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School secretary changed
history by refusing to pour

In honor of Secretaries Day, I'd like to recount how the serving of a morning cup of coffee at Kaiser High School led to a court verdict that nixed the practice from government secretary duties statewide.

Many years ago, when I was a marine science teacher at Kaiser High School, a female student was required to fetch coffee for the male principal every day. I facetiously suggested to the principal that he alternately allow male students, such as members of our football team, to bring him his morning cup of joe, but he declined.

After my letter to the editor about the issue appeared in your newspaper, the principal ceased the practice. However, he then ordered our school's head secretary to serve him coffee.

But the secretary considered herself a professional administrative organizer and believed that serving coffee as a regular requirement was not among her duties. She appealed for legal support from her union, the Hawaii Government Employees Association.

Our secretary won her case. She showed that since her job description and that of other office employees did not include the serving of coffee, all state and city government secretaries and other employees were not required to serve coffee to their bosses.

After the principal lost the "coffee-serving case," he moved the secretary's desk to the other side of the room so she would have to walk a greater distance to deliver messages to him. Only when he departed Kaiser a few years later, and a female principal replaced him, was the practice stopped and the secretary returned to her proper office.

She has since retired, but her noble accomplishment remains.

Edward Arrigoni

It's state conspiracy to charge for everything

One dollar is too much to pay for entrance to Diamond Head. There is an insidious movement to confiscate what we already own and sell it back to us, one parcel at a time.

An annual pass will be available to those who use the Diamond Head trail daily for the low price of $10.

Rent a car, pay the state rental car surcharge, drive up Haleakala and pay the $10 entrance fee now. "Fees going up" is the inevitable headline tomorrow.

The argument that the money is to be kept on site is just a way to pretend that redistribution of the wealth of our beautiful land hasn't already gone to those with the fattest wallets.

Richard Thompson

Umpires deserve support, not back talk

I want to send my praise to umpire Curtis Cho, who recently got bashed in your April 20 sports section for throwing out two coaches and a player during the game between Kaiser and Kaimuki.

Cho made the right call. The pitch came right down the middle and it was a strike. But that's beside the point. The heated screaming, yelling, one coach's use of foul language and another's near-attack on Cho were inexcusable.

Coaches need to get it through their thick skulls that they are role models. Speaking in a calm and collected manner is more effective and admirable than yelling.

Learning how to react to anger and frustration can be one of the most valuable lessons our children can get out of playing sports. As such, we cannot subject them to negative role models.

We need umpires like Cho to keep coaches and players in line.

Kenny Akamu
Mililani

Quotables "Growing up on the Big Island, I always did believe in the system. I ain't given up on the system." Albert Ian Schweitzer SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF PAROLE AND TWO 20-YEAR TERMS FOR THE KIDNAPPING, RAPE AND MURDER OF DANA IRELAND Vowing to appeal the verdict "I might just blow your court right off the door. You're constantly protecting the prosecutors. They're corrupt to the core and you know it." Jerry Schweitzer FATHER OF ALBERT IAN SCHWEITZER Who interrupted the sentencing of his son by Judge Riki May Amano with several emotional outbursts. He explained later that he meant to expose wrongdoing by the court, not inflict physical harm.

Cuba supporters don't know that country

Having pondered both Michael Laosa's April 15 article and How Tim Chang's April 21 letter to the editor, I feel compelled to respond to anyone suggesting that life in Cuba could compare favorably to life in the United States.

I assume Chang has never visited Cuba, or any other country where freedom is suppressed under a Communist dictatorship. I doubt if Chang has spoken directly to people who have risked everything, or given their lives (such as young Elian's mother) to escape such tyranny. I doubt if Chang has read, much less tried to understand, the Constitution of this country.

I suggest that all who wish to reunite Elian with Castro should be asked why so many Cubans would leave a place where "life compares favorably to the U.S."

Rick Rogers
Haleiwa

Startling photo may launch more terrorism

Elian has been reunited with his father, although the force of the action was startling to everyone. The supporters of the administration will defend it and detractors will state that this plan was way out of bounds.

Al Gore and George W. Bush, wisely, are not making this a big issue.

My big concern is this: The administration hasn't learned from its mistakes. The short-term victory of today will become tomorrow's rally for some anti-government group of crazies.

Was the government's heavy hand in dealing with groups at Ruby Ridge or Waco worth the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City? Not to any sane person. However, we are not always dealing with sanity in the long term.

I fear that the government has planted a new diabolical seed in the minds of some people out there, and their future mayhem on innocents will be based on a photograph of a government agent seizing a little boy.

Brian Benton

Elian's abduction will hurt Gore campaign

Bye-bye, Gore.
Your boy, Clinton,
broke down the door.
Bye-bye, Gore.

Michael K. Griffith

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