Best presidents were initially under-rated
I agree with Keith Haugen's Oct. 28 letter that voters should look beyond mere name recognition or celebrity status when choosing their president. However, even the most sterling of resumes can't guarantee good leadership. Oftentimes success or failure depends upon the intangible -- an inherent, perhaps unforeseen, personal trait or quality that determines an ability to effectively rise to a given occasion.Historians rate Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman as among our greatest presidents. Yet all three had prior political backgrounds that belied their subsequent tenures during the most critical periods in our nation's history:
Lincoln had served but one term in the U.S. House a dozen years prior to attaining the presidency on the eve of the Civil War. More than anything else, it was his sheer will power that prevented our country's fragmentation and ended its horrific practice of human slavery.
More often than not, Americans have recognized that sometimes the best person for the job can also be the most unlikely.
Donald R. Koelper
Via the Internet
Will UH fans please behave themselves?
As a University of Hawaii graduate student, I was profoundly disappointed at how some football fans at the UH-Texas Christian game conducted themselves, particularly those behind the TCU bench and near the team locker room entrances.We promote ourselves in our tourism commercials as the people of aloha. Well, UH football fans certainly did not live up to that with their swearing and beer-guzzling stupor.
The UH fans also swore at and heckled our own team at the end of the game. Hey, remember last season when the team went 0-12? I don't think anyone expected that the team would be 6-3, win all of our road games and be in a position to go on to post-season play.
Regardless of how our team fares the rest of the season, the players deserve our respect and admiration. In addition, we need to show visiting teams and fans who come to the islands why the facility we play in is called Aloha Stadium.
Byron Toguchi
Kaneohe
Via the Internet
No one could have stopped Xerox killer
Your Nov. 3 editorial, "Hawaii stunned by worst multiple killing," suggests that employers are responsible for developing preventive strategies against workplace violence. Would even the best preventive strategy have stopped the Xerox employees from being slaughtered allegedly by co-worker Byran Uyesugi? Would an all-out federal ban on the individual possession of firearms help?Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, in an op-ed piece in the New York Times, argues for complete Treasury Department regulation over the gun industry. It is troubling that the Star-Bulletin is unwilling to do the same.
Nolan Kido
Via the Internet
It's silly to say everyone should sling a gun
The flawed logic of those who say that arming everyone is the solution is obvious. Why should we be arming ourselves in the first place? Government should protect our lives in return for the right to govern us.As a society, we should not be expected to live in an atmosphere of fear, and have to wake up with a gun next to us for self-protection. That's why we have a government in the first place, to run services like the police. I continue to place my trust in Hawaii's gun laws.
Sechyi Laiu
Waipahu
Via the Internet
Pidgin is internationally understood and used
When I left Hawaii for Europe and Africa, I never thought pidgin English would be useful. However, on my first trip to Nigeria, as I was walking to pick up my bag from the airport carousel, I was accosted by a small black child who asked me, in pidgin, if he might carry my bag for money.Then I noticed that everyone around me was speaking pidgin. It was marvelous. Without it, I would have had a difficult time working in and out of Africa for 25 years after leaving Oahu.
Pidgin is a world language. Wherever you go, if you know pidgin you stand a good chance of being understood, from New Guinea to Equatorial Guinea.
So, when I read that the value of pidgin is being questioned in Hawaii's schools, I had to write. Please don't deprive young people of a valuable resource. Be proud that you are part of a giant world culture.
Gary Busch
London
Via the Internet
Bulletin proves there's life after death
How wonderful it is to wake up this morning, log on to the Web, and find the Star-Bulletin still alive and kicking!Your refusal to roll over and play dead has put a gratifying reverse spin on a classic gaffe perpetrated by the press -- for, as it was with Mark Twain, "reports of your death have been greatly exaggerated."
Like a restless spirit on the day after Halloween, your refusal to crawl quietly into your crypt when the sun rose Nov. 1 will chill the bones of certain greedy and self-serving corporations. May they tremble as they contemplate the revenge of the Undead!
Mark LaBarre
Rockville, Md.
Via the Internet
Quotables
"I thought she had
more class than that."Dennis "Bumpy" Kanahele
NATION OF HAWAII LEADER
Reacting to Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustee
Mililani Trask's description of U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye,
who lost an arm in World War II,
as a "one-armed bandit"
"This goes far beyond looking
after the interests of the trust and
education of Hawaiian students."Larry Meacham
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF
COMMON CAUSE HAWAII On learning that the ousted Bishop Estate trustees
conducted political polling campaigns in the
districts of key lawmakers linked to the trust
Trask's reaction proves she's a 'no class' act
Well, the "one-armed bandit" reference to Sen. Dan Inouye by Mililani "I Just Wanna Be Outrageous" Trask proves one thing. Mililani ain't got one shred of class. Never had it, never will.Robert "Rabbett" Abbett
Kailua
Activists was treated unfairly by many
I am appalled by the one-sided coverage of Daniel Inouye's disparagement in the Nov. 10 Advertiser. Trustee Mililani Trask is obviously being attacked by the media as well as the senator and his sell-out friends in the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.Yes, Inouye helped Hawaiians many times by his legislative measures, but only if it benefited him or his Democratic Party in some financial way. Trask does nothing but work, and work hard, for Hawaiian self-determination, despite opposition.
Her efforts are heroic and warrant something along the lines of a Nobel Peace Prize. Inouye only perpetuates the spirit of the plantation owners -- keeping the wealthy wealthy and the poor poor.
Scott Foulk
Student
University of Hawaii
Via the Internet
Hawaiians should rebuke OHA trustee
In disbelief, I read about the verbal attack upon U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye by a trustee of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.When I first came to the Congress, Inouye was in a dominant leadership position in the Senate and provided the leadership and initiative for programs for native Hawaiians in health, education and housing programs. He did so with total dedication.
He was a great credit to Hawaii and its native people in the manner in which he represented everyone. Inouye also epitomized the best of America as an American, so it is totally offensive that he should be described as "the Japanese senator."
Inouye has distinguished himself as a proud patriot and a courageous fighter, including his service in World War II. The rest of the leadership of our Hawaiian people should rise up in outrage and publicly reject the thoughtless manner in which one OHA trustee chose to describe him.
Cec Heftel
Via the Internet
Leaders shouldn't resort to name-calling
As a Hawaiian, I am extremely upset with Mililani Trask. Senator Inouye has always worked diligently and tirelessly for all of the people of Hawaii.There is no reason for her to resort to name-calling; that is not pono. She is in a position of leadership and she should act like a leader, not a spoiled brat.
She has a responsibility to be a good role model for na keiki. If she doesn't know how to act, she should get the hell out of public office.
J. Kanakanui
Via the Internet
Inouye has been called worse by Hawaiians
I am appalled by the news coverage about statements made by Mililani Trask at an Office of Hawaiian Affairs meeting last month.This was really a cheap shot at the OHA trustee, since calling Daniel Inouye "a one-armed bandit" is nothing new in kanaka maoli sovereignty circles. In fact, he has been called worse. Trask is correct in not taking back her statements.
Even more disturbing to me, however, is that the media did not report what else was in the transcripts of the same OHA meeting. The state agency, through state officials, is attempting to derail the Hawaiian sovereignty movement by keeping the political process under the management of state bureaucrats, while usurping it from the people.
Why should the organizing be under the auspices of the State of Hawaii? It needs to be organized and under the power of the people, free from state influence and direction. This is very alarming to those of us who are pro-independence.
Samuel K. Kaeo
Via the Internet
Trask should resign for insulting senator
Insulting people is not the action of a rational person. But when someone makes fun of a person's disability, that person is one sick puppy.Mililani Trask has stooped to a new low, showing the people of these islands that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee has about as much class as a wet mop.
If she were really interested in helping Hawaiians, she should resign from OHA, retire to the backwoods and then keep her mouth shut.
Donald Allen
Legislature Directory
Hawaii Revised Statutes
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