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Researchers should help choose UH president
Note that, among the members of the selection committee for the new University of Hawaii president, there isn't even a single representative of the research community (Star-Bulletin, Oct. 4).UH faculty members in earth and ocean sciences, astronomy, biotechnology and engineering bring in more than $100 million every year in external funding to UH. Yet these researchers aren't even invited to the table when such serious decisions concerning the future of the university are being made.
Roy Wilkens
Tsunami-alerting buoys are doing their job
I appreciate Jamie Hunter's interest in our work on tsunamis (Letters, Oct. 3) and concern that there are no wave-measurement buoys between Hawaii and our most dangerous source of tsunamis.Fortunately, that is not so. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has four instruments specifically for measuring tsunamis, all to our north: three are strung out south of the arc of the Aleutian Islands, and one is off the Pacific Northwest.
Because tsunamis travel so fast, it is necessary to detect them close to the source if we want to have time to evacuate. The wave buoys near Hawaii (which are designed to measure ocean swells and cannot sense tsunamis) would be too close to provide us more than a few minutes' warning.
Gerard Fryer
Associate professor, Institute of Geophysics and Planetology
University of Hawaii-Manoa
Online election coverage gets thumbs up
Thanks for the great election coverage on starbulletin.com! Very fast, no pontificating talking heads, no commercials, no noise. Just the facts. Just great! See you in November.Ann M. Vergara
Waipahu
Quotables
"I don't like the spotlight. Reaching a number doesn't mean much. Besides that, it's embarrassing." Jessica Sudduth
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII VOLLEYBALL PLAYER
On how play was momentarily stopped during this week's UH match-up against Southern Methodist University at the Stan Sheriff Center to induct the senior hitter into the Wahine's elite 1,000-kill club
"Jessica rules, she's bonk. Do you know how hard it is to do that in a career? She's awesome." Lily Kahumoku
SOPHOMORE LEFT-SIDE HITTER FOR THE WAHINE
Expressing her admiration for Sudduth in 21st century vernacular
Give elderly a break about voting
While at the polls at the Waikiki Elementary precinct, I couldn't help but feel the frustration of two elderly women who had their ballots rejected due to marking errors outside the space allotted.The two seniors took longer than others to vote. While both were encouraged to try again, they expressed their disgust and chose not to complete another ballot. Sadly, they left embarrassed and upset at the process.
In the frenzy to offer obvious solutions, let's not forget our senior citizens who still have the mental sharpness and desire to vote, but no longer have the motor skills to mark the ballot properly. Offering to let them try again, giving them separate ballots for partisan/non-partisan races, or providing clearer instructions or more education on the process won't solve their motor skills problem.
Don't let a machine exclude the efforts and contributions of our elderly. Provide marking assistance or set aside their ballots for manual counting.
If we are really serious about improving our election process efficiency for everyone, including our elderly, install an online interactive touch screen voting system and get it tested and in operation. Aren't we in the 21st century?
Lisa R. Tam
Anti-Gabbard forces are full of hate
The recent vandalism and theft of campaign signs belonging to Carol Gabbard and other candidates supported by the Alliance for Traditional Marriage and Values is evidence that those who are opposed to them are the very ones full of hatred and intolerance.Worse, they engaged in the campaign tactic of Hitler's Brown Shirts. The homosexual lobby has failed to find success through the process of democracy and has therefore turned to acts of fascism. They got trounced when they tried to legalize same-sex marriage, and their favorite for the school board, Carolyn Golojuch, came in 15th place out of 18 candidates.
Unable to compete in the free marketplace of ideas, the only thing they have left is violence, intimidation and name-calling. They are the real danger to democracy.
Rock Riggs
Poor planning hinders Mililani school
I read with interest the proposal by Mililani Middle School and the Mililani Mauka Neighborhood Board to make the campus safer by adding a mid-block crosswalk on Lehiwa Drive. Your Sept. 25 article noted that Lehiwa Drive is private property owned by Castle & Cooke.This illustrates a much larger problem beneath the surface. Is it common for taxpayers to pay for improvements to private property?
Mililani Middle School would be safer and less populated if the Department of Education had built schools in our planned community on originally designated land on the Mililani Town side and, later, a second middle school on the previously designated parcel in Mauka.
Instead, DOE employees declined land on the Mililani Town side (now occupied by townhomes) and a 20-acre parcel on the Mauka side, then accepted for this community the poorly accessible, smaller-than-required property on the gulch.
Meanwhile, the city denies any responsibility for our inadequate schools, while officials fail to hold developers to their "fair share" in providing land and infrastructure under zoning and permitting agreements. During a recent task force meeting, our local DOE deputy district superintendent exclaimed, "Well, the developer has to make a profit!"
If the people in Mililani Mauka don't wake up soon, they will find their developer gone, their roads, schools and sewers twice as overburdened, safety much worsened, and the city and state claiming that there is no money for the infrastructure that they failed to collect on.
Laura Brown
Mililani
Respects to Trudeau are posted online
You may atone for your abysmal failure to provide appropriately detailed coverage and commentary on last week's death of the last great 20th-century leader of international stature, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, by printing the address of the Canadian government's official condolence Web site.People of all nationalities are welcome to send their thoughts to his family and the country, to share their grief, or sign their names.
Canada, as the largest trading partner of the United States, was well represented by Prime Minister Trudeau for 16 years, although his influence extended far beyond that time frame and our shared borders. It reached into our hearts.
Kate Stewart
(Editor's note: The Web site mentioned in the letter is no longer accepting condolence messages; You can view the ones already posted at http://www.pch.gc.ca/trudeau/.)Power line project would improve reliability
Although now retired from the electric company, I spent more than 30 years as a lineman and as supervisor of linework.From a real world standpoint, the proposed Kamoku-Pukele line is needed today. It will connect the north and south transmission line corridors, creating a transmission loop.
This will allow power to flow either way, and will reduce the likelihood of large and potentially long outages.
Without this line, the residents and businesses of Waikiki, Kapahulu, Kaimuki, Manoa and other portions of Honolulu depend on two transmission lines that come from the Windward side, over the Koolaus to the Pukele substation in the back of Palolo Valley.
When one of those lines is taken out for scheduled maintenance, which happens regularly, the whole area is hanging on one line. Should anything happen to it, power would be lost.
No one knows better than I that fixing the lines that run from the Windward to the Pukele substation is difficult work. Access is by helicopter and the area is frequently socked in by bad weather.
A third line from the south addresses this and other reliability problems.
Jerry M. Nutt
Grove Farm should preserve Mahaulepu
Now that the proposed sale of Grove Farm to a Honolulu developer has fallen through, Grove Farm will be looking for buyers. We hope that it will see this as an opportunity to preserve Mahaulepu for public use and not include it in the sale.Grove Farm has been a responsible steward of this exquisite piece of land for many years and now has an opportunity to extend its role of protector for future generations. There are many possibilities that would provide Grove Farm with fair compensation for this land.
Mahaulepu is such a wonderful resource for visitors and residents that it should be preserved. It is an area of native shore plants, native endangered seals and birds, and with a section that, with excavation and study, will be very interesting in helping to uncover the history of past plants, animals and human life on this island. It is a stunningly beautiful area for active recreation or just quiet contemplation.
Those interested in keeping Mahaulepu essentially as is should make their interest known by writing letters to the editor and by joining with others who are working to keep it so. Please call Malama Mahaulepu at 828-1438 for more information.
Marge Freeman
Wailua, Kauai
Opinion pages are a joy to peruse
To a curmudgeon like me, the Oct. 4 editorial and opposite-editorial pages bore more truth, logic and common sense than I've observed in just a single issue.Your editorial on the Ala Wai was an "eagle" to all golfers, and fiscally, sensibly sound to the belabored taxpayer.
Corky's cartoon of running Jim Lehrer in lieu of either George W. Bush or Al Gore was an altogether enlightened idea.
Letters from Jim Becker, Dick O'Connell and Bobby Harmon were precisely correct in rectifying the errors of the systems about which they wrote.
Plain down-to-earth truth was reflected in the efforts of syndicated columnists Thomas Sowell and Howard Kleinberg.
Long may the Star-Bulletin continue to produce such adequate, sensible linage. Go David Black.
Ray Thiele
Kailua
Original intent of OHA has been forgotten
Lost in the continuing fracas surrounding the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and now the Akaka bill is the original intent behind OHA: to provide support and opportunity to the Hawaiian people and, more important, to attempt to heal a political past based on unfair and incorrect racial and cultural treatment, whether intentional or not.
Yes, I know that Governor Cayetano feels Hawaiian; so do I. But at the moment, there is a little more than just that.
Hawaiians make up a huge percentage of the prison population, wait generations for homestead lands that never come, and have the least amount of formal education. The anger, drugs and poverty among Hawaiians show clearly the intent behind OHA has not been fulfilled.
The Rice-vs.-Cayetano confusion, the trustees' abuse of power, the people who have not honored their Hawaiian lease agreements, the government that doesn't enforce the law -- all of this demonstrates how this original purpose is not being taken seriously, not respected.
This unfulfilled promise has been outstanding for so long, it is shameful. It picks away our self respect. The lack of compassion, unwillingness to really hear and respond to actual reality, and the greed that we have all allowed, has extracted a great price.
It is a very big challenge, and there are no simple solutions. But that doesn't mean to give up looking for answers. Perhaps the first step is to stop, step back from this out-of-control situation and reconnect with the original mission of OHA. And this time, take it to heart.
Allen Morelli
Attorney is misusing law against Hawaiians
For his part in the increasingly vicious attacks on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Hawaiian people, lawyer John Goemans is a disgrace to the law, Hawaii, America and the human race.The law is intended to protect, not to be used as a weapon. The Supreme Court justices have been wrong before, as they were in Plessy vs. Ferguson, which provided for "separate but equal" education and was overturned by Brown vs. Board of Education.
Nancy Bey Little
OHA Special
Rice vs. Cayetano arguments
Rice vs. Cayetano decision
Holo I Mua: Sovereignty Roundtable
Pros shouldn't compete in Olympic Games
Now that the 2000 Olympics in Australia have come to a close, we must address the injustice of having U.S. professional players representing our country.The "Dream Team" basketball players were a bunch of overpaid, big-headed pros. The real "Dream Team" should consist of amateur athletes who spend tons of hours training in their sport. Some of them will never have the opportunity to play pro ball.
As for tennis, I don't want to see the Williams sisters win a gold medal in doubles; we see enough of them on the pro circuit now. I want to see the doubles champions of the future.
Call me old-fashioned or naive, but we need to do something for the amateur athlete, who is close to extinction.
Joe Ornellas
Lanai City
U.S. should cancel aid to Israel
I have just seen one of the most hideous portraits of inhumanity ever to be shown on television: A screaming, terrified 12-year-old Palestinian boy is seen cringing behind the "protection" of his father, as barbaric Israeli soldiers blatantly machine gun the area. The man is wounded while his innocent son is killed.Is this why the U.S. government sends $3 billion in tax money to Israel every year? Does that bunch of do-nothings in Washington think we won't notice? I noticed and am outraged, and I hope you are, too.
We must stop sending billions of tax dollars to Israel, now!
William E. Buck
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Letter to the Editor