Kick out unproductive lawmakers next century

While Speaker Calvin Say seems to be getting the House in order, the Senate is still, well, the Senate. Sadly, even Speaker Say wants present Senate "leadership" (and I use that term loosely) back in power. We deserve and should demand so much more.

Will the mainland continue to sprint to new prosperity, while Hawaii plods through another unproductive session? Will legislators use committees to craft solutions or to place blame for bereft ideas?

Will endless bickering and backbiting water down, bottle up and undermine efforts at reform? Will legislators be the butt of jokes or dynamic agents of change? Will the Legislature be Hawaii's greatest Y2K bug?

We've lost a decade of prosperity and lost family, friends, businesses to greener pastures. We can't tolerate this any longer.

If Y2K legislators won't do their jobs, remember: Our recourse for legislative failures is election year 2000 and the ousting of any and all unproductive legislators.

Kerry A. Krenzke
Via the Internet

Don't dismiss all WTO protesters

Your Dec. 2 editorial, "Heed the messages at WTO demonstration," was keenly on the mark. As you pointed out, it's all too easy for people to read about the riots in Seattle, see the damage and violence, and then completely dismiss the messages of protesters. Instead, we need to question what the World Trade Organization is doing to our world.

The charges against the WTO (environmental degradation, human rights abuses and labor inequities, etc.) are critical and long standing. These charges involve complicated issues, not glamorous ones.

Luckily, there are many Web sites devoted to discussing WTO issues. Here are some pages with digested lists of concerns: www.peopleforfairtrade.org and www.ifg.org/aboutwto.html.

I do have just one concern about your editorial. You wrote that "Seattle police seemed able to distinguish between the violent and the peaceful." I believe that time -- and the stories of shocked witnesses of the violence -- will prove you sadly wrong.

S. Shawhan
Via the Internet

Quotables "It's a waste of public funds. They want to spend the money because it's free? Well, it's not free. It's federal funds." Kathy Lewis Haiku, Maui resident Opposing a country plan to replace a wooden, one-lane bridge built in 1911 with a two-lane, concrete bridge "That's why we say they can be right -- dead right. Pedestrians need to know they are not totally safe in a crosswalk, that they have to be aware of drivers." Alvin Takeshita Traffic safety engineer for state Department of Transportation and member of the four-month-old Pedestrian Fact-finding task Force On the attitude of some pedestrians that crosswalks are protective barriers

Bullies should be put in special classroom

Perhaps the state Department of Education should consider an alternative other than suspension for problem students. Since these are the very ones who need to go to school, barring them from campus is a copout.

There should be one classroom for problem students, run by a tough disciplinarian. Their recess, lunches and other breaks should be separate from the general student population. In their separate classroom, they are to do work assigned in a study hall setting. Their "suspension" is to be served in that room and they are released only upon completion of what is expected of them.

It is unfortunate that the child at Maui's Kalama Intermediate was injured by bullies. Perhaps much of the anger his family directed at school officials, however, should be aimed at the parents who raised such thoughtless youngsters. Yet we taxpayers continue to be responsible financially for the payouts demanded when someone gets hurt.

Just what is being demanded of the parents of children who believe they have a right to make school miserable for others?

Evelyn Pacheco
Hilo, Hawaii
Via the Internet

Wire service article excelled in vagueness

"Up to 100 bodies found along border," shouted the headline on the Associated Press article in your Nov. 30 issue. The first paragraph then reported that agents "believe" 100 bodies "may" have been buried on two Mexican ranches.

The second paragraph said that more than 100 persons "hypothetically could be buried in those points." One hundred bodies -- or one million bodies -- could hypothetically be buried anywhere.

Yet on the day this article appeared, CNN reported a grand total of one body had actually (as opposed to hypothetically) been found.

If this is what passes for professional journalism, we might as well switch to the National Enquirer.

Jack M. Schmidt Jr.
Kailua

Bush wants to cut taxes for the wealthy

Americans pay the third lowest taxes among the world's 25 leading industrial nations. Yet presidential candidate George W. Bush proposes to drastically cut income taxes -- most of which will benefit the very richest people.

He apparently doesn't mind cutting Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and our hopes for long-term health care. Nor does he care about the 40 million Americans who lack health insurance.

Is that what he calls "compassionate conservatism?

Jerome G. Manis

Estate supports aspiring young Leeward artists

Mahalo to Wade McVay, Donna Goth, and all present and former trustees of the Estate of James Campbell. Their six-year support of the students and teachers of Leeward Oahu District schools, with their annual Leeward Young Artist Awards program, has done much to build student self-esteem, family pride and teacher motivation.

This year, Nanaikapono Elementary School had 16 student artists exhibit their pastel drawings at the Kapolei Theatres.

We are very proud of our students and teachers, and most appreciative of the student activity and staff development support from the Campbell trustees and its public relations manager, Theresia McMurdo.

Myron K. Brumaghim

Principal Nanaikapono Elementary Nanakuli

Names of gun owners ought to be public

May I suggest that the registration files containing the names of firearms owners be made accessible on an Internet Web page? It would be nice to know which neighbors and co-workers choose to be members of the militia mentioned in our Second Amendment.

I would think that these folks would be so proud of being associated with this militia that they'd like their community to know exactly who they are.

After all, the names of those who served in the real military appeared in their local hometown newspapers upon their enlistment. I would expect our Second Amendment militia members to be publicly identified, too.

Jeffrey Herman
Via the Internet

Legislature Directory
Hawaii Revised Statutes

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