Parents need to be more responsible
In response to "Kids found OK after thief takes van with engine on" (
Star-Bulletin, Oct. 20): As a parent, I am upset to hear of yet another report of a stolen vehicle with children left unattended. This is the fourth such case this year and I think it is four cases too many. While this is very traumatic for the parents, I think the parents should be held accountable and be charged with child endangerment.
Hawaii has never had a law against leaving a child alone in a car. Actually, only 11 of the 50 states have laws protecting children from such endangerment, although there are 14 states proposing new laws at this time, and Hawaii is one of them (www.kidsandcars.org). Even though Hawaii introduced House Bill 289 to the Legislature last January, I believe that public education (as included in drivers education), media exposure (in television and in print), as well as parenting classes (for offenders) are some ways to address this escalating problem.
Christine Kelly
Honolulu
Is racism OK when it targets white people?
I'd like to know why today's media fail to be as fair and balanced as they claim to be. When Pat Robertson made his statement about assassinating the leader of Venezuela, the liberal media jumped all over the story. When Bill Bennett's comments were taken out of context, again the media around the country and here in Hawaii covered the story with its usual liberal slant. So why haven't the media said anything about the statements of North Carolina State University professor Kamau Kambon, who recently called upon all black people to "exterminate white people"? If this had been a white professor saying this about black people, the media would have been all over this story.
Or do today's media condone racism when it's aimed at us "whiteys"?
Shawn Lathrop
Kaneohe
UH does not deserve privilege of UARC
A recent account of the meeting of the University of Hawaii-Manoa faculty convened to discuss a new source of research funding offers new insights into the arrogance and ignorance now dominating that campus (
"Opponents fill UH faculty meeting on Navy research," Star-Bulletin, Oct. 20).
To even IMAGINE that the University of Hawaii is in the same league with the University of Washington, the Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, the University of Texas at Austin or Pennsylvania State University -- and thus deserving of any consideration by the Navy for the award of a lucrative university affiliated research center contract -- is absurd on its face.
The fatuous Blame America First faculty members at UH-Manoa loudly grandstanding in opposition to UARC on the most specious grounds represent -- indeed celebrate -- a blight on intellectual attainment sufficient to remove their university from any further consideration by Navy.
The Navy should look elsewhere for a university that is intellectually capable of demanding on-task performance. Research and development conducted in the hot house of a hot war environment is far too important to be left to an emotionally arrested cabal of second-raters masquerading as scholars at UH-Manoa.
Amateur Night in Dixie will not feed the bulldog.
Thomas E. Stuart
Vietnam veteran
Kapaau, Hawaii
Boys should find ways to get involved
I read your article "
Females lead in school, lose clout in workforce" and the
Oct. 30 letter to the editor "Scouts build stronger futures for isle girls." I'm glad that girls are doing well in school. I've known since elementary school that girls were smarter than boys. My fourth-grade teacher put all the smarter kids in one part of the class, and they were all girls. In high school, girls received most of the academic awards and were more involved in student activities, and valedictorians for high school and college were both girls.
It's sad that boys are doing so poorly in school. It's strange that no one seems to be bothered, but I guess it's because girls in the old days were ignored, so it's somehow all right to treat boys that way now, but I don't agree. I think boys should be encouraged to join the Boy Scouts or other after-school activities to encourage them to do better. Boys shouldn't take "being male" as a guarantee. Sure, if you're looking up the ladder, most of the people in high positions are male, but if you look down the ladder, most of the homeless and high school drop-outs are male; thus success is not determined by gender, it's based on hard work, education, and encouragement of family and good friends.
Sophia Martins
Honolulu