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Letters
to the Editor

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Saturday, March 10, 2001

U.S. didn't apologize to Japan either

William J. Fisher's March 6 letter suggests that the crew members of the Ehime Maru were at fault for colliding with the USS Greeneville because they might not have been searching for surfacing submarines with their fishing sonars.

Even if the sonars could have detected the rising attack sub, it is doubtful the boat could have done anything to avoid the collision because of the emergency rise of the Greeneville.

Fisher then went on a tirade about the Rape of Nanking, Pearl Harbor and the Bataan Death March (under which my own family was persecuted). But to what end? Is his point that Japan never apologized for these events?

Let's ignore that the United States incinerated two of their cities, brought Japan to its knees and crushed its military power. Also ignore that the U.S. murdered hundreds of thousands of Filipinos during the Filipino-American war, overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy, placed Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II, and other gross events through history and still to this day.

Alfred Jonathan

Japan doesn't deserve an apology from U.S.

Hooray for the March 6 letter by William J. Fisher of Conover, N.C. I wanted to write one exactly like it but I thought it would be politically incorrect, as they say.

I agree with everything he said: Where is Japan's apology for Pearl Harbor, the Rape of Nanking, the Bataan Death March? Did the Japanese apologize? Did they attempt to raise the Arizona to recover the bodies of the 1,100 or so of our American men who are entombed there?

In addition, the sinking of the Ehime Maru was an accident. Pearl Harbor was a planned, vicious and unprovoked attack.

I do feel sorry for the relatives of those killed on the Ehime Maru, but enough is enough! As for reparations, as soon as Japan pays reparations for those it killed during World War II, then maybe we can consider reparations in return.

Don Mitchell
Kailua

Hold Senate to blame for raising taxes

On Thursday the Senate voted 14-11 to take away the state income tax reductions that were promised for the next few years.

Isn't it interesting that the vote against the reconfirmation of Attorney General Margery Bronster was also 14-11?

We remembered the Bronster vote during last year's elections and we will remember the broken promise to reduce taxes during next year's elections.

Jim Henshaw
Kailua

Cayetano's stinginess must be rejected

I am concerned about Governor Cayetano's latest threat of mass layoffs if public employees get their well-deserved arbitrated or negotiated pay raises. He must be vying to be the most reprehensible public figure of all time in the islands, rivaling even the usurpers who overthrew the queen.

Small wonder that the right-wing Cato Institute gave Cayetano such high marks for his stingy cutbacks of social programs and attempted freezes of public employee wages.

After all, he's gotten away with zero pay hikes for state employees for four of the last eight years. This is a significant accomplishment worthy of any tightwad Scrooge as governor.

In his Feb. 14 column, Richard Borreca mistakenly referred to Cayetano as a "liberal." Cayetano goes against his own political party in resisting the pay hikes and in favoring tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.

He is a Democrat in the Ronald Reagan/George W. Bush mold. (Ed Case is a similar kind of pro-corporate, anti-worker "Democrat.") Cayetano's only claim to liberal credentials is his supposed advocacy of benefits and programs for the poor -- an advocacy he resurrects in order to oppose public employee pay hikes or other social, health or educational needs.

This is purely a crass divide-and-conquer strategy on his part.

Yet this same governor, so tight-fisted toward public employees, school teachers and professors, would give his own cabinet members and high state officials a $10,000 annual raise.

His sense of priorities and timing is suspect, if not absolutely distorted.

The public and other Democrats must reject these politics of reaction and betrayal on Cayetano's part.

The pay hikes should be approved and his poor leadership soundly rejected.

John Witeck

Governor should watch kids if teachers strike

Should the teachers go on strike, the parents of elementary school children will be faced with the problem of child care.

Some will be lucky to have grandparents to babysit while others will take vacation time, if they have any and if the company permits.

A third group will be searching for a paid provider if they can afford it.

For those parents who do not have options, I have a suggestion: Drop your kids off at Washington Place so that the governor can provide the child care.

Each year the teachers are required to do more without just compensation.

In providing child care, the governor will be helping to fulfill his promise of providing an education second to none.

Arthur T. Choy

Calif. shooting portends danger in Hawaii

The recent shooting at a California high school disturbs me greatly. I feel it is important to make sure that each and every student is safe at school.

I do not understand how all these weapons are slipping through administrators' fingers and being used in school halls.

If there have been so many shootings in the past three years at U.S. mainland high schools, Hawaii may just follow in their footsteps.

That isn't a comforting thought for anyone. The safety of students should be a priority.

Shannon Kikuchi
Student,
Roosevelt High School

Rodrigues was wrong about UPW strike

Well, well, well. Gary Rodrigues is up on federal charges (Star-Bulletin, March 8). Sounds like he will be trashed -- which is a good thing, especially after his remarks during the threatened trash collectors' strike.

Rodrigues said that the sanitation workers didn't need to be exempt from the strike, since not picking up garbage didn't pose any health problems to the people of Oahu.

I beg to differ. With rats and mice running rampant in Waikiki, we already have a problem with these rodents and we don't need a situation where even more food would have been provided for them.

Linda Liddell
Kaunakakai, Molokai

Quotables "We are increasing taxes and demonstrating that government cannot be trusted to carry out an independent tax policy." Carol Fukunaga STATE SENATOR FROM MAKIKI Opposing, in vain, the Senate's move to take back a planned state income tax cut to show support for teacher pay raises and help balance the budget "Waddle was pitiable. (But) with a forceful tone, I said, 'You should have apologized earlier.'" Ryosuke Terata FATHER OF ONE OF THE MISSING STUDENTS PRESUMED DEAD AFTER THE SINKING OF THE EHIME MARU After sub skipper Scott Waddle apologized for his role in the accident

Taxing tourists will backfire on Hawaii

Barbara A. Harness' Feb. 7 letter commented on the fee that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is contemplating for all tourists entering and leaving Hawaii. Harness made the excellent point that the high cost of living drove her from Hawaii, and pleaded that another fee on tourists would make it even more difficult to at least visit where she used to live.

I agree: Yet another tax on visitors to Hawaii?

I come from the mainland four times annually on business, and have done so for more than 10 years. Over that time, hotel room costs have increased drastically, rental car fees have become so numerous they're difficult to count, and interisland airfares seem to grow exponentially.

I have questioned many times whether the cost was really worth the benefits. Hawaii is a lovely place to visit but can my company really afford to include it in its business travel budget?

Every time your economy has been in need of more revenues, the government answer seems to be: Get it from tourists. And the philosophy appears to be contagious, since businesses that cater to visitors respond the same way.

Not once in the past decade have I seen any willingness to consider decreasing the unit price of goods and services that visitors use in order to recapture lost volume. I wonder if Hawaii is testing the level at which tourists will finally say, "No more, the price is just too high!"

Dale V. Hight
Downey, Calif.

HTA is not accountable for its millions

The Hawaii Tourism Authority is finally facing the public scrutiny it has long eluded, and the results have revealed a dismaying lack of accountability in its expenditure of public funds. At a hearing of the Senate's Tourism Committee, conducted by Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, the public learned that:

HTA has given $60 million in tax dollars to dozens of businesses and organizations, often without determining financial need or in the absence of thorough assessments of the financial returns of these proposals to the visitor industry.

HTA has not justified its $1.8 million payroll for 20 employees (an average of $90,000 per worker), particularly when $52 million of its $60 million annual budget is contracted to outside organizations.

The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, which receives HTA contracts totaling $45 million, has yet to be formally evaluated for its performance.

HTA Executive Director Bob Fishman has never had his job performance reviewed to determine if he earns his $180,000 annual salary, and neither has his staff. It makes me wonder if the visitor industry execs who dominate the HTA board are equally lax about the performance of their managers and employees.

Major ethical, conflict-of-interest questions were raised at the hearing, involving the approval by individual HTA board members of lucrative contracts benefiting their own companies. The tourism special fund intended to support tourism marketing and promotion has instead become a blank check to spend tax revenues.

Kim's proposal to transfer the tourism special fund to the executive branch and eliminate the HTA would impose a much-needed check on its spend-thrift ways. At the very least, major changes in the way the HTA conducts its business are in order to introduce openness and accountability into its spending of public money.

Susan Thoemmes
Waipahu

Loose dogs on the beach are health hazard

This is directed to all dog owners who feel that their animals should be allowed to run free on the beach. This is exactly why problems start. Not only do the loose dogs bother people just trying to relax, they poop all over the beach while the owners look the other way.

Dog owners seem to think that the beach is a toilet for their pets. On numerous occasions I have seen these dog owners picking up pieces of rubbish, but what about the poop? Keep your dogs at home.

Roger Craig

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