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It's cruel to deny freedom to Cuban boy

The Immigration and Naturalization Service is right. Elian Gonzalez' father does have parental rights over the child, but the analysis does not stop there. Even in our system of justice, the father's rights are not paramount over the welfare of the child.

Does the father have the right to decide his son shall resume life under a repressive regime? In the U.S., a father who physically and mentally abuses a child may be fined or imprisoned.

To millions around the world, living without freedom is beyond physical abuse. It is violence to their very being. Elian's mother made the ultimate sacrifice so he could live in freedom.

I remember the incident when a Russian crewman jumped ship and pleaded for asylum, only to be turned back by our Coast Guard to Russian authorities. The country and our government were furious then. Where is that anger now?

Wouldn't it be ironic and tragic if the country that stands as a beacon for freedom turns this boy away?

Nelson S.W. Chang

Quotables "I personally feel it's going to be a very productive session. We've got two big issues already -- fireworks and prisons. And I told the caucus I don't want to vacillate about a prison." Calvin Say Speaker of the State House of Representatives On the upcoming legislative session "I think the governor is in the driver's seat. You've got 13 of the 25 senators up for (re-)election. They've gotten a snoot-full from their constituents about Bronster/Anzai." Sam Slom Republican state senator Who believes Earl Anzai will be confirmed as attorney general, replacing Margery Bronster

Fix the turn near Pearl City Post Office

Whenever I go to the Pearl City Post Office on Acacia Road off Kamehameha Highway, there is a traffic tie-up due to the sharp, almost 120-degree turn required to get into the parking lot. Whoever designed that entrance didn't know the turning radius of average automobiles.

A motorcycle can make the turn OK, but I've seen drivers of even compact cars almost have accidents trying to negotiate the sharp turn without running over the curb and ruining their tires or going into the outbound lane.

Why not round off the curb, which will facilitate easier turning and less slowing of traffic?

C.W. Chaffee
Pearl City
Via the Internet

Many were honored for helping AJAs

In his Dec. 7 column, A.A. Smyser suggested that there should be "a statue to honor the men, little known today, who saved Hawaii's Japanese from mass internment in World War II."

The suggestion is well taken. Those named by Smyser -- Robert L. Shivers, Charles Hemenway and Col. Kendall J. Fielder -- are those whom the Japanese community earlier acknowledged its "on" (debt of obligation).

The Governor's Coordinating Committee for the 1985 Japanese 100th Anniversary Celebration undertook a systematic selection of persons who substantially assisted Japanese immigrants as well as their descendants during the 100 years of their existence in Hawaii.

A committee -- comprised of chairman Ted T. Tsukiyama and members Mary Bitterman, Masaji Marumoto, Dennis M. Ogawa and Smyser -- gathered names of non-Japanese "persons who often acted against the grain of peer pressures and were willing to stick their necks out to alleviate racial prejudice."

These individuals were honored at the year-end official ceremony of the Centennial Celebration in 1985. The ceremony's theme, "kansha" (in appreciation), reflected the spirit of the occasion.

Those honored -- besides Shivers, Hemenway and Fielder -- were Charles M. Hyde, Theodore Richards, Frank C. Atherton, Elsie H. Wilcox, Horace W. Vaughan, Albert W. Palmer, Miles E. Cary, Andrew W. Lind, Jack W. Hall, John E. Reinecke, Delos Emmons, Riley H. Allen, Leslie J. Hicks, Hung Wai Ching, Gilbert Bowles, Minnie Bowles, Gustav W. Olson, Samuel W. King, Joseph R. Farrington and John A. Burns.

Hideto Kono

Circle is meddling in firefighting

As a retired firefighter, I applaud the decision of Honolulu Fire Capt. Steve Ogata to cut down several trees because of the rubbish they created.

I too had several trees taken down, and I owned up and answered for it. Daily, there are many important things for firefighters to do to make their jobs safer and more efficient.

If the Outdoor Circle members think cutting down trees is vandalism, they should voluntarily clean up the rubbish created by the trees every day. It seems that such "outdoor nannies" don't have anything better to do but look for so-called infractions.

Instead of being meddlesome and pushy, they should take care of other things -- the homeless, for instance.

Alvin Ah Loo
Pearl City
Via the Internet

Police chief had right to promote his choice

I must respond to your Dec. 22 editorial on police promotions on the Big Island because you are falling prey to the same hype and rhetoric that the jury did. The contention of the plaintiffs' legal counsel was that what happened amounted to corruption and rigging. This is ridiculous.

Your contention that the system left numerous police officers the victims of a sham is equally ridiculous.

You and the jury have lost sight of the fact that a promotion is not a right.

The civil service law, in its wisdom, allows department heads the discretionary latitude to make selections for promotion from a list of eligibles. Implied in this is management's right to exercise its authority.

The unions and others would like nothing better than to usurp that right for their own ends.

Warren J. Ferreira
Deputy Chief of Police (Ret.)
Via the Internet

Cayetano should have consulted community

That Governor Cayetano could replace the Ewa Beach state representative without asking our opinion seems unfair. I voted for Paul Oshiro and expected him to serve out his two-year term.

Now that Oshiro has quit mid-way, Cayetano picks Willy Espero, whom I don't even know. If the governor is going to pick my representative, why should I even bother to vote?

Maybe we should just vote for governor, and then let him choose his own Legislature from all of his political pals.

Joan Gumm
Ewa Beach

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