Med school is poor use of waterfront property

Plans for a new medical school in Kakaako (Star-Bulletin, July 18) represent a lost opportunity for preserving Honolulu's waterfront. Opening the makai side of Ala Moana Boulevard to the sea and extending overcrowded Ala Moana Beach Park would follow the lead of San Francisco and Portland in preserving scenic assets. City planners presented this idea last year at a visioning conference at the Convention Center.

This new development would be paid for by blood money -- tobacco settlement funds that should be used for anti-smoking education and other public health services. Apparently there is neither shame nor scenic vision in the endless quest of fueling the economy.

Paul Lerman

Teachers need get paychecks on time

A recent article in the Maui newspaper states that special education teachers (Star-Bulletin story) and aides working in a summer program are not being paid on time for the second year in a row. Some of those teachers last year were not paid until October. The current state law requires employees to be paid within seven days of the end of the pay period. I know several people who have state jobs and, with the payroll lag, are not paid for as long as three weeks after. If a private employer did this, the state would go after them.

All employees need to be paid on time, regardless of where you work. You can't always change management in a private company, but you can if you work for the state.

Francis Okudara
Wailuku, Maui

[Quotables] "It's probably one of the most joyous days of my life. I just prayed to God I'd stay healthy so I'd be here when he got out." Mike Culkin Father of Timothy Culkin, pictured above, who was released Friday after spending five years in prison for what he said was the accidental death of his younger brother. Culkin had been sentenced to 20 years, but was resentenced on a lesser charge and released after the Hawaii Supreme Court overturned his conviction. "In order to exercise school choice ... you must be (the) lowest-achieving and highest-poverty." Kathy Kawaguchi Hawaii deputy schools superintendent in charge of implementing the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Under the new law, students who have poor academic performance and who attend schools in poverty-stricken areas may be transferred to better public schools.

Drowning victims ignored warnings

I am not by nature a callous person. That being said, I must comment on the recent rash of drowning deaths in the islands. I believe that all of the victims in the recent incidents ignored posted warning signs ... and, in the case of the young man who was pulled into the blowhole, he ignored a vocal warning from a kamaaina.

Warning signs are posted for a reason. The ocean is not our natural habitat, so why do people act as though they should be able to just do as they please and ignore warning signs? I am frustrated by the use of taxpayer dollars for rescues (successful or not) of people who shouldn't have found themselves in such predicaments in the first place. This goes not only for water rescues, but also for stranded hikers who don't know (or don't pay attention to) what kind of terrain they're wandering into, and those who ignore posted warnings and climb the stairs at Haiku.

I simply do not have much sympathy for people who "fall victim" in situations that were entirely preventable.

Miriam L. Gans

Outcry is reminiscent of segregation fight

Opponents of admitting a non-Hawaiian child to Kamehameha Schools sound like George Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door and shouting "Segregation now and forever!"

Like Wallace 40 years ago, advocates of keeping Kamehameha segregated point to the long history of "their" schools being exclusively for them.

They demand that their exclusive privileges continue forever. They try to justify the discrimination against children of other ancestries by claiming that their own group suffered invasion by the United States and loss of sovereignty.

If Kamehameha really were open to children of all ancestries, there would be no cries of outrage at the thought of accepting one child of non-Hawaiian ancestry. Like "Negro" in the old South, "Hawaiian" is conventionally defined by a "one drop" rule, but that does not make it a non-racial classification. In the segregated South, many black people had some European or American Indian ancestry. It would have been absurd for southerners to argue in 1954 that their schools were already integrated because many children in the black schools were part-white.

The denials that Kamehameha Schools racially discriminates show that nearly everyone realizes that racial discrimination is morally indefensible. As the Supreme Court said long before Rice vs. Cayetano, "Distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry are by their very nature odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality."

Patrick W. Hanifin

Hawaiian institutions continue to be battered

The constant downpour on Hawaiian trusts, entitlements and lands is slowly eroding the foundation of our people. The deluge of lawsuits, condemnation of lands and threats upon Hawaiian institutions are inundating the few resources the Hawaiian people can claim. Yet again, those who have much are bullying those with so little.

The recent passage of Bill 53 through its second reading before the City Council is an example of political pressure exerted by those who have the money to lobby our Council members against the will of the people. The mandatory leasehold conversion law has lost its moral intent and is now up for grabs to the highest bidder. Queen Lili'uokalani's ancestral land in Waikiki are being threatened by Bill 53. The income generated from these properties is used for services through the Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center.

Lunalilo Trust. Kamehameha Schools. Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. The list goes on. The lawsuits and manipulation of the law by attorneys who seek to cast down the rights of Hawaiians and indigenous people continues.

Where does this leave you, my dear Hawaiian people? Are you content to sit on the sidelines, while all that our alii entrusted for our care is swept away? "You must remember never to cease to act because you fear you may fail!" Our beloved queen's words should stoke the fires in our hearts. Remain silent no longer!

Malia Evans-Mason
Waialua

Bomb damage claims can't be believed

Your July 21 edition had an article on my favorite subject -- the grossly inflated bomb damage assessments by our Air Force. This trend in over-estimating bomb damage began in World War II, continued in Korea and was recognized in Vietnam in the claims of truck "kills," which totalled more than the enemy's entire inventory. Even the missions flown over Bosnia resulted in a fraction of the tanks, trucks and artillery pieces claimed.

Now that they are bombing Afghan civilians at an unacceptable rate, maybe they should pack up and let the ground troops do their job.

Kenneth S. Foley

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