Lingle loyalists will fund her campaign

Linda Lingle's early lead in contributions for the upcoming governor's race is not surprising. Her supporters have been waiting almost three years for Lingle to start her campaign, and they will not be disappointed this time.

In 1998, Governor Cayetano collected over a million dollars in one night by holding a $1,000-a-plate dinner with more than a thousand people attending. Lingle's contributions are coming in through small donations from her grassroots supporters. In 1998 she had more than 17,000 contributors, the most in state history.

Long after the architects and engineering firms that do business with the city and state reach their donation limits for the Democrats, Lingle's loyal contributors will continue to fund her election.

Garry P. Smith
Ewa Beach

Media should stop sugar-coating news

Nobody likes to receive bad news. We all attempt to ease the effect of it from time to time. But I truly wish journalists in this town could just report the news without the "buts."

Tourism is down for the year, but room rates are up so it's a wash. Unemployment is up for the year, but it's just because of the loss of summer jobs. There's always the "but." Just once I'd love to see the media report the facts and leave it alone, or if they have to add commentary, be honest enough to say the situation "just plain sucks."

Please hold the whipped cream and cherries. If I want sugar-coating, I'll go back to reading the Honolulu Advertiser.

Gary L. Greenly

[Quotables] "It will be a very hot discussion." Herbert Watanabe, Board of Education chairman, on the public interest in today's BOE meeting, when the board took up a proposal to change public school science curriculum requiring students to learn explanations besides evolution for how life on Earth developed, including creationism. "There's a whole mess of them I've been getting." Rabbit Kekai, Famed Honolulu waterman, 80, on the number of surfing awards he has received in his lifetime. Kekai was installed today as a "Surfing Legend" on theSurfing Walk of Fame in Huntington Beach, Calif.

Most favor legal action against cockfighting

The vast majority of Honolulu residents oppose cockfighting -- 91 percent view it as animal cruelty and 82 percent agree that it should remain illegal. This is according to a 1993 study conducted by Ward Research.

Now is the time for all community members to make their voices heard. The Police Department is aggressively pursuing cockfighting activities and the City Council is considering a bill that will increase fines and speed prosecution of cockfighters.

The Hawaiian Human Society strongly supports these enforcement efforts and the bill being considered by the City Council. It will increase the fine for possession of gaffs and slashers, and reduce the jail time to allow swifter prosecution of the people bringing this barbaric activity to our neighborhoods.

The Star-Bulletin's editorials strongly stated support for efforts that will further discourage cockfighting. We encourage readers to call their City Council members to let them know they support the new anti-cockfighting efforts.

If we all work together, we can help eliminate the scourge of cockfighting.

Pamela Burns
President
Hawaiian Human Society

Dining on the beach is a good idea

It's interesting how we suddenly get with it like the rest of the world's resorts, with outdoor cafes and beachfront restaurants to have a much-needed Waikiki brunch.

I recall Mayor Frank Fasi and an army of food inspectors closing down an apparently unsanitary hamburger stand at Kaimana Beach, which was extremely popular.

Perhaps Harris displays greater influence in getting things done that should have been done a long time ago.

Getting rid of the traffic for good on Kalakaua with a brunch every day would make even more sense.

John L. Wenill

State-worker survey wasn't fair to Hawaii

The Star-Bulletin on July 26 reported that Hawaii has the highest percentage of state workers in the United States. Unfortunately, this has been a common misreading of government employment in Hawaii. The level of public employment per capita in Hawaii is average in comparison with other states.

It is erroneous to use the census count for state employees here because those workers are normally employed as county and municipal workers in other states. That includes teachers, airport workers, port workers and secretaries in the public school system.

The census reports that full-time equivalent employment in Hawaii in March 1999 was 66,928, or 5.5 percent of the population. The average percentage for all states was 5.5 percent. Six states besides Hawaii had 5.5 percent of their population working as state or local government employees -- Delaware, Maine, Georgia, Minnesota, Arkansas and Texas. Nevada had the lowest percentage (4.2 percent) and Wyoming had the highest (7.9 percent).

Lawrence Boyd

Senate was justified in rejecting Kyoto

The United States is right to reject the Kyoto Protocol. Anyone who saw the John Stossel report on ABC knows there were 17,000 scientists who didn't think global warming was a serious threat or directly caused by humans, versus the 1,600 who thought otherwise. Also, while 178 other countries may have agreed with the Kyoto Protocol, only one actually signed it.

Back in the 1970s the talk was about a possible new ice age. Now it's global warming. Who knows what the conclusions will be in 20 years?

Wendell Hong
Waianae

Don't use Hawaiian knowledge to stir hate

I am so ashamed to read that Haunani-Kay Trask made such comments about Canadians, as related in Richard Halloran's Editorial Scratchpad (July 27).

I understand her feelings, however Canadians, like many in the United States, do not fully understand what Hawaii is about and who we, the people of Hawaii, are.

The tourists are not to blame. Blame the people who perpetuate these inaccuracies of Polynesian and Hawaiian culture. What is worse is that they make money out of these false portrayals. I constantly have to educate people on the mainland about who Hawaiians are and what our culture is about.

Haunani, from one Hawaiian who is pro-Hawaiian to another, if I can do this, so can you.

It's time to stop being bitter and hateful. There are people who use their knowledge to twist the truth of our history in order to confuse others who don't know any better. We Hawaiians should use our own knowledge to make people understand. The key word is "educate," for knowledge is power.

As one Hawaiian proverb goes, "Ua lehulehu a manomano ka 'ikena a ka Hawaii", translated as "The Hawaiian's knowledge is so great and numerous."

Kalani Mondoy
Glendale, Calif.

Why didn't board members speak up?

In the dispute over creationism vs. evolution, why did members of the Board of Education sit silent, not asserting that adaptation is the means by which species not well-suited over time to their habitat and environment, can become new species (i.e. ape to human) in the evolutionary process. Evolution happens naturally and inevitably through adaptation, survival of the fittest and other means of natural selection.

Not one board member questioned Denise Matsumoto's assertion that creationism is a theory supported by "scientific data," by implication equivalent to that scientific data supporting the theory of evolution.

I, personally and as a priest, can make a good argument that creationism is true in the sense that God did create the heavens and Earth and all that is in and on them -- but by his own miraculous, rational system of evolving species, one from another. That is a matter of faith, though, not something to be taught in public schools. This understanding of and belief in God's creative process neither negates nor refutes the facts of evolution. It is a matter of faith -- just that -- not a matter of scholarship.

The Rev. Layton Zimmer
Wailuku, Maui

Religious beliefs don't belong in science class

Denise Matsumoto of the Hawaii Board of Education, the body charged with guiding the education of Hawaii's children, considers creationism a "theory supported by science" worthy of being taught as a valid alternative to the theory of evolution. This assertion is appalling and, frankly, dangerous.

To argue that creationism should be taught as a reasonable alternative to evolution is logically absurd. The theory of evolution, like all scientific theories, is built upon a large number of objective, reproducible observations, logically and systematically organized. It is itself a product of a series of tested, rejected and refined hypotheses -- scientific evolution if you will. Creationism is not a product of testing, questioning or reproducible observations, but rather is a faith-based, subjective justification for that which we can't logically explain.

Creationism should not be taught as an alternative to evolution. They are not interchangeable. A person could believe that "it all had to start from something" (creation) and still accept that the scientifically documented biological process of evolution occurs.

Pitting this natural human plea for an explanation of our ultimate beginning against a scientifically sound natural process is specious and is not acceptable in our public education system. It is regressive and we can't allow it.

Kevin Johnson
Research geologist
Bishop Museum

Face it, no one will ever really know

Amazing. Who knew so many were around to observe the origin of our universe?

Of course, all of these witnesses stringently held to the scientific method when it happened -- first observing the phenomenon, then gathering data about it via their five senses, then hypothesizing about it, then carrying out experiments to prove/disprove their hypothesis, then reforming their hypothesis, then experimenting some more, then reforming their hypothesis again, and finally gathering enough unchanging facts for an official scientific theory.

But that can't possibly have happened because absolutely no one was around to physically observe the origin of the universe. No one has ever been able to recreate it. No one has ever been able to prove it through experiments. And no one can consider their version of our beginnings as anything other than the theories that they are.

Scott Yoshino
Mililani

Evolution passes test; creationism does not

Proponents of creationism and the equally bogus "Intelligent Design" movement claim their pet theory is science. They are wrong. A scientific theory must be able to explain the evidence available. Creationism and Intelligent Design fail miserably at this task. They do not belong in a science classroom.

In science, it is difficult to prove a theory, but it is easy to disprove theories that are significantly wrong. Creationism has failed to explain the vast amounts of evidence from biology, archeology, geology and astronomy. Evolution succeeds at this task. It would be a lie to teach creationism as a valid alternative theory.

Eugene Magnier

Astronomer

Kamuela, Hawaii

Faith is churches' business, not schools

Evolution is not a fact. It is a theory that seeks to account for the facts. It is the nature of science that no theory can ever be final. Every claim of the theory must be testable and tested. If a fact appears that the theory cannot account for, or a claim is tested and found wanting, then the theory must be changed. Darwin's theory has had many details changed over the years as new data have been found.

Creationism is not a theory. It is an allegation of fact. Since no evidence could prove its central claims are false, they are untestable. One cannot know that they are true. One can only believe, or not. They are not, therefore, comparable.

Interestingly enough, just as the theory of evolution has seen some of its details change over the years; so also has creationism. When I was a kid a creationist insisted to me that God had created the universe in 4004 B.C. with those dinosaur bones buried under the ground to test my faith. Few creationists would make such a statement today, but the nature of creationism has not changed. For all its pretense, it is still an allegation of fact, not a testable theory attempting to account for all the data. It does not belong in the science curriculum until it is.

My personal opinion as a science-trained clergyman is that, if God exists, God created the wonderful diversity of species by means of something very like that described in the theory of evolution. And the first chapter of Genesis is a poem of praise for the goodness of that creation, not an attempt to describe God's technique.

I call upon clergy of all faiths, and all people of faith, to stop trying to turn the public schools into Sunday School. That is our business, not theirs.

The Rev. Mike Young
Minister
First Unitarian Church

Book may help some to see the light

Regarding the Star Bulletin's Aug. 1 letter signed by 62 University of Hawaii educators regarding their dismay at the possibility of the Board of Education's proposed changes, particularly the issue of creationism vs. evolution, I pose a friendly challenge.

I ask that all who oppose teaching creationism read a book that can be found in any of our libraries. It is called, "A Case For Faith" by Lee Strobel, an award-winning legal editor with the Chicago Tribune.

His intention was to prove creationism wrong. But after interviewing well-known scientists Walter L. Bradley, James Tour, Norman L. Geisler, and others, he found that the possibility of evolution without creationism is nearly impossible to the point of putting the odds at 1 to 10 with 60 zeros behind it.

This book is a remarkable piece of honest reporting and investigative talent. I implore all UH professors and educators to read and discuss it honestly. There is nothing wrong in being wrong, but to deny a truth in fact, is worse.

Bob Ruiz

Educated people know both sides of story

It was a pleasant surprise to read about a state school board member's proposal to include the theory of creationism in our public school curriculum.

I think it's a good idea, but naturally we are hearing howls of protest from outraged opponents. Such folks might do their blood pressure a favor by considering the example of an old nun I used to know.

She taught biology in a Catholic high school in South Texas 35 years ago and every semester she'd tell her students:

"We all know that God created the heavens and the Earth and everything therein, but we're going to study Darwin's Theory of Evolution because educated people need to understand opposing viewpoints."

Evelyn Cook
Kapaa, Kauai

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