BOE was right to fire ineffective head librarian
I disagree with your Feb. 21 editorial in defense of Bart Kane. The Board of Education made the right decision in firing him.Kane's job was to make the libraries work well within the budgetary restraints of the state. He failed and the BOE held him accountable. What is more fair than that?
Kane made a poor choice when he hired Baker & Taylor. Libraries either didn't get books or got books inappropriate to their customer base.
As part of his cost-cutting measures, Kane decreased library hours, making it impossible for working people to go to the library or to take their children there. Ewa Beach library, for example, was only open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
For these reasons and others, Kane lost the confidence of the state's librarians. Now that the decision has been made to find a new head librarian, we need to get involved by letting the BOE know what we need, and making sure that our standards are met.
Pamela Smith
Ewa Beach
Cockfighting will lead to legalized gambling
I am appalled by the recent moving ahead of a bill legalizing cockfighting. This bill will pave the way for legalized gambling in Hawaii.Why should taxpayers pay a dime to this industry? I am not willing to pay for the cruelty of animals through economic gain. Frankly, there is no assurance that all gamecocks will fight using the so-called "boxing gloves."
This bill is controversial because it involves both animal cruelty and gambling. Cockfighting has always involved different social and cultural values. It is a sensitive issue that has plagued our state for years.
Please, leave the choice to the people who will pay for it: the voters.
Nick Dvonch
Kailua
Don't turn state hospital into just another prison
Locking up repeat sexual offenders in the Hawaii State Hospital, presumably for life, is the worst possible thing to do (Editorial, Feb. 2).Due to judicial decisions, HSH already has a high percentage of forensic patients. But for a number of years, it has taken large steps toward becoming an acute-care facility that can serve the mental-health needs of our community at large. To move in the direction of making HSH the place to house untreatable sexual offenders would be counterproductive and reverse several years of gains.
Keep in mind that while it costs about $30,000 per year to imprison an offender, it takes nearly $175,000 annually to keep the same individual at the Hawaii State Hospital. If the repeat sexual offenders are not amenable to treatment, why spend the money on treatment that they do not need? And why risk exposing seriously mentally ill patients to hardened criminals?
The proper and cost-effective direction for the state to take would be to reduce or eliminate the number of forced commitments at HSH, not to increase them. This would also allow the hospital to provide the acute mental health care that Hawaii needs.
Otherwise, let's quit pretending and just call the hospital what it would become: a prison.
Ken Berke
Kailua
(Via the Internet)
Replacing Social Security numbers isn't high math
Concerning your Jan. 29 article, "Bill would ax Social Security numbers on licenses": There are about 900,000 licensed drivers in Hawaii. The story says that if new identification numbers were to be issued it would cost $450,000 for "a new computer system that would generate unique drivers license numbers" to be used in place of Social Security numbers.I can come up with 900,000 unique numbers for a lot less than the amount the city forecasts it would cost. I would start at 0,000,001HI and go to 1,000,000HI. Each number is unique and there is ample room for expansion in the system.
John P. Jinnette
Kapolei
(Via the Internet)
Underwater hotel didn't work in Australia
A high-tech hotel moored on Australia's Great Barrier Reef went bankrupt after only three years. A visitor's average stay was only three days.When I asked why tourists didn't stay longer, the answer was two-fold:
1) They couldn't take a nice walk down to the corner shops for a Burger King. They came, they dived, they left.
2) The rolling of the building with each swell made too many people ill.
I also noted that there were no large areas of lawn or gardens for an outdoor escape from the tropic sun. It was as high-tech as the bridge of the USS Enterprise.
The hotel eventually was towed to Vietnam, where it is now moored as a dockside hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.
This lesson on how not to do it is accessible to anyone planning to invest in such a project here (Star-Bulletin, Feb. 7). These facts need to be looked at before the state commits itself. Are we willing to have piles driven into the reef? Will it be a complete resort environment, financially accessible to all? Will a "Crystal Palace" have a Hawaiian sense of place?
I hate to be a wet blanket, but it seemed to be a good idea for the Australians, too. But it was a restrictive environment. There was no "escape" for a day's sightseeing. We could be building a monument to Rock Fever.
Beverly Kai
(Via the Internet)
SATC's budget should be increased, not curtailed
I am disgusted by the state Department of Health's proposed 40 percent budget cut for the Sex Abuse Treatment Center. In 1997, the center provided service for 6,400 sex assault victims and the majority were children.With one out of four girls and one out of six boys being sexually abused, how dare a budget cut even be suggested. There should be an increase in funds, not a decrease.
When is it going to be realized how important the SATC's services are -- not only to victims but to the community as a whole?
Monica A. Cobb-Adams
Kailua
Bishop Estate Archive
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