Voters always forgive naughty lawmakers

Our legislators are very much like a naughty child. The more they get away with, the more overtly they take advantage of us.

Each year in May, they are scolded by a few irate citizens. Then at election time, they are returned to office. "You'll be good next time, won't you?" the public seems to say.

This year, they are receiving major scoldings because they've been very, very naughty. Will we be ready to punish them this time? Spare the rod, spoil the child.

Robert Chanin
Kailua

Let's oust the Senate and go unicameral

All righty, we're No.1 at last. We have the most inept, most corrupt politicians in the United States and are way ahead of all other Third World countries.

Does anyone know a better reason for continuing to have a state Senate?

If not, let's seriously take actions to eliminate the Senate and go to a one-branch legislative body. Stop this costly charade of saying that the two separate bodies provide a check-and-balance system.

V. D. Thomason
Kailua

Legislature had better listen to small business

It would be a major mistake by Democratic legislators and the governor to believe that the public workers of Hawaii are solely responsible for their successful election to office.

Many owners of small businesses, such as myself, campaigned on behalf of Democratic candidates. Many of us place our roots in Hawaii's plantation history.

Rest assured that those of us who take risks and create the jobs that produce the tax revenues to support the government are just as active as union lobbyists at the state Legislature.

Small business owners will continue to develop the ability to defeat candidates who fail to work for all the people of Hawaii.

Beverly Wolff Harbin

Quotables "In the system of boys vs. girls, I was somehow in between. I did things in the manly world but my spirit was elsewhere." David Deblieck Hawaii dancer On the premise behind his one-person show, "Portrait of a Sissy," at the Honolulu Academy of Arts Theatre "He never seem healthier or happier about going home." Will Morris Friend of Mark Tuinei Describing how Tuinei, the former star NFL offensive lineman. was looking forward to returning to Hawaii before being found dead in his car in Plano, Texas

Hawaii needs its own medical school

I am dismayed by the possible demise of the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine.

Governor Cayetano's wish is to keep our best students in the islands, and to make the UH school of medicine the best in the Pacific. But it is antithesis of this desire to close the medical school, after years of providing medical training for local students.

Providing locally trained physicians has much more worth to the majority of people living in Hawaii. students would be deprived of their life-long dream of becoming doctors.

We would lose most of our brightest as, in most cases, the majority of those who matriculate on the mainland tend to stay there for employment.

Lillian S. Masaki

Why are we giving advice to Vermont?

An April 24 article quoted the last paragraph of a letter sent to Vermont voters, which contained a self-fulfilling prophecy for Mike Gabbard and legislators Mark Moses, Bob McDermott, Jan Yagi Buen, Jonathan Chun, David Matsuura, Sam Slom, Mike Kahikina, Dennis Arakaki, Colleen Meyer and Norman Sakamoto: "(They) will brand us as homophobic and hate-filled bigots."

I want to thank them for telling us the truth about themselves.

Mike Golojuch
Makakilo

HPU boasts best travel industry school

In A.A. Smyser's April 13 column, "Expand UH travel school," he wrote, "Hawaii ought to have one of the best travel industry training schools in the world."

We do. It's at Hawaii Pacific University! We have the most comprehensive Travel Industry Management (TIM) program in the Pacific, with 492 students from 94 countries this past fall.

The excellence of this program affects the tourism industry in Hawaii and worldwide.

Helen Varner
Vice President of University Relations
Hawaii Pacific University

Filling A.G. shoes will be a challenge

I am deeply honored that Governor Cayetano asked me to serve the people of Hawaii as acting attorney general. It is the opportunity of a lifetime for which I will always be grateful.

We are greatly saddened that the Senate removed our leader against the will of the people. At this time in our state's history, it is sobering to know that I have been entrusted with the great responsibility of caring for a proud department that recently lost its beloved leader, Margery Bronster.

It is a time for healing within our department and this is my first priority.

I have been with the department for four years that were proceeded by more than two decades of service in the Army, including a Vietnam tour as an infantry platoon leader. My ranger, airborne and jungle warfare schooling uniquely qualified me to join Margery as her first deputy in her courageous battles, including the assault against the sacred trust of our Hawaiian children.

Margery had the courage to stand up for the defenseless beneficiaries and I vow to continue this battle until Governor Cayetano appoints his new attorney general.

We can be confident that Governor Cayetano will select a leader with unqualified integrity, uncommon intellect and ruthless courage. He did it before, and he can do it again. Governor Cayetano knows this selection may be his most important duty for the remainder of his term.

Our department has the talent and a renewed commitment born of Margery's loss. We remain dedicated to serving the people of Hawaii.

Thomas R. Keller
Acting Attorney general