Just accept it -- the Russian skaters won

Not much has been said against the widespread conviction that the Canadian figure-skating pair "deserved" the gold at the Olympics. Many spectators thought their routine was the best. The judges, the French judge feeling "pressured" notwithstanding, did not.

Figure skating is not a sport in the sense that someone reaches the finish line first or racks up more goals than the other guys. It's an activity that is subjectively evaluated by people who are supposed to be qualified to do so, and medals are awarded based on these evaluations.

The Canadians knew they would perform in front of a panel of "experts" who would decide how good they were. So they disagreed with the judges' decision. So what? Life's tough.

Giving them a "duplicate" gold is a meaningless gesture the Olympics honchos hope will make all the bad feelings go away. But the Canadians didn't win; the Russians did. Get it?

Some people have long thought figure skating should not be included in the Olympics for the very reason that it is not a sport and there are no objective qualifications for winning or losing. I'm inclined to agree.

Anita Liptak
Kaneohe

Cost of weddings already deters couples

It looks to me like Gov. Cayetano is trying hard to get money out of the population any way he can ("Cayetano wants to raise marriage and driving fees," Star-Bulletin, Jan. 25). He must be so desperate for money now, he is even penalizing the young lovers who want to get married.

I know people in Hawaii who never marry because the ceremony is too expensive as it is. What Cayetano will get is fewer people marrying, not more money for the state's coffers.

Kathryn Hallmark

[Quotables] "I think after what I've dealt with this year, the competition is going to be the easiest part of it." Jean Racine U.S. Olympic bobsled team member, speaking before the first-ever women's bobsled race at the Olympic Games. Racine's mother died in May; her father is on trial for alleged sex crimes. She and partner Gea Johnson took fifth place in the race; Americans Jill Bakken and Vonetta Flowers won the gold medal. "When you have an adversary who wants to do away with you, you don't feel very good about taking care of him." Capt. Albert Shimkus Chief doctor of the task force in charge of 300 Taliban and al-Qaida detainees at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, on taking care of the sick and injured prisoners. The detainees, who have standing orders to kill Americans, are kept handcuffed in air-conditioned hospital tents; medical personnel keep close track of their sharp instruments.

If comic offends you, find another pastime

As an African American who rarely reads "Boondocks," I confess I'm not familiar with the story line about George W. Bush's presidential election that Mike Sudlow finds so offensive (Letters, Feb. 18). I suppose I could point out that communities with large numbers of Jewish retirees also complained about Florida's voting irregularities.

However, reading his letter about the comic strip, African Americans and the Democratic Party, it occurred to me that anyone this angry and obsessed really needs to get a life.

Faye Kennedy

Trustees like Akana do nothing for Hawaiians

Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustee Rowena Akana does not understand what it is to be a trustee ("The betrayal of OHA trustees and the grab for power," Gathering Places, Feb. 11). By law, the Section 5(f) trust revenues OHA receives are supposed to be used "for the betterment of the conditions of native Hawaiians as defined in the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (HHCA) of 1920."

In her article, Akana considers the beneficiaries to be a problem, and blames us for her failure to carry out her duties.

Akana's article reveals that she does not understand Hawaiian history. The native tenant class was supposed to have received one-third of all the lands in Hawaii in the Mahele of 1848, but did not.

In fact, the lands encumbered in the HHCA of 1920 and the Admission Act of 1959, Section 5(f) land trust are the undelivered property right belonging to members of the native tenant class and their heirs. The Hawaiians are the closest relatives to the heirs of the native tenants.

In 1978, OHA supposedly was created for the betterment of the conditions of Hawaiians. With trustees like Akana, it's little wonder that OHA has done practically nothing for Hawaiians.

Emmett E. Lee Loy

Multitrack a disaster for Mililani children

Four years ago this month, the Mililani community found out its fifth-grade children would be removed from elementary school and thrown into multitrack chaos at a new middle school built large enough to accommodate just three-fourths of the students. Our community protested before the Board of Education, the governor, and our elected representatives. The response: "It's a done deal."

Under the original plan, Mililani would have had two high schools, two intermediate schools and 10 elementary schools. Instead, we got about half that many. Most of the school sites then were developed into housing.

Ironically, the DOE's "fair-share" formula is based on the BOE's 1997 Smaller School Policy. Our middle school, with a design capacity of 1,350, now has more than 1,800 students, and 4,000 houses remain to be built. The DOE says Mililani Mauka was approved before they had "fair-share."

Multitrack is the consequence of sweetheart deals that traded children and acreage for political favors.

Laura Brown
Mililani

State's efficiency should pay for itself

We've recently seen two bills emerge at the state Legislature that would raise fees for certain services in the name of being more efficient. These being the price of a marriage license and the other related to dying.

Both of these proposals are being floated in the guise of making the state more efficient. If computerization will make the system more efficient, then this should result in savings which could fund the purchase of the computers with no additional cost to the public.

Computers have been around for a while now. Have these two agencies just discovered them?

Stanley Nelson

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