Parents should keep track of their children

I am absolutely shocked that an 11-year-old girl can go missing and her parents don't notice her gone until 10 p.m. Someone should have been home near to when the child should have been home from school. How can parents be so irresponsible?

Frank Morgan
Victoria, B.C.
Canada
Former Hawaii resident

[Quotable] "He goes to church. He's nice and he took care of (Kahealani). I don't know how he did this, and I don't know why." Tanya Mamala-Tumbaga Sister of 11-year-old Kahealani Indreginal. Mamala-Tumbaga’s boyfriend has been charged with murder in Kahealani’s slaying.

Plan to privatize air traffic won't fly

It's difficult to believe, as federal employees take over airport security in the wake of major failures by the "lowest bidders," that the federal government would be moving to contract out another critical air safety function.

Well, believe it, America. The Bush administration in recent weeks has made a series of moves intended to pave the way for the privatization of air traffic control. Everyone who flies -- and that's almost everyone in our island state -- should oppose this plan.

Privatization advocates cite safety and efficiency gains under contracted systems in Great Britain, Canada and Australia, but the proof is not there. In fact, Great Britain's system is responsible for close to half of Europe's flight delays, and Canada's error rate far exceeds that of the United States. Australia's system is marked by a looming fiscal crisis and controller work stoppages.

Here in the United States, controller errors are down 11 percent in the last year; runway incursions fell 12 percent from 2000 to 2001 and are down more than 30 percent this year. While air traffic is down 7 percent since Sept. 11, 2001, flight delays have fallen 36.5 percent. We are proud to maintain the world's safest, most efficient and most sophisticated air traffic control system.

The safety of the flying public is an air traffic controllers' sacred trust and should not be for sale to the lowest bidder.

Jim Bedient
National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Honolulu Control Facility

Sex-ed brochure promotes harmful acts

Several writers of letters to the editor are saying that raising children is too important to leave to the parents and that we need professors to do this. And what do professors tell us to do in the "Discovering Your Sexuality" brochure that has created controversy on the Big Island? They tell our keiki to watch "Dawson's Creek" and "Will and Grace" on TV, because those people know how we should be approaching homosexuality -- as a normal, natural lifestyle.

I've read the sex-education materials that were distributed at Kohala High School. There is absolutely nothing in that literature that would help anybody protect themselves from any diseases or anything else. In fact, the opposite is true: It encourages young people to experiment with the most dangerous sexual activity known to man -- namely, homosexual intercourse.

Brook Bone
Kunia

Business tax credits help everyone

When the state of Hawaii (and the federal government) offers tax credits, economic benefits follow. A financial incentive often causes business owners to make sound decisions they may not have otherwise made.

When a private enterprise decides to hire people, to make capital expenditures, to do business in Hawaii, we all benefit. The state of Hawaii should do what it can, after carefully evaluating the alternatives, to offer appropriate incentives in the form of tax credits.

Let us find creative ways to bring (and keep) people and business in our wonderful, beautiful state.

H. Stanley Jones, CPA
Makakilo

Wal-Mart supports Made in Hawaii

I have been a small-business owner for five years. I manufacture "Made in Hawaii" products. While many retailers are selling out to less expensive, off-shore, wannabe Made in Hawaii products, Wal-Mart has continued to buy Made in Hawaii products from local businesses, who even on a good day find survival a constant challenge. We need Wal-Mart; we need retailers who will support local businesses and keep tax dollars right here in Hawaii where they are needed.

The project will provide jobs for many who are in need of work, the location is convenient and ample parking will be provided. Wal-Mart offers quality merchandise at low prices. We cannot depend on tourism alone to pull us out of the present economic slump. We need to have retailers who offer on a daily basis merchandise that residents can afford. The project will provide much-needed tax revenue for the city, county and state, so what is the delay? Who would not want to see this project come to life?

Linda Foley

Waddle's Japan visit shows his sincerity

I am filled with admiration for retired U.S. Navy Cmdr. Scott Waddle, former captain of the USS Greeneville. Although he was blamed for the tragedy of the Ehime Maru, his visit to Japan after his retirement showed his sincerity -- a sign of a great leader.

Unfortunate mistakes and tragedies occur. It is only when compassion and forgiveness is shown that true healing occurs. I think Waddle's visit to Japan gave all of us, even those not directly involved with the tragedy, a sense of closure. My sympathy goes out to the families of the bereaved and also to Waddle's family, who must also have weathered much hardship.

I was given a tour of the Greenville only months before the tragedy, never thinking that the Navy sub would become the instrument of destruction. As a teacher on the military base, I see the dedication of the men and women who serve our country, and we must be thankful for them for trying their best to defend our freedom.

It is in times like these that we will truly appreciate their efforts.

Lynne K. Fukuda
Mililani

Dude! Like, gimme a sekunt to make a paradigm shift

Have you noticed a language trend lately? I call it "stupidspeak." Herewith, some examples:

We hear a news channel advertise "Late breaking news." OK, "breaking news," I suppose, means it just happened. Does "late breaking" mean it happened much after it shoulda? This news shoulda happened earlier, but it happened now, so it's late. And it broke. Gonna fix it now?

I also hear, "breaking news, when it happens." Uh, fellas, hate to tell ya the news, but "when it happens" means it's "breaking"!

Lately we've been literally tearing our hair out from the misuse of this: "literally sweeping the nation ..." (it's a physical impossibility to sweep the nation); "Everyone's literally in the same boat." These are metaphors. They can not be literal. So, stop using "literally" if you don't know how.

We hear often of a "victim of a senseless crime," as opposed to a crime that makes a lot of sense? A sensemore crime?

"As well." Here's a throwaway term if ever there was one, almost equal in redundancy to that other absurdity, "That said ..." and its idiot sister, "Having said that ..." OK. These are now illegal phrases. Stop uttering them!

More throwaways inserted randomly into conversation with no purpose except to make the speaker sound trendy, but simply renders them sounding ridiculous: inside the box, outside the box, push the envelope, push the on vuh lope, bring to the table, my bad, do the math, who knew?

These are throwaway words and phrases used by the verbally and semantically challenged and the vocabularily insecure.

Accompanying this current trend of "dumbspeak" is what may be called "sloppyspeak," wherein it is apparently hip and edgy to affect a cool sloppy streetwise sound to your speech, resulting in commonly used words being pronounced so badly as to almost create new words: innurested, buh cuz, buh fore, sekunt (it's "second." See how it is spelled?).

All this is not the slang of kids. No, this is the language of newscasters, TV interviewers, interviewees, politicians ...

On the news show on TV one night, I witness this travesty: The host of "The O'Reilly Factor" tells us: "There's a wildfire burning out of control in the Midwest. We'll see whussup wi' that." Huh?!

Let's go back to pidgin. At least it has lineage.

Allen St. James

---

How to write us The Star-Bulletin welcomes letters that are crisp and to the point (150 to 200 words). The Star-Bulletin reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and length. Please direct comments to the issues; personal attacks will not be published. Letters must be signed and include a daytime telephone number. Letter form: Online form, click here E-mail: letters@starbulletin.com Fax: (808) 529-4750 Mail: Letters to the Editor, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 7 Waterfront Plaza, 500 Ala Moana, Suite 210, Honolulu, HI 96813