Trustees' ouster would mitigate Bronster loss

Just when Henry Peters and Dickie Wong were congratulating themselves for the ouster of Margery Bronster from office, along comes Judge Kevin Chang to shock them back to reality.

Perhaps on Friday Judge Chang will see fit to make a real clean sweep of this whole mess by firing the whole shameful lot who have, for so long, degraded and defamed the name of Ke Ali'i Pauahi and her Kamehameha Schools.

Robin Williams Makapagal
Kamehameha School for Girls
Class of 1968
Kaneohe

Democratic Party apology shows disloyalty

What a cowardly and disloyal act for the Democratic Party to not back up its own people. There has been absolutely no proof of wrongdoing, and to cave in because of some public sentiment just shows how weak and opportunist the Democrats are.

The governor says a deal was cut between senators to vote down both Margery Bronster and Earl Anzai. I say prove it! Bronster says the trustees are doing wrong. I say prove it!

If there is proven wrongdoing then, and only then, should anybody be forced to resign or go to jail.

Bias is not a one-way street.

Steve Tayama
Waimanalo

No heroes to be found in the state Senate

Tuesday as the Senate closed, none of the 14 senators who had voted against Margery Bronster's reconfirmation spoke up to change his or her vote to reflect the will of the electorate, as expressed by thousands of messages they received in the past few days.

The requests and petitions were for at least two heroes of the people to come forward.

None did. We ask why? What caused such an entrenchment?

Perhaps the investigations now being planned will unearth the truth behind the sandbagging of Bronster by this slim majority.

Not only did we lose our courageous and incredibly popular attorney general, but democracy itself took a serious hit in Hawaii during the past week and a half.

While this one battle may be over, the war will rage on until the old boy network and cronyism die in this state.

We WILL remember and we WILL NOT re-elect those 14 senators who failed to represent the voice of the electorate.

We will find new heroes for the people.

Mahalo, Margery, for awakening the true spirit of democracy in us and for providing a model of courage for us to speak out against injustices, as you have done so boldly for us.

Marilyn "Mele" Welte
Hawaii Kai

Quotables "In terms of overall grade, I would give an 'F' to any entity that would not confirm Margery Bronster (to a second term as attorney general), but would have Cliff Uwaine (convicted of voter fraud in 1986) come out of committee." Peter Carlisle City prosecutor On his assessment of the 1999 state legislative session "We're hitting singles, and people may not be happy or satisfied with singles, but they have to realize that government can only do so much." Norman Mizuguchi Senate president On the performance of the 1999 Legislature

Bishop trustees don't need to be educated

I disagree totally with the trustee criteria espoused by both the "Broken Trust" authors and the Kamehameha Alumni Association. Why? Harry Weinberg did not have a master's degree (he didn't even graduate from high school) nor did he know anything about Hawaiian culture.

All Weinberg did was amass a fortune at the expense of the Big Five. He defeated most of his adversaries with common sense, great financial instinct and hardball negotiation. Today his legacy helps the community.

Vernal P. Lindsey
Kamehameha Schools,
Class of 1961

Racism at island schools

You learn to live with racism -- or leave

After reading your April 23 articles on racial tension in public schools, I was reminded of my first day of school and the first couple of years of my stay in Hawaii. It's sad to hear that not much has changed there.

It's not easy to be a white kid, black kid or any kind of kid in grade school in Hawaii, if you weren't born there. This is a rite of passage, it seems. If you stick out, you will be picked on. The interesting thing is that we all stick out at one time or another. Some of us adapt. Some of us don't.

Because of Hawaii's variety of races, it becomes easy to label incidents as purely racial, but likely there are other reasons in addition to a person's skin color that cause children to pick on one another. I don't mean to diminish anyone's pain, but you either tough it out or leave. It's kid stuff.

Bill D'Agostino
Tucson, Ariz.
Via the Internet

We have two groups only: locals and non-locals

Newcomers to Hawaii don't understand the culture and tend to compare this place to the mainland or wherever they're from. However, that's not right: Groups aren't broken up into races here as much as divided between locals and non-locals.

Locals accept people who are like them (i.e. humble, concerned about each other's welfare, and can tease another person about his or her race). When they meet somebody new, they tend to test him or her -- to see if he or she is local, too. If he or she takes offense to a "racial epithet," that's a big clue that he or she is not local. Then the locals tend to pick on that person as being clueless and thus haole.

Of course, the newcomer doesn't know what's happening and thus becomes defensive, since he or she takes it as a personal attack. But this is not broken down among racial lines because even a Hawaiian can be ostracized.

However, Caucasians are more likely to get picked on initially because most locals feel Caucasians look down on them. This is probably residue from the days of the plantation and the missionaries.

Leslie Ching
Senior, Mid-Pacific Institute
Via the Internet

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