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Saturday, May 29, 1999

School officials ought to know violence stats

I have been haunted daily since the untimely, cruel death of Iwalani Kaleikoa, who died trying to break up a fight between two students. I realize that there are no easy answers to such a loss, but I was struck by the devastating statistics on assaults and disorderly conduct in Waianae schools (Star-Bulletin, May 14).

The five schools in the state with the highest numbers of these incidents are Waianae High, Waianae Intermediate, Nanakuli High/Intermediate, Campbell High and Molokai High/Intermediate. Yet Amy Martinson, principal of Waianae Intermediate, was quoted as saying: "To me, Waianae is a wonderful middle school." She evidently wasn't aware of the glaring statistics that put her school second on the assault list.

Why didn't she know about such horrendous statistics? There is no doubt that the teachers work hard, but such statistics would hardly profile a "wonderful" school. I'll bet that, daily, many parents send their children to that school and the others with serious, well-founded safety concerns. This situation is shameful!

Where is the DOE in all of this? Shouldn't principals and administrators be aware of such statistics?

D. Diane Ackerson

Media coverage creates public lust for tragedy

Some people are trying to pin the recent tragedy in Littleton on video games. That's unfounded rhetoric. As much as people don't want to hear it, games do not encourage violence. They merely feed our hunger for it.

Our society lusts for tragedy. Why else would "news" programs spend so much time covering certain events? It certainly isn't necessary but it is "interesting."

The media are naming games like "Doom" as the cause of our problems, when they are merely trying to hide the fact that they themselves are to blame.

Andrew T. Park
Wahiawa
Via the Internet

Don't blame guns for failings of people

If there is a tragedy comparable to the mindless shooting at Columbine High School, it is this: Americans, led by the media and the liberal left, are blindly turning their backs on individual rights. Based on the acts of two or three deranged youths, we are eagerly trashing our constitutionally guaranteed rights.

It isn't guns. Blaming an inanimate object is intellectually lazy but affords the luxury of not having to face the truth. Using this reasoning, we should have gotten rid of automobiles years ago.

It isn't guns, it's us. We caused this tragedy. We let the government continue to take a bigger share of what we earn. We let our schools go to hell because we were too busy working to be bothered with what was happening to our children. We did that.

Patrick Nisley
Via the Internet

Quotables "The community has always been supportive, and we've been taking from them for a long time. So they deserved to get something back." Xavier Bicoy MEMBER OF MOLOKAI HIGH'S BASEBALL TEAM On how the entire island is reveling in the school's first-ever state championship "It's kind of sad because we have so many regular customers who are like family. They're telling us, 'Where are we going to eat from now on?' They look lost." Nora Agustin MANAGER OF ANDY'S DRIVE-INN On the closing of the Kailua eatery after 42 years in business

Meditation would aid NATO peace efforts

NATO's foolhardy attempt to bomb peace into Kosovo is making the world situation increasingly volatile.

There are cheaper, faster, better and far less violent ways to address the root cause of the conflict. One such peacekeeping technology, which the U.S. government has rejected, is the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program.

Forty-three studies have found that when only 1 percent of the people in a community or nation practice TM and the advanced TM-Sidhi program together, greater peace and harmony occur, resulting in a dramatic decrease in violence such as crime and even military conflict.

Regarding the comparative costs of these technologies, one F-117 bomber tailfin ($33 million) would pay for a group of TM-Sidhi practitioners and end the crisis in days. Compare this to NATO's $15.6 billion conventional cost of resolving the conflict.

Blair Butterfield
Koloa, Kauai
Via the Internet

Voters must be the first to change

On Nov. 15, 1998, following the election, I wrote the following in a real estate newsletter I put out for existing and potential clients for some 19 years.

The people of this state re-elected the status quo. As such, the Democrats will talk a lot but will see no reason to change or ruffle their nicely feathered nest, and there will be no substantive change in the way things are done here. Specifically, consider very objectively the chances that the following will change:

(1) Reduced size of government? Absolutely zero; each government worker, plus his relatives, has a vested interest in not seeing any reduction, so after a 40 percent increase in the government payroll during the Waihee administration, you've really got to be kidding.

(2) Privatization of government services? Absolutely zero; a legislature re-elected by union support isn't about to take them on.

(3) Reduction or elimination of overlapping government regulations? Absolutely zero; more regulation means more reason for government employees. See (1) above.

(4) Better education, a voice in school control, and choice of schools? Absolutely zero; the teachers' union is far too well entrenched to yield control. See (1) and (2) above.

And (5) Creation of new jobs? Absolutely zero; without any incentives for new business and with the most expensive and regulated economy in the U.S. for new business, the environment created by 40 years of one-party rule has finally come home to roost and, per (1) to (4) above, cannot help but continue.

I leave it to your readers to evaluate the validity of my predictions.

R. W. Parkinson
Via the Internet

Comfortable flights would boost tourism

I have traveled regularly to Hawaii since 1959, when I was a freshman at UH. At that time airplane travel was a pleasure and extremely comfortable.

However, we are finding the trip more and more uncomfortable due to the airline's tight seating arrangement and general decline in service. The trip from Orlando is not a pleasant experience in tourist class.

Perhaps the airlines could consider combining forces and coming up with a more comfortable airplane with more room and better service, at least from the West Coast. Charges could be slightly higher, but not in the astronomical range of first-class prices.

Ed Frame
Clermont, Fla.
Via the Internet

Legislature Directory
Hawaii Revised Statutes

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