Coolidge residents won't be evicted

Several pertinent facts relating to the dispute over the Coolidge Apartments did not appear in the Star-Bulletin's March 28 story.

In 1997, Coolidge's Corp. Board agreed to a new lease rent of $522 a month per unit, retroactive to 1991. Despite that, tenants continued to pay the old rent of $73/month. In 1999, an arrangement was reached for the accumulated sum of $1.7 million wherein the corporation surrendered the lease and building and Kamehameha Schools waived the $1.7 million debt.

Four residents have been identified as financially stressed. They were offered apartment rent of $522 a month -- inclusive of water, electricity and maintenance -- for two years. Kamehameha Schools will rent out the remaining units for $650 a month.

Realtor Michael Pang, the Coolidge owners' representative, gave your reporter many of these facts, which would have made a difference in this situation's portrayal.

Kamehameha Schools' relationship with the Coolidge Apartment Corp. has been difficult, but Kamehameha Schools is not evicting anyone. The solution proposed is a reasonable option and by March 30 all 20 owners had signed the agreement.

Wendell F. Brooks Jr.
Chief Investment Officer
Kamehameha Schools

Waihee clan keeps growing and growing...

I admit to having been seriously annoyed at the implication in the Star-Bulletin's April 3 article that favoritism was shown to a Waihee relative in the admissions process at Kamehameha Schools.

And then I thought about how someone might arrive at that conclusion. If the charge weren't such a serious one, it would actually be funny.

There are hundreds of people to whom I am somehow related -- Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian. Thousands claim to be my relatives or have the same last name, so other people think they are related.

As governor, I neither found, nor did I try to find, an easy way to sort the truth from the claims. Actually, I am flattered when someone I don't really know claims a familial relationship with me.

On a good day, half of the state's population may claim to be my relative.

On a bad day, they all disown me.

Well, it doesn't matter! I never asked any Kamehameha trustee to help smooth the way for anyone -- relative, relative wannabe, perceived relative, or never-was-a-relative-and-never-wants-to-be.

For me, notoriety is familiar territory. What is sad, however, is that there is a young student out there (whose name has yet to be revealed to me) who was portrayed in your article in the most unfavorable way because he may be a "distant relative" of mine.

John Waihee

Chinese will dismantle downed U.S. plane

One of the issues that has developed out of the "Orion over Hainan" affair is an unofficial declaration that an aircraft landing on foreign soil is still the sovereign property of its country of ownership.

Well, the West hasn't much to argue here. The precedent was set in September 1976 after a Soviet pilot defected in his MiG-25 Foxbat. Yes, he was defecting, while the American EP-3 was making an emergency landing, but both aircraft remained the property of their nation's military.

In the case of the Foxbat, Western intelligence decided to entirely dismantle the MiG and study it. Up until this incident, there had been a cloud of mystery surrounding this very fast and high-altitude fighter-interceptor. We resolved this intelligence gap while taking our time and showing no respect for this "sovereign" Soviet aircraft.

The West ultimately returned the Foxbat to the Soviet Union. Let's hope the crew of the EP-3 properly destroyed its appropriate sensitive equipment prior to arriving in Red China. We will find out when our dismantled EP-3 arrives in boxes.

Charles Bergman
Mililani

[QUOTABLES] "We've been touting ourselves as the 'healing island,' and if this rehabilitation package works, talk about ultimate healing." Rep. David Matsuura, Commenting on a bill that would authorize a privately run correctional facility for first-time, nonviolent drug offenders. Matsuura (D, South Hilo-Puna) said he supports locating the facility on the Big Island. "He stuck his head in here yesterday and said, 'Coach, you aren't blitzing enough.'" Kevin Lempa, University of Hawaii Warriors defensive coordinator, on June Jones' first day back at work after the head football coach's car accident six weeks ago

Burying power lines isn't that costly

Juanita Kahoonei is misinformed when she worries that the cost of undergounding the Kamoku-Pukele power line would be burdensome (Letters, March 29).

The June 1998 issue of Currents (Vol. 8 No.5), HECO's newsletter, stated that the additional cost for undergrounding would be $1.50-$2 for a typical residential bill per year. This is just pennies per month, even if you double the numbers given back in 1998.

Jim Harwood

Let's stop dumbing down the language

Kapiolani Community College instructor Laurie Hirohata's commentary (Star-Bulletin, April 2) struck a chord regarding illiteracy having reached epidemic proportions among young people.

The problem is compounded when society aids the dumbing down of the rich language that is our shared heritage, rather than halting the slide by improving basic reading and writing skills. Examples:

1) Multi-syllable words get chopped so as to soothe the semi-literate, such as a TV's "remote-control gun" becomes "remo." That's tolerable when "remo" users know its derivation and can use its precise form when among people averse to using the dumbed-down version.

2) E-mail sans uppercase letters, punctuation, proper spelling and paragraphs is declared the hip way to communicate by youth who cannot write, spell, or punctuate adequately. Worse yet, literate youth are pressured by lesser peers to dilute their literacy, lest they be ostracized.

3) Newspapers grease the slide by publishing news items with oodles of one-sentence paragraphs, fearing that consumers will avoid reading text that lacks gobs of white space. The typographical effect is akin to a book aimed at children.

F. Duffy

Bush suffers from insufferability, too

Regarding the Star-Bulletin's April 1 editorial on President Bush giving a "well-deserved comuppance" to lawyers who "are sometimes known for their insufferable self-importance":

A much more serious situation is the insufferable self-importance of a man in the White House who was not elected by the American people.

Nancy Bey Little

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