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Oust senators who ditched Bronster Would you folks please print the names of the senators who voted out former Attorney General Margery Bronster? I wanna be really sure to use my vote against one who voted against her or for one who voted to confirm her. Rich Schreiner Editor's note: Only four of the 14 senators who voted against Bronster's confirmation are up for re-election. They are: Whitney Anderson, R-District 25 (Kailua-Waimanalo). Carol Fukunaga, D-12th District (Tantalus-Makiki). Marshall Ige, D-24th District, (Kaneohe, Enchanted Lake). Brian Kanno, D-20th District (Ewa Beach, Makakilo). Former Senate President Norman Mizuguchi, D-15th District (Fort Shafter, Aiea) is not seeking re-election. Others who voted to oust Bronster were Jan Yagi Buen, D-4th District (North/West Maui, Molokai, Lanai); Jonathan Chun, D-7th District (South Kauai, Niihau); Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st District (Waianae, Maili, Makaha); David Ige, D-17th District (Pearlridge, Pacific Palisades); Cal Kawamoto, D-19th District (Waipahu, Pearl City); David M. Matsuura, D-2nd District (South Hilo, Puna); Bob Nakata, D-23nd District (Kaneohe, Kahuku, Heeia); Rod Tam, D-13th (Downtown, Nuuanu); and Joe Tanaka, D-5th District (Wailuku, Upcountry, Kahului).

Pay lag would worsen UH salary problem

Your Monday article on University of Hawaii faculty salaries was much appreciated. It's always good to know that one is being comparatively underpaid.

If the university administration is so concerned about losing faculty because of the salary problem, many faculty members wonder why this same administration appears to support the governor's continued efforts to impose a payroll lag on UH faculty. This would make a bad situation worse.

Luckily, we have a union working to protect the salaries that we do make.

John Caskin
Kailua

Faculty are underpaid, underappreciated

After reading your front-page story on Monday about low salaries for University of Hawaii faculty members, I was truly amazed at the low levels in which we humans will go.

I was reminded of a dysfunctional relationship in which partner No. 1 (the UH big boys) says, "If you don't get paid enough, then leave." So partner No. 2 (the skilled faculty) leaves. Then partner No. 1 begs partner No. 2 to return.

We are told that a higher education brings maturity and responsibility. Yet I fail to find anything mature or responsible about the tactics UH is using to keep its underappreciated but very qualified faculty in Hawaii. Isn't this another form of holding someone hostage?

Christina Simpkins

Higher slip fees doom recreational boating

With the state Harbors Division planning to increase the rent of boat slips by 185 percent, nearly all recreational boating will come to an end. This decision shows the division is poorly managed .

Doesn't it have the foresight to see that, if such an increase goes through, the funds won't be raised for fixing harbors, dredging, repairing the docks and cleaning up? The rent increase will merely cause people who own boats to move or sell their vessels. Meanwhile, businesses such as mine will certainly go bankrupt, due to our dependence on income from boats in the Ala Wai.

If the Harbors Division had any business sense, it would gradually increase the rent in a reasonable fashion. Or why doesn't the state make all the parking stalls in the harbor metered? That way, the money generated could pay for any upgrades to harbor facilities or could hire a marine patrol officer to be there all the time.

Lyle Chong

More plants needed along roadways

In a Sept. 19 article, a Waialae resident takes umbrage with the Department of Transportation for messing up the Waialae Avenue landscape. There is definitely more than one person who is furious with decisions to plant rocks where greenery should hold sway!

Hawaii is still too beautiful a place to give up trying to enhance it by planting green corridors along our roadways. Despite the seemingly lazy attitude of our state workers, who resent it anytime someone breathes the word "green," citizens like me appreciate having something worth looking at beside rocks.

Why not plant low-maintenance xeroscapes with at least hints of effort on the part of the DOT?

Susan Bright Spangler

News coverage slated against vice president

If the Star-Bulletin is rescued by new owners, one can only hope they will demand less politically biased news coverage.

On Sept. 7, you had the gall to bury a story about Vice President Gore's 6 percentage point lead in a new overnight Reuters Poll at the bottom of page A-12. As if that weren't enough, you placed it beneath a smiling, thumbs-up picture of Bush and a frowning postage-sized picture of Gore.

Can you be surprised that so many fair-minded readers would not lament your demise?

Patrick J. Daly

Airlines discriminate against tall passengers

I am 6-foot-6 and am proud of my height. However, the friendly skies are unfriendly to tall people. There are disability laws for all kinds of people but not for the tall.

Recently, I flew to Chicago. For 7.5 hours, half my body was in my seat and the other half was stretched out in front of me in the aisle and the seat in front of me. It's hard being tall and flying other than first-class.

Is there a solution? Of course. All bulkhead seats, which are usually occupied by small people, should be reserved for those over 6-foot-4. Give the big guy a break!

Jim Delmonte

Quotables "It's great that I (can) share all this with my daughter. I know she's in the canoe and there's a special bond." Patty Eames KAI OPUA PADDLER WHO WILL COMPETE IN THE BANK OF HAWAII NA WAHINE O KE KAI CANOE RACE Who's developed a unique relationship with her daughter, Patty (at left), because they both paddle on the same crew "We're deviating from the old philosophy where we were trying to attract the macho type of people. We're targeting Generation X." Glen Kajiyama HONOLULU POLICE DEPARTMENT MAJOR Looking for recruits with high-tech savvy

OHA election debate thrives

Cayetano was only carrying out the law

It is absurd for the Trask sisters to say Governor Cayetano acted dishonorably in carrying out the rules of the U.S. Supreme Court and the state Supreme Court. The Trasks lost their honor a long time ago, when they used language worse than Andrew Dice Clay and invoked defamatory racial references more frequently than David Duke.

In Rice vs. Cayetano, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' race-based elections were unconstitutional. Hawaii's Supreme Court agreed that the current OHA trustees were seated illegally, and even went so far as to advise the state on the proper mechanism for their removal.

Grant Peters

Activist wouldn't have survived in old Hawaii

Had Haunani-Kay Trask lived back in the days of ancient Hawaii, what would the consequences have been had she held up a sign that stated, "(Expletive) King Kamehameha"?

Robert Payne
Los Angeles
(Former Hawaii Resident)

Trask sisters are valiant warriors

David Shapiro's Saturday column trashing the good names of Mililani and Haunani-Kay Trask was baseless and malicious. The sisters have been controversial in their advocacy of Hawaiian rights for many years, but their accomplishments are worthy of high honors.

Shapiro tries to marginalize the selfless efforts of these two warriors who have sacrificed themselves for the sake of their Hawaiian brothers and sisters. He misleads by saying the Trasks "have long been on the edge of the Hawaiian movement, trying to elbow their way into wherever they think the power -- and money -- are going to be." Untrue.

Haunani moved the Hawaiian studies program from an obscure and forgotten place on the University of Hawaii-Manoa campus to become an internationally recognized crown jewel of a program in a building that rightfully stands above and apart in stature. She had to fight institutional racism that runs deep within the establishment. Many leaders coming from the Hawaiian studies program owe their strength to her tireless efforts.

Mililani helped create a Hawaiian nation with a constitution and functioning governing body since the late 1980s called Ka Lahui Hawaii. She was probably the first to discuss the need for federal recognition and incorporated it into Ka Lahui's constitution. She fought for Hawaiian rights on the front line, even getting arrested in Halawa Valley to protect the sacred temples being destroyed by H-3. She has fought hard against the further desecration of Mauna Kea and many other issues facing Hawaiian rights and claims.

Haunani-Kay and Mililani Trask continue to serve their people selflessly. The truth they expose is hard to swallow, but sometimes a strong medicine is needed to cure the sickness -- namely, the lies and maliciousness of the media and the state power structure.

John Talkington

Hawaiians must stop fighting and unite

When is it going to stop? When are we, the Hawaiian people, going to stop all the in-fighting and start doing things the right way?

I'm tired of reading and hearing about all the bickering back in my home state. I am Hawaiian and it bothers me to no end that we cannot put our differences aside and work for the common good of the Hawaiian people.

Strong advice to my fellow Hawaiians: Stop fighting each other. Stop blaming others for what occurred more than 100 years ago. Deal with it and move on.

I am proud to be Hawaiian but not proud about what is happening at home.

Francis K. Doo
Portland, Ore.

Critics of OHA deserve condemnation

Freddy Rice and his cohorts -- H. William Burgess, John Goemans, Thurston Twigg-Smith, etc. -- have brought shame to Hawaii and pain to the Hawaiian people with their mean and ugly "Overthrow II." Rice wanted "his place in history" and he's got it. It's a place of ignominy!

Nancy Bey Little

Ota should resign after insulting Hawaiians

Kittens born in a banana box are not bananas, and Japanese born in Hawaii are not Hawaiians. Yet recent OHA appointee Charles Ota seems unaware how rude and offensive he is to claim to be Hawaiian, because his family has lived in Hawaii for five generations.

For Hawaiians -- who are born of Earth-mother Papahanaumoku, and who have lived in Hawaii for 100 generations -- Ota's statement is almost as offensive as a Filipino governor declaring a Japanese businessman "Hawaiian at heart," and thus having the right to oversee Hawaiian trust assets.

Why are people not "Filipino at heart" or "Japanese at heart"? Is it because they have no trust assets for others to control?

Ota replaced Louis Hao, a Hawaiian frequently re-elected to the OHA board. If Cayetano respected democratic principles and the wishes of the Hawaiian people, he would have reappointed him.

For five generations, Ota's ancestors chose to marry Japanese instead of Hawaiians. Thus, he is Japanese. If he has any aloha for Hawaiians, he will resign immediately.

Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa
Director
Center for Hawaiian Studies
University of Hawaii at Manoa

Just how Hawaiian are the OHA candidates?

Shouldn't the public know the percentage of Hawaiian blood each OHA candidate inherited so we can determine those who are best qualified?

Mike Hu

Rice ruling stands up for rights of all

Merv Kahumoku's Sept. 16 letter was nothing short of a racist assault by a bigot who clearly believes that only Hawaiians are capable of handling the responsibilities of a trust fund. His consistent use of terms like "wannabe Hawaiian" makes him no different than a white supremacist using the "n" word to describe a black person.

The Supreme Court's decision in Rice vs. Cayetano proliferates equality and reinforces the 15th Amendment, section 1: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Rice is not challenging the benefits that only people of Hawaiian blood receive, but only seeks the same rights as Kahumoku would expect. Segregation is a thing of the past.

Brad Kam

U.S. Public Law 103-150 OHA Ceded Lands Ruling Rice vs. Cayetano U.S. Supreme Court strikes OHA elections Office of Hawaiian Affairs State Office of Elections

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