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Lawmakers should use common sense

Now that the Honolulu Police Department has caught on to the national trend of law enforcement through security cameras (Honolulu Lite, May 29, "Smile, you're on Candid Camera, Chinatown"), it won't be long before there is virtually no chance of escaping police detection.

Given this new potential for strictness, we must ask ourselves which of our laws we want to keep on the books.

Is it really necessary for a driver to receive an electronic citation if he drives faster than 45 mph on the Pali?

Must a 20-year-old face criminal prosecution for buying a six-pack? Must someone who patronizes a prostitute face the public humiliation of being arrested?

It is time for a little more candor and common sense about our legal code, before the thought we put into law enforcement outpaces the thought we put into the law itself.

Bret Heilig
Kailua

Cayetano is really sticking it to the unions

Ben Cayetano has alienated the same unions that put him in office and got him re-elected. Now, as a lame-duck governor, he wants to be the savior of our economy and the public unions to be regarded as the bad guys.

Cayetano's drive for drastic changes in civil-service policies and his anti-raise stance are very unpopular with the rank-and-file. Now he has taken on the private-sector unions by vetoing the hotel tax credit bill.

This bill would have promoted construction of new hotels and renovations of older ones, thus giving work to construction and trade union members. Members of the hotel and culinary unions will also be hurt.

Cayetano's endorsement of Jeremy Harris in his own re-election bid for mayor may be the proverbial kiss of death.

Steven Burke
Pearl City

People are what make schools excellent

Bennett-Kew Elementary Principal Nancy Ichinaga, a graduate of Waimea High School on Kauai, certainly deserves the high praise in Diane Chang's May 26 column.

I read about Ichinaga in the Los Angeles Times. She accomplished a lot without tons of money and other "necessities" touted as being "essential" to improving the quality of public education.

I just attended the 45th-anniversary reunion of my Roosevelt graduating class a few weeks ago. I saw people who came from poor backgrounds who, despite their public school education, worked their butts off and became very successful.

We were lucky to have dedicated teaching professionals at Roosevelt, plus caring parents who made us study, participate in school and pushed us to excel. Plus, we had fun, too!

Clayton Ching, M.D.
Pasadena, Calif.

Aloha to sports director headed for ESPN

We have mixed emotions about sports director Neil Everett leaving KGMB Channel 9 for ESPN (Star-Bulletin, May 17). We're sorry to see him go, but very happy for him.

We met him seven years ago when he was sports information director of Hawaii Pacific University. Tony Sellitto, Catherine's brother-in-law, is athletic director and basketball coach at HPU.

We wish Neil all the luck in the world.

Larry Norman
Elaine Norman
Catherine Sellitto
Louisville, Ky.

Justices erred in ruling on hammer murder

Your May 25 article, "Man who killed with hammer will get chance at parole," should have been on the front page. I am flabbergasted that three of Hawaii's Supreme Court justices changed the sentence in the heinous 1997 killing of Paul Ulrich by Monte L. Young at the Burger King on University Avenue.

Is there any more tortuous way of dying than having your head caved in with a hammer? Young was originally sentenced to life in prison without parole, but the three justices concluded there wasn't enough evidence to show the killing was "unnecessarily tortuous." What do they need?

Common sense should tell them that Young is a danger to society. How many killings will it take to demonstrate this? It makes me sick to think that one my family members could be his next victim.

L.M. Hinerman
Kapolei

Honolulu fire captain is role model

Your May 22 profile on Honolulu Fire Department public information officer Richard Soo touched my heart. Being away from home, it made me realize how much I miss the role models of Hawaii. Thank you for such a wonderful article.

Lia Jordan
Rutherfordton, N.C.

Criminalizing bidi cigarettes is silly

The City Council has created a brand new crime (Star-Bulletin, May 25) making it illegal to sell bidi cigarettes, which are flavored, unfiltered smokes. Apparently, these strong and unsavory (to some) cigarettes are very popular with young people.

Assuming this is true, a black market will surely spring up to supply the demand.

Ask yourself this question: Knowing that young people easily succumb to temptation, seek "forbidden fruit" and bow to peer pressure, would you prefer someone you love to get bidi cigarettes from a store owner established in the community and who has to stand behind the products, or from an anonymous black market operator who can be here today and gone tomorrow?

As for the police, they will love this new "crime." It's one more excuse for them to avoid the hard work of protecting us from burglary, assault, etc. They can now say, "We are too busy inspecting stores for bidis and trying to find blackmarket operators."

Bad law chases out good behavior. This is bad law.

Richard O. Rowland

Quotables "I told my daughter: 'I came to terms that I may die in duty. Can you?' I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. I just pray it goes as well for her as it has for me." Ardi Maioho HONOLULU POLICE SERGEANT As Debra Collins graduated from the Honolulu Police Department's 133rd student officer training class, making them HPD's first mother-daughter pair "It was kind of easy because we were all girls and it was like we were all sisters." Kara Gustafson ENCHANTED LAKE ELEMENTARY STUDENT AND ONE OF SIX GIRLS ON THE KEIKI CORALS WEB-DESIGNING TEAM On the ThinkQuest Jr. 2000 national Web site design award garnered by the students on the subject of coral reefs, which won the Windward school $11,000

Sport utility vehicles are unsafe for driver and others

Thank you for the May 27 Insight story, "R.I.P. for SUV?" As one who drives a moderate compact over much of the island every day, I agree with the author: These "tanks" are gas guzzlers and pollutant spewers, and are unsafe for their own drivers and everyone around them.

Edwin Q. White
Kaneohe

Cayetanos are helping to ruin environment

How unfortunate that the Cayetanos have "traded up" to sport utility vehicles ("Gov, 1st lady trade up to SUVs," May 27).

The 2000 model of the Lincoln Navigator slurps a gallon of imported gasoline every 12 miles in town, and spews over two pounds of climate change-inducing greenhouse gases every mile.

Governor, there is nothing classy about increased drought, rising sea levels and more hurricanes, especially when you are head of an island state.

Jeffrey Mikulina
Director
Sierra Club
Hawaii Chapter

An SUV is waste of taxpayer money

As a taxpayer of Hawaii, am I helping to pay for Governor Cayetano's new sport utility vehicle?

If so, I wish he had leased an environmentally friendly electric car like City Councilwoman Rene Mansho did.

Her deal was much better than the $697 a month for the governor's Lincoln Navigator, which he thinks is "classy." I'm sure there are state agencies with appropriate vehicles for the governor to use to "take expeditions into the mountains."

We live on an island. How about everyone driving smaller vehicles? It should start with the governor.

Pat Paterson

Automated sales calls to homes aren't illegal

I'd like to clarify a Kokua Line item about automated message delivering systems (May 23, "Putting a hold on automated sales calls"). It is erroneous to say that such automated commercial calls are illegal under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

TCPA exempts a call made to a residential line "that is made for commercial purpose but does not include the transmission of any unsolicited advertisement." It definies "unsolicited advertisement" as "advertising the commercial availability or quality of any property, goods or services."

So, if you receive an automated call from a company simply offering an opportunity to receive information, and you consent to hearing the details by pressing a number on the phone, the company has not violated the TCPA.

Phil Barnett
Kailua

Park bandstand is architectural pleasure

As I watch the ever-progressing Kapiolani Park Bandstand almost weekly, I marvel at the beauty of the structure, especially the outstanding roof with its ornate top. The gazebo-like building, with lots of space for the breezy winds to pass through, gives an impression of coolness and comfort.

I am looking forward to its completion.

Roy E. Shigemura

Blood quantum question raises more questions

Sen. Dan Akaka proposes that "native Hawaiians" who qualify for a trust relationship with the federal government and have the right to self-determination are those who have any amount of Hawaiian blood. Therefore, someone who is only 1 percent Hawaiian qualifies in his view.

Can any proponent of this blood quantum question explain why it is fair for Congress to impose upon the people of Hawaii the burden and expense of a new class of hardly Hawaiian beneficiaries?

Such persons are substantially other than indigenous, but become worthy of special rights and benefits not available to 80 percent of the population.

Paul de Silva
Hilo

Christians are called the worst names

Your May 26 story, "Name-calling does hurt, citizens tell school board members," left out the main group of people who are vilified in society: born-again Christians.

From President Clinton to homosexuals looking for support for their deviant lifestyle, the names flow from their mouths: bigot, intolerant, Bible thumper, homophobe, hypocrite, narrow-minded, violence-prone, ignorant, backward. The list goes on.

The media perpetuate their behavior by printing these descriptions of Christians, when people have a right to their religious beliefs -- even when those beliefs are based on the Holy Bible.

The Rev. Donald Spitz
Director, Pro-Life Virginia
Chesapeake, Va.

Ralph Nader is misrepresenting himself

Self-proclaimed consumer advocate Ralph Nader has been campaigning for the presidency in Hawaii on the Green Party ticket.

Although Nader won't win, it's still disturbing he's seen as a heroic supporter of consumer safety.

In reality, his alarmist campaigns don't help consumers; in fact, they do harm.

Nader has joined forces with Pat Buchanan to stop international free trade to "protect" Third World countries from "exploitation," when these same countries desperately need free trade and are actively lobbying for it.

Nader is considered a hero because of his crusade to take the Corvair off the market in the 1970s, when the same regulatory commission his allegations helped to create said that the car was safe.

He told ABC News reporter John Stossel that the community needs to be defended from airplanes, hotdogs, carpets, coffee and decaffeinated coffee.

Hawaii, of all places, should understand how regulation stifles economies. The free market empowers consumer choice in product selection more than the Ralph Naders of the world ever could.

Stuart K. Hayashi
Mililani

Gun owners should pass psychiatric exams

What was Xerox murder defendant Byran Uyesugi doing with all those guns in the first place? If you need to have your eyes checked before you can get or renew a driver's license, why shouldn't potential gun owners have to undergo a psychiatric evaluation?

Apparently, even with some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, it is still possible for unstable people to own and use guns.

Something has to be done.

Jonathan Tan
Waipahu

There's a hero in all of our families

Thank you for Cynthia Oi's inspiring May 23 article, "Wild woman," on storyteller Jeannette Paulson Hereniko. As of longtime friend of Hereniko, I can't claim to be an unbiased observer. But I learned a great deal from the article about the determination that accompanies her talent.

We can all find heroes in our own extended families, even when that doesn't seem likely at first glance. By encouraging others to find and tell their own stories, Jeannette is doing a real service to the community and beyond.

Ceil Sinnex
Springfield, Va.

China didn't deserve permanent trade status

As one of the founders of the Hawaii-China People's Friendship Association in the early 1970s, I must disagree with your May 25 editorial supporting permanent normal trade status for China.

Multinational corporations are the main beneficiaries of this change. They will now have expanded opportunities for exploiting China's resources, its minimal environmental protections and its low-wage workers. This often means shutting down operations in the U.S. and laying off workers.

This trade "liberalization" is being done for corporate mega-profits -- not to help China and certainly not for the benefit of most Americans.

China's current policies on trade union and human rights should not accord that country full trading partner status. The annual review of this status was preferable and worked as an incentive to minimize some of the worst practices.

Your editorial attack on Reps. Patsy Mink and Neil Abercrombie, who were among the first to support full diplomatic recognition of the People's Republic of China, is really an attack on labor. Jobs are definitely at stake, as they were in the NAFTA issue.

Clinton betrayed labor on both issues, to the detriment of working people here and abroad.

John Witeck

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