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Longliners shouldn't be forced to leave

There are many blatant lies being put out about our longline fishery. For one thing, Hawaii longliners have not resisted the observer program. Most of us took observers out on a voluntary basis even before the requirement was ever made.

Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund attorney Paul Achitoff's attitude is appalling. He has made several false accusations against people and the longline fishery.

Does he think we should go elsewhere and fish? Why should we be forced to leave? We have been longlining in Hawaii for 17 years.

This is their home. Our three children were born here. We have a mortgage on a simple, three-bedroom house.

And we cannot walk away from the lifelong investment my husband and his elderly parents have put into their two boats and gear, now worth nothing.

Judge David Ezra's ruling is unjustified and has taken away 100 percent of our income and our livelihood, when we have broken no laws and done anything wrong.

Sue Myking
Kailua

Longliners wreaked havoc in local waters

Judge Ezra's ruling that limits the amount of longline fishing raises important economic and environmental issues. Fortunately, Judge Ezra has the capacity to see beyond the short-term situation and grasp the crux of the matter: Longline fishing has devastating effects on Hawaii's marine resources.

Longline fishing is not selective. Along with their intended catch, longliners snag endangered turtles, albatrosses, sharks and juvenile fish, which are then unable to mature and reproduce.

The longline fishing industry has been operating in Hawaii for little over a decade. The leather-back -- the world's largest living turtle -- has survived since the dinosaurs. Allowing this evolutionary triumph to become extinct because of exploitative, non-selective fishing methods would be a travesty.

If longline fishing is allowed to continue at its present rate, local fisheries might resemble the swordfish fisheries of the Gulf and East Coasts -- empty.

Then the longliners will have no one to blame except themselves.

Jennie Yamaki
Pearl City

Quotables "A bonsai is never-finished art. It is a sculpture that is never done." Walter Liew OWNER OF DRAGON NURSERY IN WAIMANALO AND CREATOR OF THE PLANNED HAWAII BONSAI CULTURE CENTER On the growing of the miniature trees "Our goal was never to put Hawaii fishermen out of business. Our goal is to save the sea turtles." Todd Steiner DIRECTOR OF THE TURTLE ISLAND RESTORATION NETWORK BASED IN CALIFORNIA Professing sympathy for Hawaii's longline fishermen after U.S. District Judge David Ezra's ruling that would protect Hawaii sea turtles but, in the process, cause hardship for the local fishing industry

Taiwan was awarded to Nationalist Party

The press has been repeating on a regular basis that, at the end of World War II, Taiwan split from mainland China. Supposedly, that bolsters China's claim that Taiwan is a renegade province. I disagree.

In 1895, having lost its war with Japan, China ceded its sovereign possession of Taiwan (then Formosa) in perpetuity to Japan in the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

Fifty years of subsequent Japanese occupation in Taiwan ended at the conclusion of World War II, when the Cairo Declaration awarded the Taiwanese nation back to the Nationalist Party of China (KMT) in 1945.

Gen. Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the KMT in mainland China, became embroiled in a civil war between citizens aligned with his established political party and those aligned with the new Communist Party.

When the smoke cleared, Chiang Kai-shek and his army of 2 million fled to Taiwan, with the assistance of the duplicitous U.S. government, which supported both sides in this affair.

The men who fled pledged their lives to Chiang Kai-shek and the KMT. Most would never see their loved ones in China again after going to Taiwan. With the absence of Chiang Kai-shek, the Communist Party took control of all affairs in China.

China now seems to be asserting that the Cairo Declaration gave Taiwan back to it. Not so! Taiwan was returned at the end of World War II to the KMT, in power at the time.

That the KMT was forced to retreat to Taiwan does not negate its claim to Taiwan, according to the Cairo Declaration.

Before this conflict escalates, the American people deserve the truth about U.S. involvement in this matter, and why our leaders straddle the fence on this important foreign policy issue.

Laura Anderson

Rep. Fox's rhetoric was anti-American

I'm sure that state Rep. Galen Fox's purpose in writing his June 24 Insight column was to shock readers into action. And, indeed, his words were shocking -- to the degree of their anti-democratic rhetoric.

Take, for example, the following assertion: "The job-creating states we find elsewhere in the U.S. are business-labor-government combinations advancing a common agenda...set by business."

While, unfortunately, that may be the fact, America's founders established a government that was to be "of the people, by the people, and for the people" -- not "of the corporations, by the wealthy and for an elite."

Of course, anyone promoting the democratic ideals of the American Revolution today would be swiftly (and loudly) shouted down for being out of order with the prevailing "free market" ideology of this era.

However, some of us out here, I guess, are hopelessly idealistic.

R. Weigel

Stop micromanaging the public schools

Why must the Legislature micromanage the education system? The superintendent of schools appears to be no more than a lobbyist. As such, how can he be held accountable for the success or failure of the system?

I challenge the Legislature to follow one of these courses:

Privatize the schools, allowing the consumers to exercise control and hold the schools directly accountable.
Stop running the school system and give the Board of Education and superintendent the authority needed to perform their jobs. Then they can be held accountable -- the board by the electorate and the superintendent by the board.
Take a lesson from the business world and eliminate the school board, superintendent and other levels of Department of Education bureaucracy. This would allow the governor, House and Senate to run the school system directly, without interference.

Imagine the savings that could be passed along to taxpayers.

Michael Jensen

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