Humorist is right about senator's conflict

Charles Memminger is right on! His April 23 column, "Ige's stand likely to backfire," was one of the most incisive articles I've read among the volumes written regarding local politics and the Bishop Estate debacle.

I echo Memminger's opening line: "Democratic Sen. Marshall Ige might technically represent Kaneohe but he doesn't represent me and, I suspect, quite a few of his other constituents."

Ige's arrogance is indeed appalling in his obvious conflict of interest and refusal to recuse himself in the decision to reappoint Attorney General Margery Bronster.

Former Rep. Terrance Tom --and I emphasize the word "former" -- incited the ire of Windward voters when he failed to absolve himself of his dubious relationship with Bishop Estate. May I suggest to Ige that a wise sage once said, "Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it."

Paul A. Hughes
Kaneohe
Via the Internet

Bronster foes won't get re-election support

Here's how it is: I will contribute to the campaign funds of ANY opponent of ANY senator who votes against the confirmation of Margery Bronster as state attorney general.

James R. Olson
Via the Internet

'Broken Trust' authors stepped forward too late

I'm tired of hearing from the "Broken Trust" authors, who are so concerned with the well-being of Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate. Where were they when the State of Hawaii and the City and County of Honolulu passed the land-theft laws, which allowed the abrogation of legal contracts and theft of estate lands?

The same entity that was instrumental in the loss of major trust assets, the State of Hawaii, then stepped in. It has attempted to gain control of the estate under the guise of protecting the beneficiaries. It seems such a misguided and futile effort on its part to focus on the trustees and miss the continual theft of leased single-family and condominium lands.

It is estimated that approximately $1-2 billion of the trust corpus (land assets) was stolen with the passage of these laws, well beyond any losses the estate may have suffered at the hands of the trustees.

These authors may be heroes to others (including a number of alumni and staff), but I say they arrived too late and with too little. As Hawaiian leaders, they should step back and decide who are the really big crooks.

Robert Rosehill
Hilo
Via the Internet

Bishop Estate Archive

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"I have faith in the people I work with. They are good people. They know what they are doing." Karl Feist ARMY SPECIALIST, BRAVO COMPANY, 2ND BATTALION, 3RD BRIGADE During the 25th Infantry Division's urban warfare training in preparation for maneuvers such as putting ground troops in Yugoslavia "In addition to the three Rs -- reading, writing and arithmetic -- we need to teach a fourth: relationships." Martha Ross PRESIDENT OF THE VIOLENCE PREVENTION CONSORTIUM On the need to institute peace-making programs in Hawaii's public schools

Closing Hawaii State Hospital is bad idea

The proposal to close the Hawaii State Hospital is a hasty solution to a problem that can be corrected with its existing staff. We don't let inmates out of the prisons because the criminal justice system has problems, do we?

The hospital's administrators are more than capable of remedying whatever difficiencies are present. If not, why not do as the new UH football coach has done? Find new personnel who can do the job.

Lloyd H. Yamase
Via the Internet

Schools are too much like prisons

The prison-like aspects of public schools have been largely overlooked as contributing factors in tragedies such as the shooting in Colorado. Yet compulsory education laws confine millions of young people in public schools.

Students cannot escape from offensive or threatening situations, and neither side in any conflict can be removed. This inevitability can make their plight seem hopeless.

The forced togetherness can also intensify bullying and erode students' capacity to cope with it. Some students are harassed day after day, year after year, at an age when they are least adept at dealing with social stress and when winning acceptance is most important. The perpetual torment may seem unbearable.

Psychologists say conditions perceived as intolerable and hopeless are exactly what produce extreme acts of desperation. When these conditions are so widespread, a few such acts should not be surprising.

Lane Yoder
Kaneohe
Via the Internet

Don't blame gays for violence, child abuse

Since the last election, it has become popular to blame homosexuals for everything. So it is no surprise that Jay Bauckham links the tragedy in Colorado to homosexuals (Letters, April 24). Part of the problem, he says, is lesbian mothers raising children.

Bauckham needs a lesson in geography and perhaps some common sense. We live in Hawaii, where two extremely high-profile cases involve heterosexual mothers killing or abusing their children occurred. The children who perpetrated the crime in Colorado were also products of heterosexual families, and upper-middle class ones at that.

Blaming homosexuals is popular, thanks to Mike Gabbard and his supporters, but it keeps society from dealing with the real causes of these issues and preventing such tragedies in the future.

Don Harryman
Via the Internet

Clinton can't be blamed for Colorado shootings

Jay Bauckham writes that because Reagan and Bush "valued the family," there were no school massacres during their presidential terms (Letters, April 24 ). One has to wonder, though, if Bauckham started with his conclusion, then went in search of incidents to support it. Perhaps his political agenda led him to overlook the five children murdered and 30 wounded with an assault weapon in a Stockton schoolyard in 1989.

We can't analyze the nation's course, moral or political, from a handful of tragedies, no matter who was president when they occurred. While well-publicized school shootings in the suburbs have risen in recent years, the overall rate of killings in schools has dropped during the same time.

Making political hay of the horror in Colorado benefits nobody.

Mike Morton
Mililani
Via the Internet

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