Waianae students keep on going

Students at Waianae High School have been working very hard and have shown great resilience despite the theft and destruction on campus this past year.

The marine science students have had their products stolen. They rely on the ogo they make for their classes and fundraising for field trips and other educational opportunities.

A classroom was burned down and students had to attend class in the library for the remainder of the year. Students have spent endless hours learning about native plants and restoring a site near campus. Many small trees students had been growing for months have been ripped out of the ground and taken. The entire nursery of plants that were going into the students' park site was stolen. Greenhouse supplies were taken.

Yet the students endure.

Daniel Forman

We need a progressive electricity producer

Since the Hawaiian Electric Co. does not have the sense to plan ahead and to progress with the times by becoming independent of fossil fuel and progress into modern technology and more sophisticated electricity generation, can the governor, and the counties mayor's and state Legislature disband HECO's monopoly on electrical generation and give it to a company that can move into a future of modern technology and wean Hawaii of its dependency on fossil fuels?

Carolyn Walther

Monorail isn't answer to mass transit

I agree with Robert Kam that the rail system proposed for Honolulu in 1990 would have been almost completed by now had the City Council provided the local share of the funding (Letters, May 25). I must respectfully disagree with his suggestion that a monorail system should be built.

When I began planning urban transportation in 1954, I learned that perception is more powerful than reality. The perception that a monorail would provide an improved city transit system has persisted even though no city in the world has selected it. The few monorail lines that exist outside amusement parks were built to address specific situations. None of them, including the pioneer monorail in Wuppertal, Germany, have been expanded into a city-wide system.

The reality of monorail is that it has no advantages over conventional two-rail technology, but it does have unique problems. It is more expensive to construct, operate and maintain. It does not have the flexibility to adjust the level of service to meet unexpected surges in the number of passengers, and it has safety problems that conventional two-rail technology does not.

Out of hundreds of studies done for rail transportation projects in cities around the world, not one has ever recommended monorail for a complete metro system.

Two-rail technology has a history of proven results in providing more attractive service than buses at a lower cost per unit of capacity. This can be demonstrated by examining the data complied by the increasing number of cities that are building and operating conventional two-rail systems.

Building such a system here would benefit the citizens of Honolulu by providing an attractive alternative to their automobiles for all of their transportation needs.

Charles J. Lietwiler
Rockville, Md.
Waikiki Hana Hotel

[Quotables] "We are talking about it, and that is more than we have ever done." Sylvia Luke, Democratic state representative from Pauoa, on discussions among House leaders to call the House back into session to override Governor Cayetano's veto of a bill to raise the age at which minors can have sex. There has not been a veto override in 40 years. "It's not going to stop." Mike Benicta, Waipahu resident watching police raid a cockfight Wednesday near his home, the second cockfight that police have broken up on Pahu Street in two months.

Damon Estate should give back Moanalua

Moanalua Valley rightfully belongs to Hawaiians, not to the privately owned S.M. Damon Estate. Moanalua Valley was part of the Kamehameha lands that passed to Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop.

In her will, the princess designated these lands to endow the education of Hawaiians.

Damon was the business partner of Princess Pauahi's husband in the founding of what is now the First Hawaiian Bank. Shortly before she died, she gave the valley to Damon. Now the estate of S.M. Damon should give back Moanalua Valley to Hawaiians.

E. Alvery Wright

Paper attempts to manipulate Hawaiians

I am responding to your editorial in the June 20 Star-Bulletin: "OHA fights over hiring a new administrator." The editorial essentially accuses the Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees of petty infighting, hindering the proper functioning of OHA.

The editorial states that the OHA mandate requires the trustees to conduct business without squabbling.

This is putting things in the mandate that do not exist. Each trustee has a duty to represent the wishes of the population. Naturally this could entail some disagreement over policies. That is the point of having a representative governing body. There needs to be checks and balances with each trustee keeping a check on the others. And because we represent a diverse population covering several islands, we probably won't agree on many issues.

One of the mandates of the U.S. Constitution is freedom of speech. Embodied in this mandate is the principle that people will disagree and should be allowed to disagree. We are not a group of sheep following one shepherd.

The very idea that the Star-Bulletin continues to try and manipulate the native people by using colonizing tactics to embarrass them demonstrates that nothing much has changed for us since 1893.

Rowena M.N. Akana
OHA Trustee

Hawaiians deserve to get property back

I am ashamed of the way that my rulers, the super wealthy, and our elected officials are treating native persons. Denying political liabilities bequeathed to us by our political forefathers, who stole Hawaiian lands, dignity and cultural assets, while kicking kanaka maoli in the head for asking for reparations based on race, only harms our children further.

The original dirty deeds were based on race and culture. Should not the reparations be based on these same criteria? Give the kanaka maoli their trusts, ceded lands monies and speed up land awards.

R. Kinslow

TV show on Scouts was one-sided

My family has enjoyed PBS programming for years and especially KHET since we have lived in Hawaii. I was very disappointed to learn, however, that it aired a program entitled "Scouts Honor," a one-sided attack on an honest and moral organization.

The Boy Scouts of America has existed for more than 100 years to instill discipline, honor, integrity, morality and reverence in our youth. As a Boy Scout, I remember the fathers who volunteered their time to model those characteristics for me year after year. I still value the respect for other people (whether it is of their accomplishments, failures, qualities or inequalities). I never once learned how to become a homosexual activist.

Why should the BSA be forced to allow men who choose an alternative lifestyle to be role models for our sons? I do not appreciate the biased program. Free speech means you hear both sides of the story.

I hope that my family will not have to give up watching such programs as "Arthur," "Clifford," "Wishbone" and "The News Hour with Jim Lerher." But if the station continues with its bias in some areas, we will definitely have to stop supporting it all together.

Robert Rossow

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