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Pardon gives hope that aloha lives

My life has not been easy. As a Hawaiian, I've struggled to survive in a world whose changing values I sometimes find hard to accept. I fought for my country in the Vietnam war, tried to raise a good family, help my community and be a good person.

What does it all count for? Not much, especially when a mistake I made 30 years ago is prominently published in a local newspaper. I am one of those people who was granted a pardon by the governor.

Having just come back from the war, without a job, I stole from another person. I was convicted and did my one-year sentence. Since then, I've worked hard to give back.

I've volunteered more than 100 hours each in hospitals like the Kauai Veterans Memorial Hospital and Castle Medical Center. I've tried to keep young people on the right track as an adviser for a local canoe club. I don't take the pardon granted me lightly, and I'm determined to live up to it.

When Governor Cayetano granted Tom Foley a pardon, he demonstrated not only courageous leadership, but true aloha. It gives me hope that Hawaiian values are not altogether lost.

Michael Manulani Mook Sr.

Prostitution should be regulated industry

When are we going to become mature about prostitution? Why don't we designate a red-light district such as the military property on Sand Island?

If we regulated prostitution, we could inspect, monitor, provide health services for and tax the business that will go on anyhow. We could work to eliminate pimps and juvenile prostitutes, and also move the late-night lap-dancing establishments and hostess bars away from residential areas.

We are sexual beings and, for some, prostitution is a real need. Let's get real. How many police would be freed up to address our other needs, how much money would we save, and how much tax revenues could be generated?

It may even reduce the incidence of rape, child molestation and other abuse. It most certainly would reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Richard McWilliams

Bad economy didn't cause banker to resign

After engineering the reduction-in-force of his own enterprise by the hundreds in Honolulu alone, I find it curious that the much-ballyhooed resignation of Bank of Hawaii CEO Lawrence Johnson now elicits editorials dripping with sympathy ("Banker is a casualty of weak economy," Aug. 23).

Johnson is not a victim of any bad economy. Rather, he is the victim of bad economics -- a counterproductive commitment to bottom-line shareholder profit to which he has dedicated his career.

Now that he has more spare time on his hands, I suggest he read the powerful and eloquent indictment of this corporate strategy by business consultant Allen Kennedy, "The End of Shareholder Value."

Kennedy describes how cannibalistic competition that places shareholders' interests ahead of the interests of employees, suppliers, customers and the community has created short-term company profits.

This causes heavily overvalued share prices in many cases but has left many of the same companies devoid of the resources necessary for sustained business success --the loyalty and partnerships with their staffs, their suppliers and extended business-to-business relationships, and most importantly the trust of the consuming public.

R.A.I. Weigel
Aiea

Quotables "Must we storm another Normandy or San Pietro or Leyte to create a generation of Americans with the character, talent and determination to keep our nation where it finished the 20th century?" Eric Shinseki ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF Lauding the Medal of Honor winners at a luncheon held at the Hawaii Convention Center "We wanted to go home to our loved ones. We did not want to die (in the war)." Daniel Inouye U.S. SENATOR FROM HAWAII AND MEDAL OF HONOR WINNER Humbly downplaying the recognition

Clinton-Gore didn't create budget surpluses

A recent poll of Hawaii voters says that the Republican leads the Democratic candidate for president. Perhaps it reflects the fact that the good people of our state are not buying the economic fairy tale proposed by the Democratic Party at this month's national convention.

According to Democrats, the good times began the day Congress passed the Clinton-Gore tax increase of 1993. This is so silly, it's no wonder the voters are skeptical. A fairer view was put forth in the Aug. 16 issue of the Asian Wall Street Journal. Its editorial said we should credit the "Clinton-Gore team as much for what it couldn't do as what it did."

Its accomplishments include reappointment of Alan Greenspan and resisting protectionism. But its failures include the inability to pass Gore's $70 billion BTU tax hike, a "stimulus" spending package and nationalized health care.

According to the AWSJ: "Another Genesis fable is that the Clinton-Gore team created today's budget surpluses. But the contraction in federal spending during the 1990s has almost entirely come out of defense, falling to about 3 percent of the GDP from 5.2 percent. This is what happens when you win the Cold War, a historic victory made possible by the Reagan defense build-up that contributed to deficits in the 1980s."

These are not my words; they come from perhaps the most trusted newspaper on Earth. You could conclude, well, it's just politics as usual. Or you could take a higher road and say the lies have to stop.

K.C. Putter Meinken
Kailua

Government can't tell Hawaiians what to do

I am not for the Akaka bill. Ever since our queen was imprisoned and our kingdom stolen by the U.S., all government created in Hawaii was and is illegal. The Hawaiian kingdom still exists to this day. The U.S. occupational forces must withdraw.

We are not a tribe but this bill labels us as one. We are a nation among nations, with treaties among nations that America broke in a callous act of war on Jan. 17, 1893.

The Akaka bill isn't pono. How can the occupying force dictate to us how to set up our model of government? When America's colonists were struggling for independence, did they ask England to help? I think not!

This bill taints true self-determination and the process of choosing a model of independence.

George Kahumoku Flores

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