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D-Day deserves commemorative note

Tuesday was the 56th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy -- "D-Day." So we were extremely upset that both Honolulu newspapers failed to note this important day in history.

Not one word was printed to remember the ultimate sacrifice made that day by 6,603 Americans. While the number 56 may not be significant enough as an anniversary date, each veteran who lived through that invasion remembers June 6 every year.

The success of this invasion was the turning point of the war and, were it not for the sheer courage and determination of our veterans, the final outcome could have been very different.

World War II veterans are leaving us at the rate of approximately 1,500 per month. It would not have hurt to recognize them, both those who paid the ultimate price and those who survived.

Sally and Fred Ballard
U.S. Navy (Ret.)

New UH food lab is not sitting 'idle'

We take issue with your headline that declared the University of Hawaii's new Ag Sciences building has a $27-million lab that "sits idle." That's flat-out wrong. The total cost for the entire building was $27 million; the price tag for retrofitting the kitchen is less than 2 percent of that total.

The delay in converting a lab space into a test kitchen involves a small part of the facility. Unfortunately, you ignore the fact that elsewhere within our walls world-class research is being carried on by world-class researchers in state-of-the-art facilities.

While no one involved in this project can be happy at the length of time it took to bring a highly specialized and complex research laboratory building on line, we are pleased to have this facility.

Our college serves this community perhaps more closely than any other part of the UH system. Our food test kitchen will help us do that even more knowledgeably and efficiently.

H. Michael Harrington
Interim Dean,
College of Tropical Agriculture
and Human Resources
UH-Manoa

Wall Street Journal was misinformed

A recent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) editorial, "Hawaii's gray politics," contained erroneous information about the Hawaii State Ethics Commission.

The WSJ editorial stated that Sen. Sam Slom was "hauled" before the commission for "tweaking the governor in a press release sent out on his personal stationery." The newspaper implied that Governor Cayetano was the instigator of the charge being filed with the commission for the purpose of political retaliation.

However, it was the citizens' group Common Cause Hawaii, not Cayetano, that filed a formal charge with the commission against Slom for his use of official legislative stationery for political purposes in the days before the 1998 general election.

The stationery used by Slom was official, not personal, stationery. This is not disputed.

Common Cause filed the charge because it is committed to high standards of ethics in government. Our commission is responsible for enforcing our state's ethics laws, which prohibit the use of official stationery and official position for campaign purposes.

Daniel J. Mollway
Executive Director
Hawaii State Ethics Commission

Quotables "For all practical purposes, for the past months and past years, this case has been actively investigated as a homicide." Lincoln Ashida BIG ISLAND DEPUTY PROSECUTOR On reclassification of the notorious case involving the 1997 disappearance of Peter "Peter Boy" Kema Jr. The boy, who would now be 9, is the son of Peter Sr. and Jaylin Kema, who reported him missing in 1998 and claimed giving him to a woman named "Auntie Rose." "I'm 99 percent sure my retirement from the Senate will be a retirement from public office." Norman Mizuguchi HAWAII SENATE PRESIDENT Announcing that he will not run for re-election, signaling a major power shift in the next legislative session

Ethics bills didn't deserve to be killed

I am appalled that state Rep. Eric Hamakawa, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, killed two ethics bills in the past legislative session.

The first would have prohibited state officials from taking part in matters involving their adult children (sparked by state Transportation Director Kazu Hayashida awarding several non-bid contracts to his son's company).

The second would have restricted political activity at public worker union meetings (like at the Hawaii Government Employees Association's infamous 1998 "Cayetano for Governor" rally at the Capitol, which union members took time off from work with pay to attend).

Why do these committee chairpersons have so much power, and why do they consistently kill bills that limit corruption?

Even funnier than Hamakawa's reasons for killing the ethics bills (he said the first was unnecessary and the second he didn't agree with) was Sen. Cal Kawamoto's reason for killing the campaign finance reform bill. Kawamoto said such a law would have given the public the impression that the Legislature was corrupt.

I have news for Senator Kawamoto: The killing of such bills merely illustrates the corruption all the more.

Roy Frank Westlake

Vendors' parrots need protection

I have just returned home after my fifth visit to Oahu. While my stay was pleasurable, I am concerned about the Waikiki street vendors who approach tourists to take photographs with parrots.

Having owned several parrots, I know how to care for them. So it bothered me to see one vendor giving his bird a drink of Mountain Dew instead of water. That soda is full of sugar and caffeine. Also, another parrot was falling asleep on the shoulder of the vendor, which showed how tired it was.

I hope the Hawaiian Humane Society will assign someone to monitor this mistreatment.

Chris Kuntz
Sacramento, calif.

Abortion, birth control must remain legal

The Catholic Church opposes birth control and abortion. But if it approved the former, there would be less need for the latter.

There was a sad case in Dear Abby's May 9 column about a woman whose family suffered from brittle bone disease. Her grandson broke his legs 22 times, starting from the age of 5. Another grandson broke his legs six times.

Since giving birth to children with such inherited diseases and other afflictions could be prevented by birth control and abortion, the church should stay out of these cases. Leave the decisions to women and their families.

How Tim Chang

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