[ TEACHER STRIKE ]

Why are cabinet members worth more?

The governor said higher pay for teachers won't make better teachers. Well, how about the higher pay he wants for his cabinet members? Will that make them better cabinet members?

He wants to make teachers accountable for their work. Well, how are his cabinet members and appointed department heads being held accountable for their work?

One teacher at our school had the best picket sign: "Without teachers, where would our governors come from?"

Jennie Nomi
Kapaa, Hawaii

Picketing focuses teachers' resolve

I am a teacher on Kauai. I walked the picket line for 10 hours today with other teachers. My husband works for the University of Hawaii here on Kauai. He walked the picket line today at Kauai Community College for 12 hours. After all of this, teachers and faculty feel even stronger about their anger over the continued abuse of education in Hawaii.

During the past 30 years or more, teachers have not gotten any support from state leaders unless they moved to strike. How unfortunate that leaders do not consider us important. We must get a good education and take many state tests in order to be certified and good teachers. Our college loan bills mount up with a good education. Wouldn't you expect that we should get paid a decent salary to repay those loans?

Dixie Riepl
Lihue, Hawaii

>> HSTA Web site
>> UHPA Web site
>> State Web site
>> Governor's strike Web site
>> DOE Web site

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[Quotables] "Nibble the ears, then bite into the head. If you bite the head just right, you can form new shorter ears." Jerry Stanfield, Commercial photographer and confessed Peep fanatic, describing his preferred method of consuming the squishy, sweet Easter candies shaped like bunnies. "While everyone has talked about it, no one has put the resources to match the rhetoric, and it's time that we did." Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris, Announcing that he will resign next year to run for governor and designating education as his main campaign issue.

China incident revives ugly-Americanism

The Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA) is delighted to hear that China has released the 24 American crewmen.

Unfortunately, for Chinese Americans the problem does not end here. Despite the fact that we are U.S. citizens and permanent residents, we continue to be beset with false characterizations and our loyalty and patriotism are questioned. During the past week:

>> A host at Fox News & Friends declared support for the firing of "Chinese national laboratory employees" in retaliation for China's insistence on an apology.

>> An April 16 Business Week article says that a Gallup survey found that more than 80 percent of Americans believe that China is "dangerous."

>> In Springfield, Ill. a local radio talk show host said that people should boycott all Chinese restaurants and that all Chinese should be sent home to "their country."

We are deeply concerned about the potential negative repercussions this heated rhetoric will have on Chinese Americans and Asian-Pacific Americans.

When controversial incidents occur involving the United States and China, Chinese Americans and Asian-Pacific Americans often become the victims of racial profiling and scapegoating.

As a national educational and civil rights advocacy group, OCA's purpose is to fight these misperceptions and promote Chinese Americans and Asian- Pacific Americans as equal partners in America and as loyal Americans.

George M. Ong
National President Organization of Chinese American

Opposition to power lines is island-wide

Having written earlier to complain about the Star-Bulletin's coverage of the Hawaiian Electric Co.'s Waahila Ridge power line proposal, I want to thank you now for running Karl Kim's April 3 piece. As Kim's article made clear, community opposition to HECO's plans for the new power line are based on fundamental matters of energy policy planning. This is a state of Hawaii issue -- not just a "Manoa issue."

Elisa W. Johnston

Burying wires would cause worse damage

The dollar cost for burying of power lines may be somewhat insignificant when you spread the cost over the entire customer base, as Jim Harwood says (Our Side of the Story, April 9). However, the environmental impact of trenching would be far more devastating than the eyesore of overhead power lines, not to mention the maintenance costs of buried lines.

Imagine a backhoe rolling through the pristine watersheds of the Koolaus, digging a continuous trench several feet deep and across. Then imagine digging it up every time a cable malfunctions. Imagine hiking along a trail only to trip over a manhole cover in the mountains.

We somehow have no problem with residential developments like Makakilo or Hawaii Loa Ridge literally blanketing our mountain tops, but put up a camouflaged high-tension power line, and well, that's unacceptable!

HECO is trying to keep operation and maintenance costs down by going overhead. If we don't want more power lines, then we need to go on a major energy diet.

Craig Watanabe

Campaign 2004 is around the corner

The Bush administration has been in office all of 75 days, and in that short time, the water has become undrinkable and the air unbreathable, the galciers are melting and Russia and China are on the brink.

I guess Campaign 2004 has already started in Maureen Dowd's column. It's going to be a long four years.

David Fitzgerald
Mililani

Arts funding enriches our lives and legacy

Some voices at the Legislature are asking a fundamental question this session as they debate funding for a state art museum: Why should there be any government support for the arts?

As the new executive director of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, I passionately believe that our state government still has an essential role to play in the support of the arts.

The money represents a critical margin of survival for many arts groups in the state. The consequences of the recent decline in support for the arts is visible across Hawaii: arts organizations are trimming staff, closing galleries, curtailing performances, raising ticket prices and scrambling to produce income. Some will not survive.

The SFCA has been accused by some of elitism. On the contrary, the SFCA has been a significant influence on the democratization of the arts in Hawaii. The proof of that can be found every day throughout our state, where hundreds who might otherwise have little or no access to the creative or traditional arts see programs made possible by the SFCA.

The SFCA's support represents our government's commitment to enrich the lives of its citizens and develop a unique sense of identity and culture that can be passed on to our children.

David Farmer

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