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Did past trustees meddle with admissions?

The report by the CEO of Kamehameha Schools saying that former trustees influenced some admissions to Kamehameha is stating facts that will continue with the new trustees. This was probably the practice with all former trustees.

We will never know the entire truth about the trust. All we can say is that the recently ousted trustees were the most unpopular in the history of the trust and with the current sensationalism that attracts all of us to the news, the time was ripe for their downfall. But how careful will the next trustees be with their jobs?

Chucky Santiago
Wahiawa

Law still allows kids to ride in truck beds

The new seat-belt law requiring juveniles to buckle up in the back seat may be a good idea, but in this state the law seems illogical.

Does anyone else realize that in Hawaii juveniles older than 12 are able to sit in the bed of a pickup truck?

If lawmakers are so concerned with protecting children and saving lives, maybe they should have addressed children sitting in the back of pickup trucks as well as those sitting in the back seats of cars.

It seems that the only reason the law was passed was in response to the poor gentleman who lost his child in the accident.

Legislators need to do their homework when they make new laws to ensure that the laws they create totally encompass the problem at hand.

Richard Dixellheimer

Non-Hawaiians deserve a hearing, too

This bone of contention between Congress and the Hawaiians has cost non-Hawaiian residents and Americans living outside the islands who invested in your state plenty.

Anyone, including me, who owns property in and around areas populated by Hawaiians has suffered tremendous property depreciation through no fault of his own.

During their quest to get an apology and make things right for Hawaii's native people, have the members of the state's congressional delegation considered the damage they've done or the damage that will be done to us when and if the Akaka bill is passed?

It's not only time for an apology to the non-native peoples of Hawaii, it's time for some compensation, too. When will we get our hearings?

Sam Sallome
Richmond, Va.

Cayetano's response was inappropriate

I don't have a problem with the pardon of Tom Foley, but with Governor Cayetano's seemingly casual dismissal of the public's criticism. We kill three times as many people in Hawaii with cars than we do with guns, and the combination of booze and car keys is particularly lethal.

The governor needs to step up to the plate and defend his actions more compassionately and credibly. Death by drunken driver is indeed a "big deal" and is no "accident."

I suspect no one knows this more deeply than Foley, whose actions since the crime indicate a complete turn-around in his life. His character while in jail and his work, such as providing drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs to other inmates, are legitimate reasons for considering a pardon.

Full personal rehabilitation is, after all, the ultimate goal and desired outcome of our criminal justice system. A pardon does not condone crime: It is an example of our criminal justice system having a human face and recognizing the power of personal redemption.

Khal Spencer

Quotables "We need doctors, but they scare the peediddly out of you." Jean Galloway 73-YEAR-OLD CO-OWNER OF NATURE'S SUNSHINE PRODUCTS CENTER ON BERETANIA STREET Who claims she has beaten both breast and stomach cancer by relying on non- traditional medicine "If cheerleading was any easier, we'd call it football. It's huge, HUUUGE!" Robert Daniel OWNER, DIRECTOR AND CHIEF INSTRUCTOR OF HAWAII CHEER CO. On the athletic difficulty and growing popularity of cheerleading in the state, which will hold its first Oahu Interscholastic Association championship next year

Marriage tax veto should be overridden

Individuals who are married pay, on average, $1,400 more income tax than any two single individuals with the same combined income, even if the singles live together. This unfair tax was likely the unintended consequence of subsidizing the cost of living for single individuals to buy their votes.

Liberals justify this forced socialist redistribution scheme by saying that $1,400 a year isn't much to share. Well, if the additional $1,400 yearly that is taken from married couples were put into Individual Retirement Accounts from age 21-67, each IRA, compounded at 8 percent, would grow to $317,030. In the stock market that compounds historically at 11 percent, and each IRA would grow to $852,423. These unfair taxes are reducing Hawaii's married individuals' standard of living now and in retirement.

Congress passed the Marriage Tax Penalty Relief Reconciliation Act. President Clinton vetoed this bill, calling it "too expensive" even though he claims credit for a tax surplus and projects it to grow into trillions of dollars.

Congress is expected to vote soon to override Clinton's veto. To succeed, 16 more representatives and seven more senators must vote to override.

The fair-minded people of Hawaii should join me in urging our congressional delegation to override Clinton's veto.

Gayle B. Gardner

Don't deplete seaweed in Hawaiian waters

As a keiki who grew up in Pacific Palisades, I remember that our family would pick limu at Ewa Beach at least twice a month. My tutu allowed us to pick only enough limu to fill one plastic poi bag.

We would skim the water and shift through the sand to find the limu. This was back in the late 1960s through the early '70s. Seaweed was plentiful then. In fact, the whole beach used to smell like seaweed.

It is so sad to learn that people are picking limu by the roots ("Fighting to restore 'the motherland' of seaweed in Ewa," Star-Bulletin, Aug. 21).

Pure greed has taken over most of the Hawaiian shores and ocean. People complain about the haoles and Japanese for depleting Hawaii resources when the local people also contribute to this. Mahalo nui loa to all the "braddahs and sistahs" who replant ogo.

I'd like to return home to Hawaii someday and show my grandkids what I used to do while growing up: pick ogo. Put up signs that say: "Kokua, local residents."

Gerald K. Young
Covington, Wash.

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