Hawaii could still get
ban on flights over parks

Erroneous information has been recently published concerning recommendations to curb air tour flights over national parks. News reports have stated that the recommendations will not ban flights over Hawaii national parks. It said that, while some parks will be designated flight-free, none of those will be in Hawaii.

This is absolutely not true. Denis P. Galvin, acting deputy director of the National Park Service, said in a letter received on Aug. 12 that "we are unaware of any agreement that the working group has reached with regard to flight-free status for parks in Hawaii, or elsewhere."

Galvin further states that this group's recommendations are only advisory, with no final authority on these matters.

Meanwhile, the Senate Commerce Committee Chairman, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), is pushing his bill to give the National Park Service sole jurisdiction over the regulation of overflights over national parks to control excessive noise pollution. I have likewise asked for hearings on my bill, HR 1187, in the House.

Patsy T. Mink
Member of Congress

There's little point
in debating the overthrow

In response to recent commentary written by Thurston Twigg-Smith (Letter, Sept. 4), the whole sovereignty "debate" is just a lazy way for people to find some kind of identity in an increasingly difficult world.

Where do you stand on something that doesn't matter? Where were you born? What nationality are you? All this stuff is just yesterday's garbage.

Have you helped anyone today? Do you love? Do you have any feelings for this place or the people struggling to just get by here? Who got us in this mess, and how are we going to get out of it?

Why a bank building in an opulent corporate office tower in such lean times? Why are the airlines getting a tax waiver and little old ladies are getting kicked off welfare at the same time? Why is an unemployed carpenter in the same tax bracket as a Bishop Estate trustee?

Now these are the kind of questions I want to ponder, not whether an ex-spin doctor with injured pride should or shouldn't be calling the kettle black.

Bob Ikaikakukai Beach
(Via the Internet)

Kamehameha situation
is an embarrassment

As a recent graduate of Kamehameha Schools, I feel compelled to speak my mind after reading Attorney General Margery Bronster's report.

I once looked at my school as a place of pride, culture and my heritage, and I still do. But with all this talk of wrongdoings by the trustees, it is hard to tell people with pride that I attended Kamehameha.

Now among all this pilikia, it is almost shameful to say that I once attended that school.

I hope that the governor, after reading the AG's report, takes some action and punishes the trustees who have done the damage.

All I can really hope for is that it is truly resolved and that the students, staff and alumni of Kamehameha can say with pride, Imua Kamehameha!

Justin Clemente
Providence, R.I.
(Via the Internet)

Trustees should focus
on education, not spoils

How sad that less than 6 percent of our Hawaiian children are attending Kamehameha Schools.

With so many acres of land available to Bishop Estate, resources to build schools, and the funds to hire competent teachers, it is a shame that the trustees have spent more time in their castles being lords and masters.

They are counting their money rather than educating children. Auwe.

Mae Cook

---

Bishop Estate Archive

Janice Cockett shouldn't
be jailed in Texas prison

When you edited and printed my letter on Sept. 2, about the plight of the Hawaii women prisoners in Texas jails and my friend Janice Cockett, you omitted two paragraphs which were important. They were:

"Janice has a loving and supportive family and loyal friends, who made sure she had visitors (in Hawaii) as often as possible. Her sons were able to come from the mainland and spend extra time with her. But Texas is too far away and difficult for visitors.

"I, of course, am confident that she is innocent and has been wrongly convicted."

Dorothy Hazzard
(Via the Internet)

Kind gesture by the mayor
is spurned by Ben & Vicky

It is unfortunate that the governor's new wife had to take the mayor's act of kindness regarding the 911 tapes and make it political. Quite amazing is how she stressed the point that they were not trying to keep it all hush-hush.

She and Ben felt the public had a right to know. If that was not a politically orchestrated response, I don't know what is!

Jimmy Gomes
(Via the Internet)

---

Same-sex archive

---

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.