Ethics bar keeps getting lowered

How much lower can we sink when politicians like Honolulu City Councilman Andy Mirikitani, who has been convicted on multiple counts of stealing, will continue to draw income while serving his term in a country club prison? Then there are the full benefits he will enjoy upon his release, likely to be early for good behavior.

We may well be seeing a new record for limbo, which is a dance where people try to slide underneath a bar that is continuously lowered. The winner is the one who can sink the lowest without getting caught.

Hawaii's politicians seem bent on setting a record that bests that set when John Curley retained his position as the mayor of Boston while in jail for extorting city funds. Instead of raising the standards of integrity in Hawaii, it seems we continue to scrape the bottom of the integrity barrel.

Irv Rubin

Quarantine bill's veto disheartens military

Seven years ago, I stated that the two major deterrents to military personnel coming to Hawaii were education and the pet quarantine. They still are. Though we have made some progress, actions such as the governor's veto of the Pet Quarantine Bill continue to set us back.

Through the efforts of Rear Adm. (Doctor) Bill McDaniel, Mrs. M.L. Yakeley and others, the quarantine duration was reduced to 30 days several years ago for those pets who had proof of rabies vaccination. That quantum leap was fought every step of the way but sound medical science prevailed.

The next step by the state was to increase the cost of quarantine for that 30-day period to approximately the same amount as it had been for the lengthy period. It makes one wonder if the period has to do with guaranteeing a rabies-free state or ensuring somebody's pocket gets properly lined?

All senior military leaders in Hawaii urged state and federal officials to intercede on behalf of the underpaid military. The state Legislature took a positive step forward this year to enable military members to afford to bring their pets to Hawaii.

The veto of the bill by the governor unfortunately was to be expected. He had also approved the extraordinary increase in the cost of quarantine even after senior military leaders had painstakingly explained the impact on military people.

As the one who initiated the fight against an unnecessarily lengthy and expensive quarantine program, I am disappointed with the actions of our elected leaders.

Richard Macke
Former Commander-in-Chief Pacific

[Quotables] "We squeezed the juice out of the metaphor...then put in extra juice from pidgin." Joseph Grimes, Retired Cornell linguistics professor, saying it was impossible to be exact when translating Biblical metaphors into pidgin. Grimes, with the help of 26 pidgin speakers, spent 12 years translating the New Testament into pidgin. "Nothing out there occurs naturally that's rust colored." Richard Gillespie, Member of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, discussing rust-colored spots on photos taken from space that he suspects may be the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's plane. The spots are near an atoll 2,000 miles southwest of Hawaii.

Fox News is far from balanced

Cal Thomas' recent column stated: "Fox looks conservative only because the rest are so far to the left."

Fox News claims it's "fair and balanced." Far from it. While CNN airs the viewpoints of both sides, Fox bases its programming on smashing liberal viewpoints with its slate of conservative guests. According to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, from Jan. 1 to May 1 of this year, on Special Reports with Brit Hume, only six out of 56 partisan guests were Democrats.

Even supposedly non-partisan anchors have conservative leanings. Brit Hume contributes to conservative journals. Bill O'Reilly, who claims to be independent, was a registered Republican until the Washington Post exposed him. Tony Snow spoke at a Republican Youth Caucus and wrote a conservative weekly newspaper column that bashed Democrats.

What's wrong with Fox is that it's lying when it says, "We report, you decide." The reality is conservatives Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes have already decided. They want you to hear the right-wing. That's certainly not fair and balanced news.

Eric Hananoki

Merit pay would inspire teachers

While we're still debating the governor's civil service reform, what about pay-for-performance reform? That's where we consider pay raises for teachers that go beyond the traditional salary schedules based on years of service, the level of education and the occasional cost-of-living increase.

The current system offers no motivation for teachers since their compensation is not tied to performance. Without incentive that comes from the promise of additional compensation, teachers must be internally motivated. Some teachers are motivated by their passion for teaching, and it is for those teachers that we should implement reforms to reward them.

If teachers say they deserve higher pay, they should be willing to show their worth in new ways.

Kellen Sumida

Some students aren't getting protection

On July 13, Vanessa Birang wrote: "All children need to be protected from harassment." This is just the point National Education Association was addressing with their proposed resolution regarding gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. These students and many other students have not been protected. They have been harassed, bullied, ridiculed and in the worst cases, beaten while those in authority have looked the other way.

If all students had been protected, the NEA resolution would not have been necessary. Now that the resolution has been withdrawn, students have to wait for another year when understanding, compassionate adults may add another layer of protection for them.

Carolyn Martinez Golojuch

Church-state wall has served the Republic

State Rep. William Stonebraker is disingenuous in saying "there is nothing in the Constitution to separate church and state."

The Constitution was nearly NOT adopted due to the lack of a Bill of Rights that would make it clear there would be no established religion. Puritans had run Massachusetts and Connecticut for several centuries, and the Anglicans were "established" in Virginia and the Carolinas.

The wall of separation between church and state is largely the work of Supreme Court Justice John Marshall and has served the Republic well. As part Native American, I resent Stonebraker's citing of George Washington's words to the Delaware. The history of the American government's trying to "Christianize" (subdue) native peoples is disgraceful.

Many of the founders of the Republic were people of faith, but most would not be welcome in some churches today. Benjamin Franklin was a Deist, Thomas Jefferson was a lapsed-Anglican-cum-Unitarian. John Adams was a recovering Puritan. The list could go on.

Willis H.A. Moore

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