Temple has plagued neighbors in Palolo

The Aug. 7 headline, "Temple lowers roof to please Palolo residents," is just another attempt to fool the public. As a resident of this area since 1962, we have been plagued with headaches and problems from the people running and building the temple.

I was always told that rules are made and upheld to insure that all parties are held accountable for their actions. Temple attorney Roger Moseley said that the temple "is actually pretty ugly...People can blame the neighbors who filed the lawsuit." It's just like an attorney to place the blame on someone other than his client.

The neighbors didn't build the temple, didn't make life miserable while construction was going on, forcing us to wait up to 20 minutes for a clear road to drive through, and didn't make our road into a mud-choked quagmire that took numerous complaints to get cleaned. The people responsible for running the temple should have been neighborly but instead took another route.

I was brought up to believe that if you are right, fight for it. But if you are wrong, shut up and take your punishment. Moseley might have a point, although I don't believe that the neighbors are entirely at fault for what is now happening. In a word "karma." As Buddhists, the people who run the temple should realize that sooner or later we all have to abide by the rules set forth, whether we like them or not.

Stanley Roy Santiago

Poor choose badly despite support

In his July 31 column about poverty in America, Bob Herbert goes into detail about how difficult it is for the poor to make ends meet and by implication, the government should do more to help. What he didn't tell us is why?

In 1963, when Lyndon Johnson took office as president, he declared his administration would make "war on poverty." The estimated poor Americans at that time comprised around 10 percent. After hundreds of billions of dollars and almost 40 years later, about 10 percent are still poor. Why?

Some say the poor will be with us forever. Notwithstanding the anomalies of catastrophic illness and accident, there are two basic reasons some people are doomed to be poor and struggle to survive: having too many children and too soon, and being undereducated.

We make choices in life. Having unprotected sex is stupid, but it is a choice. Leaving school early because you are pregnant, or too lazy or content with a few bucks in your pocket from a low-level job is stupid, but it is a choice.

There are people like Herbert who are always ready to take money from those Americans who do pay taxes and hand it over to those who continue to make bad choices in life. I do agree we must provide for the welfare of children from irresponsible parents. This is no choice. Perhaps this is a third reason "why:" We keep supporting the poor, so, we will always have the irresponsible and poor.

Art Todd
Kaneohe

Don't be in a hurry to bury the 'Bows

I remember Camelot: Watching a low-budget Rainbow football game on a cool evening that more than compensated for the hard, splintered bleachers at Honolulu Stadium.

Ah, there were lovely songleaders who daintily waved us through the joyful singing of our rouser, "Oh you Rainbows, hats off to thee..."

The price of admission was part of our nominal student activities fee. Transportation was a short walk from campus or hopping on and off HRT buses a few steps from the stadium.

Pre- and post-game meals and snacks were available throughout McCully and Moiliili. The best bags of boiled peanuts anywhere waited for fans at the gate.

We really did believe: "To thy colors true we shall ever be..."

Who would give up all of this for a hot trip to Kapolei and an expensive seat in a new 60,000-seat stadium where all the perks are designed for the money bags in the sky boxes?

No, this is not Camelot, not even a pleasant night game on a weekend. But this is big-time football. Big business breeds big bucks and the necessary contempt it took to drop the University of Hawaii football team name and colors, and the meaning and memories attached to them by students, fans and alumni.

If there is anyone at the University of Hawaii with common sense, bring back the 'Bows to the football team. Not to do so would be to dismiss the past and those who lived it.

Richard Y. Will

State tries to dismantle teachers' contract

Negotiators for the governor's office during the teachers' strike are now disassembling the package developed by the Hawaii State Teachers Association and picking and choosing what they like and discarding the rest, like an ala carte menu.

Parents, take note: These teachers have paid for many items for your children out of their own pockets -- pencils, books, folder papers and snacks. Checking math, spelling and penmanship and also planning for the next day's lesson takes more time after school.

Teachers should be shown more respect from everyone. Good teachers are leaving these islands or moving on to other opportunities that are not as demanding. Think about it. I leave you with two words: pono (doing what is right) and akamai (smart).

Lucy M. Akau

Mental health courts have bad track record

It would be interesting to hear the view of Senator Inouye's chief of staff Patrick Deleon, president of the American Psychological Association, on the proposition for mental health courts in Hawaii (Editorial, Aug. 3).

Who should be authorized to define appropriate mental health treatment? A judge?

The Broward County model reports routinely ordering defendants into "Assertive Community Treatment" (ACT). This is a coercive, intrusive, non-empirically proven program focusing on behavior modification. Core teams work to "fix" the environment, not treat the medical cause. The program may have more to do with what the providers define as needs rather than what the person actually needs.

Multisystemic therapy is another ACT model being implemented by the Departments of Health and Education in the recent move to school-based mental health. This therapy is simply a scheme that allows a lucrative industry of unlicensed "therapeutic community providers" to spring up, tapping into huge pots of government funding such as Medicaid.

Let's hope Senator Inouye's competent adviser can redirect our state away from this paternalistic, cult-like movement to de-professionalize medicine. It would move us toward a system that appears utopian, but boils down to societal control and greed parading as altruism.

Laura Brown
Mililani

[QUOTABLES] "That was the game we got most pumped up for...It we showed we could play with the big boys, we could get scholarships. When I was being recruited by UH, that was the game they wanted to see, and I had my best game." Chris Brown, University of Hawaii middle linebacker, recalling the importance of Damien Memorial High School's match-up against powerhouse St. Louis School. Brown was a star player for Damien in his senior year. "One of the neighbors told me he brings out pepper spray just to get the mail. They're afraid they might be attacked." Gary Hirata, Son of Mitsuji Hirata, 82, who was attacked last month by two neighborhood pitbulls while fetching the newspaper from his driveway. Hirata's 78-year-old neighbor, Yoshimi Fujihara, was bitten by the same dogs a month before.

Why is home builder being persecuted?

Regarding the story, "Pre-fab home contractor in building permit fight" (Star-Bulletin, Aug. 7): With all the complaining about the lack of affordable housing, why is Hawaiian Palisade Homes being put through the wringer? Hawaii has a housing problem and Palisade has a solution. Open your eyes, these affordable homes are being built for you.

Carolyn H. Walther

We need more perks for pedestrians

In the '80s, much to the chagrin of hundreds of it's clients, an outdoor hamburger stand manned by a blind cook was shut down by Mayor Frank Fasi and an army of food inspectors at Kaimana Beach.

At the time, this must have been the only resort town on the planet that disallowed such activities.

Then years later, the city finally gets with it, hosting an outdoor brunch along Kalakaua Avenue. This event was long overdue. We should rid this area of traffic and have it become a permanent fixture.

We are totally swamped here with vehicular presence of all sizes, in ridiculous gridlock every day of the week. There should be a law against owning three or four vehicles per family.

John L. Werrill

Certification is crucial to Queen's program

It is with a deep sense of pride that I read unsolicited letters to the editor from former residents here and on the mainland concerning the Queen's Dental Residency Program.

These are graduates who have gone on to post-graduate specialties and received academic appointments to dental schools such as the University of Southern California, University of Washington and Baylor, carved out successful private practices from Bridgeton, Maine to Asheville, N.C., to Spring, Texas, to Shoreview, Minn., to Lynnwood, Wash., to Honolulu. One of our graduates is the team dentist for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.

In March of 1997 during the exit interview, the American Dental Association's on-site inspection team from the Commission on Dental Accred- itation complimented the Queen's Medical Center on having a strong program in trauma and hospital dentistry and a dedicated faculty. Our faculty, all volunteers, is the heart and soul of our residency and represent some of the finest teaching minds in the country.

The hospital venue, curriculum structure, dedicated faculty and staff and full accreditation are all in place, proven and fine-tuned after 40 years. No one knows exactly what the effect would be on the community if the dental clinic were to close. But one thing is fairly certain: If the residency program is decertified, in all likelihood it will never come back.

Samuel Ishimura
Director Dental Resident Education
The Queen's Medical Center

City hasn't neglected infrastructure

Jim Fromm's recent letter to the editor (Star-Bulletin, July 18) complains the city spends money on "monuments" while ignoring infrastructure, citing the recent Waianae water main break and resulting traffic jam as evidence of this neglect.

He implies we've diverted resources to the Kapiolani Park Bandstand, the new Central Oahu Regional Park and on efforts to get local residents to return to a revitalized Waikiki.

Our water delivery system is run by the semi-autonomous Board of Water Supply, which issues its own bonds and pursues repairs and infrastructure improvements on a schedule independent of other city agencies.

So it's neither correct nor logical to assume that problems with the water system are caused by resources going to other needs.

Improvements that the city has made in Waikiki or elsewhere are the result of community-government-business co-visioning, and not funded by cuts in infrastructure funding. Mayor Harris has asked for and received $185 million for wastewater infrastructure this year, the largest single-year outlay in Honolulu's history.

The mayor has also led efforts to build a Waianae emergency bypass road and been the prime mover behind Central Oahu Regional Park -- another facility which will serve Central and Leeward residents. So Mr. Fromm's claim that the city has focused on Waikiki and East Honolulu while ignoring Leeward residents has as little merit as his speculation about infrastructure resources.

The simple truth is that under Mayor Harris all of the island of Oahu is being improved and beautified, and that infrastructure and facilities that serve all our residents and visitors are being planned, developed and dedicated as quickly as resources will allow. We're proud to be building a better Honolulu for all our people, whether they live, work and play in the urban core, in the suburbs, or in the country.

Carol L. Costa
Director
Honolulu Department of Customer Services

Quarantine is costly for kamaainas, too

I keep reading about how military personnel are being treated poorly with the expense and requirements of pet quarantine.

What about kamaainas trying to return home? I will be coming home to stay in September. After meeting all the requirements for the 30-day quarantine for my two neutered, declawed, never-go-outside cats, I find the total cost $3,100!

Yet, I have not heard one kamaaina, myself included, complain. Why do the military whine so much?

Loretta Paling Allen
Denver, Colo.

Even a well-fed cat will resort to hunting

Regarding the July 13 story on feeding feral felines: One quote said, "The cat advocates say if the cats are well fed, they won't hunt, but I think they will hunt anyway because it's part of their nature." I agree.

We visit our family in upstate New York about twice a year, and stay with my wife's daughter who has a well-fed cat (canned food and water about twice a day).

The cat is an indoor and outdoor cat. Still this small-ish cat has brought home headless chipmunks (an obvious favorite), the bottom half of a squirrel and other small creatures. The cat sometimes proudly displays "the kill" at the backdoor step or sometimes hides the carcass in the garage or in the yard, weather permitting.

Our own Hawaii Kai neighborhood cat, who is also well fed, still hunts lizards and small birds.

As much as I would not want to have these feral cats exterminated, their numbers must be reduced once they start to effect the general health and welfare of the area residents.

Larry Julian Jr.

Kahoolawe to be a cultural reserve

Judging from a number of letters to the editor in recent months suggesting that the island of Kaho'olawe could be turned into a casino, a prison or a happy hunting ground for Honolulu's feral cats, there are still a lot of people who don't know what's being planned for our eighth-largest island.

The answer is simple: Kaho'olawe is going to be a Hawaiian cultural reserve. That was the vision set 25 years ago, when the first protesters "occupied" the island and first heard the voices of their ancestors telling them what the island was and what it could become.

That vision was strong enough to sustain the members of the Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana through their successful battle to stop the bombing of the island. That made the 'Ohana the most successful grassroots movement in recent Hawaii history.

That vision guided members of the state Legislature into creating the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission (KIRC). That very same vision was clear enough for members of the U.S. Congress. They stated it is in the national interest to recognize the value of assuring safe use of the island for cultural, historical, archaeological and educational purposes.

Today that vision guides the commissioners and staff of the KIRC as they prepare for the end of the Navy's cleanup and KIRC's assumption of full managerial control of the island. What is the vision?

>>The kino (physical manifestation) of Kanaloa (ancient name for Kaho'olawe) is restored. Forests and shrublands of native plants and other biota clothe its slopes and valleys. Pristine ocean waters and healthy reef ecosystems are the foundation that supports and surrounds the island.

>>Na po'e Hawai'i (Hawai'i's people) care for the land in a manner which recognizes the island and ocean of Kanaloa as a living spiritual entity. Kanaloa is a pu'uhonua and wahi pana (refuge and storied place) where Native Hawaiian cultural practices flourish.

>>The piko (navel) of Kanaloa is the crossroads of past and future generations from which the Hawaiian lifestyle is spread throughout the islands.

For a copy of Southern Beacon, the commission's first newsletter, please call (808) 586-7587 on Oahu or (808) 243-5020 on Maui.

Colette Y.P. Machado
Chairwoman
Noa Emmett Aluli
outgoing chairman
Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission

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Argument keeps evolving

Creation argument revealed lack of fact

Knowledge is when the mind possesses a concept. Belief is when a concept possesses the mind. The absurd idea of teaching creationism as a fact in public schools is unmasked when those who espouse it refer to creationism as what they believe.

Del Pranke

Let's not sterilize science classes

I'm an avid student of evolutionary biology, but I feel it would be unfortunate if, in the hue and cry over the Board of Education's attempt to mandate creationism in public school curriculums, we went too far and prohibited discussion or debate in biology classes of anything with the slightest creationist tinge.

For example, will we prohibit teachers from discussing whether evolution is completely "blind" adaptation, a randomly branching tree of life, or whether it might be subtly directed? Will we prohibit discussing whether the first bit of life arose from natural chemical reactions on Earth, or whether it was seeded by living bits of life originating elsewhere in the universe that drifted into Earth's orbit?

Readers of magazines such as Scientific American or Natural History will recognize the value of exploring these unsettled questions in evolutionary biology. Yes, the creationism that school board member Denise Matsumoto wanted to foist upon us is scientific nonsense, but let's not overreact by prohibiting biology teachers from teaching a nuanced approach to the finer points of evolutionary theory, or from playing devil's advocate to provoke debate and liven up a classroom.

Jim Henshaw
Kailua

Evolution supporters miss religion's point

What great coverage of the never-ending debate on the subject of creation and evolution in science class. Sadly, I've waited patiently for some erudite theologian to illuminate the whole matter and vindicate school board member Denise Matsumoto from the shameful treatment of her by the supporters of evolution.

Physicist Gerald Schroeder, the author of "Genesis and Big Bang," an applied theologian with a doctoral degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was able in his 1997 book, "The Science of God," to reconcile the faith in science with a belief that the Bible is the truth. He was able to reconcile the 15-billion-plus years of the Big Bang with the 24 days of creation in the Bible by Einstein's Law of Relativity.

Schroeder also stated that Einstein believed in a higher force (which some call God) directing the universe. This is precisely the point Matsumoto tried to get across to the Board of Education and the public.

There is an alternative way of teaching and understanding science. Speaking of random mutation as the cause of the evolutionary process, Schroeder wrote, "Simply stated, the convergence observed in convergent evolution did not happen by independent random reaction. It must have been programmed."

Yet, in the letters to the editor, science teachers and professors alike stressed with unflinching certainty the fact of evolutionary process by random mutation. Schroeder also pointed out that statistical analyses of evolution are fraught with assumptions. Do you want your children being taught by our prevailing system and teachers?

Wilfred Nagao

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