Trustees betrayed vows by considering move

The three former majority trustees of the Bishop Estate are indignantly condemning their critics for having persuaded four of the five Hawaii Supreme Court justices to remove themselves from the trustee-selection process. These former trustees say it is a violation and desecration of Princess Pauahi's will to make this single change.

But we now learn that the former trustees, presumably including these three, spent substantial estate dollars to explore transforming the estate into a for-profit corporation, based on the mainland.

Perhaps these three can explain to the public 1) how what they were trying to do would not have constituted a complete violation of Princess Pauahi's will and 2) how such a transformation would have been in the best interests of the estate's beneficiaries.

Alan B. Burdick
Via the Internet

Bishop Estate Archive

Hawaiian studies center shows its arrogance

Who gave the University of Hawaii Center for Hawaiian Studies the right to dictate who will and will not be hosted in what I still believe is a public, state-funded, educational facility?

Such arrogance was blatantly apparent in Japan's Princess Sayako's being denied into the center. Such acts increasingly paint the center as an arena where self-serving, self-righteous discontent and protest are fervently accepted and disseminated.

Of much greater concern is the question, "Who is running the university and, moreover, the state?" How is it possible that the Center for Hawaiian Studies has been bequeathed so much power that it can go before an important foreign national and embarrass not just the state, but all of its people? AUWE!

Howard Chi

Why different standards for cars, stretch limos?

Why is it that people can get cited for drinking or having open liquor containers in their cars, yet the stretch limousines have bars in them and drinking goes on in them all the time?

Just because they are business people should not give them the privilege to do something that we cannot do. I do not advocate drinking in cars, but why the double standard?

John Aveiro
Kailua
Via the Internet

Quotables "While I would have preferred to have been able to serve out my term, I resign knowing that I have served to the best of my ability for the honor and mission of Ke Alii Pauahi and the children of Kamehameha and Hawaii nei." Oswald Stender BISHOP ESTATE TRUSTEE Permanently and unconditionally resigning in a letter to the estate's court-appointed interim trustees "When I was a kid, the ditch was my playground. Now I get paid to play." Ray Kanehailua CHIEF OF OPERATIONS FOR THE KOHALA MOUNTAIN KAYAK CRUISE Who grew up in North Kohala, joined the Army and returned to the Big Island to take visitors kayaking along the Kohala Ditch

Swap meet at stadium must be cleaned up

I wonder how often the Star-Bulletin's editorial staff frequents the Aloha Flea Market. A quick walk-through is all that is needed to open one's eyes to potential opportunities for criminal activities such as copyright infringement in the reproduction of logo designs, resale of possible stolen merchandise, illegal immigrant employment and non-payment of general excise taxes.

Ask anyone where they think stolen items will end up. Nine times out of 10, the speculation will be "at the swap meet."

Should the state close its eyes and continue to rake in revenues? Or should it attempt to level the playing field for legitimate small business operators, many of whom are struggling to make payroll and general excise tax payments?

Without completely researching the potential criminal activities being investigated, it was irresponsible for the Star-Bulletin to take a position on this issue. Your readers may construe it as support for the current swap meet operator and his operation.

J. Thalmann
Via the Internet

Overbearing government causes the problems

Your Sept. 20 editorial found prosperity and shortages in Silicon Valley and inferred the first caused the second. Additional correlations might suggest a different conclusion.

Hawaii has all the problems the editorial cited for Silicon Valley -- expensive housing, inadequate schools, traffic jams and a brain drain. Since Hawaii has not been prospering for several years, prosperity may not be the root of these problems. And since Silicon Valley is on the mainland, island status may not be to blame for our woes.

The one common ingredient in all the problem areas is the heavy hand of government. Neither Hawaii nor Silicon Valley has a scarcity of restaurants, hardware stores, movie theaters or anything else that is relatively free of government control.

Public schools and highways are planned, owned and operated by the government. As if that were not enough to botch the works, restrictions on competition in transportation force people to drive themselves to work, and zoning laws further strain the highways as businesses are forced to locate far from their employees and customers.

Housing prices are inflated by zoning laws, building codes and property taxes. The brain drain is just the natural result of people's desire to escape the government-caused problems.

The lesson to be learned in the exodus from Hawaii and Silicon Valley to areas with less government interference is that with a lot less government here, the quality of life could improve enormously and our children could stop fleeing the islands.

Lane Yoder
Kaneohe
Via the Internet

Stray balloons could be hazardous to ocean life

When the Boise State football team played the University of Hawaii Rainbows at Aloha Stadium, I saw something bad. Before the game started, the Boise fans let go a big bunch of blue and orange balloons.

Whatever goes up must come down. Well, the only place for the balloons to come down is in the ocean, where our beautiful fish, sea turtles and other sea creatures may eventually eat the popped balloons. Then they will choke and probably die!

On this island, we care for our environment. We don't want our sea animals dying.

Nicole Katekaru
Age 9
Mauka Lani Elementary School
Kapolei

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