rather of "60 Minutes," would never even think of doing a story based purely on rumor, innuendo or hearsay.The story regarding the alleged special treatment of President George W. Bush while he was in the Texas Air National Guard was based largely on supposedly hard documentary evidence written by Bush's former commander, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, now deceased. We now have good reason to doubt the authenticity of those documents. Nevertheless, CBS and Dan Rather say even though the authenticity of the documents is suspect the substance of the report is true.
CBS and Rather cite statements by the colonel's former secretary, who has said that although the deceased man probably did not write the memo, Killian felt that way about Bush at the time. So what are we actually left with? Rumor, innuendo and hearsay? Michael Moore, where are you now?
Kaneohe
Women's commission
could be more effective
I read the Star-Bulletin's Sept. 13 article on budget cuts to the Hawaii Commission on the Status of Women and the ensuing editorial blasting Governor Lingle on the issue. Both the article and editorial failed to look beneath the surface.I am a Lingle-appointed commissioner. However, let's take the governor out of the equation -- as the reporter and the editorial writer should have done -- and instead focus on the performance of the commission itself.
I am not arguing whether an overseer of issues concerning women's rights and health might be vital to women's wellness. I am arguing that while the commission appears to have a brilliant past, its present is one seemingly plagued with a lack of vision and focus.
I started my tenure as a hopeful neophyte when principals involved in the Family Economic Self Sufficiency Standards presented their findings on how much families need to earn to live in various areas of Hawaii. It is a fabulous report, and members of the previous commission were responsible for getting the study done here.
To my knowledge, the current commission, as a body, has done nothing to take this information to the business community. The information might even help businesses restructure wages to include benefits such as transportation and childcare. It could be revolutionary.
Instead, as of late, it seems our meetings focused on reports from an admittedly hard-working executive director and from some of the commissioners. Women's Health Month is the only program I've seen come from the commission this past year.
I'm not so sure that cutting funds for the program is a bad thing. Sometimes out of crisis grows opportunity to change, discuss and plan. The commission is in the process of obtaining its nonprofit status from the Internal Revenue Service. With that status comes the responsibility of strategic planning, goal setting and vision. I think it is time for that to happen. I personally am looking forward to the process.
HCSW, Maui Commissioner
|
