Abercrombie, Mink condone perjury

C.T. Marshall's Dec. 25 letter on the House impeachment vote, especially the point about our representatives' lack of respect for the truth, rule of law and our Constitution, was dead on! Abercrombie's and Mink's willingness to let a lawbreaker remain in office says much.

Obviously, lying to the American people and perjury are acceptable to both Abercrombie and Mink. This is something we should keep in mind. Any time they utter a word, partisanship trumps truth and principle.

Fortunately, our Senate delegation offers hope. More than half a century ago, on the battlefields of Europe, Daniel Inouye helped write the book on courage and sacrifice. While my political views differ from Inouye's, I have great respect for him and for his history of defending the rule of law and doing what is right.

This is a man who understands the principles at risk at this historic time. I hope and trust that Inouye will once again uphold the rule of law, protect our Constitution and take the necessary steps to restore honor to the presidency.

Robert R. Kessler
Commander, USN (Ret.)

Vouchers aren't answer to better public schools

Recent letters to the editor have proposed using vouchers in Hawaii to improve public schools. While vouchers will subsidize those parents who struggle financially to send their children to private school, it will not improve public schools.

After 20 years of being a parent, teacher and counselor inside the public school arena, I believe real improvement has occurred when the following conditions are present:

Smaller class sizes and more support for the classroom teacher.
Effective discipline by administrators to prevent disruption in the learning environment.
Parents/guardians who are involved in their children's education and share responsibility for their children's behavior.

The next challenge faced by legislators is to come up with meaningful consequences for discipline problems (which take up about 20 percent of a teacher's time) other than spanking!

Jim Wolfe

Hawiian elder taught simple, direct truths

Uncle Tom Maunupau died on Dec. 6 at the age of 72. Little known by the general public, he will always be revered in the kanaka maoli community for his simple, truthful and direct teachings, which he lived to the fullest. Here are my favorites:

If the initial act by the U.S. against kanaka maoli was wrong, and on which their power and system are based, how can anything after it come out right?
The U.S. acknowledges that this is our homeland. Then why do we have to fight to get our land back?
Only our sovereignty, language and culture can save us from genocide and total destruction.

Kekuni Blaisdell

Mayor, City Council are generous with our money

When it comes to raising taxes, Honolulu's mayor and City Council want to have their cake and eat it, too.

In the past, they were afraid to incur the ire of taxpayers by increasing the property tax rate. Instead, they chose to raise "fees" rather than "taxes," increased the cost of existing user fees and invented a number of new ones to pay for services previously covered by general funds.

They chose to increase fees that tend to hurt those with less ability to pay and discourage usage rather than to increase the more equitable and deductible property tax.

Today, they do not choose between one or the other. They want to increase the whole kit and caboodle: higher fees, more new fees and higher property tax rates.

While the mayor, the Council and their friends are eating cake, it looks like the rest of Honolulu will be scraping burnt rice from the bottom of their pots.

Richard Y. Will

Humanity is lacking toward people of Iraq

An important point was missed in your Dec. 17 article on the reaction of Muslims at the Islamic Center to the bombing of Iraq. As a Muslim, I am compelled to say that the United States had no business bombing Iraq or any country -- and not because Ramadan is about to begin.

Saddam Hussein may be a bad leader but, as Abdul-Rashid Abdullah said, the poor people of the country should not have to suffer. It is clear that the United States is not having a problem with Saddam. If he was the problem, we would have easily "exterminated" him long ago.

The fact is the U.S. has to maintain power over other countries, especially now that Clinton has been faced with his impeachment proceedings. What dictatorial country would not want to rid the world of all Muslims? Iraq sounds like a good place to start.

I wonder if Iraq would get all this attention from the U.S. if it had no oil. It is obvious to the world that the U.S. is solely attentive to its own interests. Would it hurt to be a little humane?

Shereen El-Kadi
Kaneohe
(Via the Internet)

Cost saving comes at employees' expenese

A new cost-saving measure rolled out by Medicare earlier this year has knocked out Castle Medical Center's Pulmonary Extended Care Department. At least 20 positions at the department will be eliminated.

What is the cost-savings measure when people lose their jobs? People must change the way they think. Is it more important to have new cost savings measures at the expense of people's lives? I just don't get it!

Von Dent
Aiea
(Via the Internet)

Natatorium restoration doesn't make sense

What sort of hard facts are lacking to stop the construction of a new Duke Kahanamoku pool at the Natatorium? Does it make any sense to create a salt-water pool at enormous expense in an area of prime beach front?

Why are there no successful salt-water pools on ocean fronts anywhere? Is it because they cannot be designed to avoid pollution and sand built-up? How can Honolulu afford this boondoggle when the economy is so bleak?

It makes no sense. The Natatorium should be a simple memorial to World War I veterans overlooking a pristine beach in the heart of Waikiki. It could be that facts are irrelevant when really big construction dollars are at stake.

Phil Olsen
(Via the Internet)

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