Season ticket holders never got past the gate

Auwe! I am a new season ticket holder for the University of Hawaii football team. Unfortunately, I never got in to see the game Saturday night.

After sitting in traffic for three hours only to reach the parking lot gate and be told it was sold out, we turned around and went home!

Why was there no parking at Richardson Field? Why are the police there if they only stand by and watch the worst traffic jam ever and do nothing to move the cars along?

Why have Express Bus service only for Windward and downtown? Why push for a sell-out and then be totally unprepared for it?

How about asking the Navy to allow parking at Pearl Harbor and running shuttle buses?

No wonder this state is in such an economic mess. no one has enough sense to realize what to do with 50,000 people after they took our money for tickets. Once it was in their pockets, they didn't care!

Ray Cranage
Mililani
Via the Internet

Taking stock of the Rainbows

Let your sportswriters have Saturday off and send a business correspondent to the Hawaii-Eastern Illinois football game.

Had you done so last Saturday, the report might have read:

"As expected, the new venture was clobbered by the competition during its first two quarters but surpassed internet stocks in the last half, blunting competitor growth by a staggering 90 percent!"

Your banker may want to "wait and see," but money knows "he who hesitates is lost!" So it is either "BUY!" or "bye-bye!"

Rico Leffanta
Via the Internet

Departing fans let down struggling UH players

I attended the UH-USC football game Saturday, and was overwhelmed by the support that the people of Hawaii gave to their university.

When the players ran into the stadium, thousands of people were on their feet applauding. It was a beautiful sight to see.

But the team received so much criticism. More than half of the crowd left before the third quarter was over. Yes, UH did not do so well in the first half, but in the second half, the team did so much better and even scored 7 points of its own.

I was disappointed, not in the team, but in the fans. The football players worked so hard for this game and were greeted with basically an empty stadium while they stood strong and sang their alma mater after the game was over.

I can only say one thing: I have faith in the University of Hawaii football team. GO 'BOWS!

Jerrilyn Thompson
Via the Internet

Quotables "When (coach) said, 'I think we're going to go with Lily,' I thought, 'What are you talking about?' I didn't think I deserved it. I'm too young. I'm not that experienced." Lily Kahumoku UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII VOLLEYBALL PLAYER On the first start for the UH freshman from Kamehameha Schools, who finished with a team high 19 kills in the victory over UCLA "There is little in Hawaii that does not bear the imprimatur of native Hawaiiana. I pray that the Honored Justices would take this non-legal aspect of the relationship between the native people of Hawaii and the State of Hawaii into consideration." Daniel Inouye U.S. SENATOR In his legal brief supporting the state in the Rice vs. Cayetano case before the U.S. Supreme Court on the Hawaiians-only restriction for elections for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs

Aloha Festivals parade should be on TV

Aloha Festivals has been one of the largest celebrations in the state for the last 50 years. The Aloha Festivals Floral Parade is one of the largest floral parades in the nation.

Why, then, is this great parade not being televised in its entirety to the people of Hawaii?

While our local television stations show all sorts of other local programing -- from comedy specials to football games -- our very own state parade been omitted. We need to put the "aloha" back into local television programming. Televise the parade!

Onan Amos
Via the Internet

Unhappy homecoming for former isle resident

Our family left Honolulu 15 years ago for jobs on the mainland. I decided to take my two mainland-born children to Hawaii to see where I grew up and the hotel in Waikiki where I got married.

Much to my amazement, there was no street parking anywhere near Waikiki; the only public lot we could find near the beach hotels charged $2 for every 20 minutes.

We walked through a few hotels and there were no lounge areas to sit to listen to the live music. We were told we had to order food or drinks to sit outside.

We never saw one local person. We heard no English spoken, only Japanese. When I attempted to get the parking validated at one of the shops in front of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, we were told we had to purchase something.

There was nothing under $200 in any store. So a stroll through Waikiki cost us $8 for parking. And you wonder why there are no local people in Waikiki!

It's very sad to see what has happened to your islands. You have prostituted yourself for the foreign dollar.

Frances Lewis
Los Angeles
Via the Internet

'Success for All' works at Pope Elementary

I'm encouraged by Pope Elementary's learn-to-read program (Star-Bulletin, Sept. 4). Kudos to Principal Louise Wolcott for her efforts.

The concept, "Success for All," is for schools with large numbers of kids without society's best advantages.

Your article reported that "not everyone praises (the system) or other structures like it." Some say that students grouped by ability all the way through the sixth grade will be labeled and limited.

In other words, their self-esteem will be scarred. Yet such criticism seems badly misplaced in lieu of a newfound, useful ability to be treasured forever.

Other critics say Wolcott's dependence upon "a schoolwide curriculum created outside the school stifles teachers' creativity and professionalism." I ask one thing: What has their "creativity and professionalism" done for us previously?

Begun in Waimanalo in January 1998, Pope Elementary is the only public school to try this system, used by 1,100 schools elsewhere. Bravo!

Ray Thiele
Kailua

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