Someone was lying about city budget

Here is something to think about: During the Honolulu mayoral campaign of 2000, the two main contestants were at opposite sides of one primary issue -- city finances. The incumbent said the financial situation was all sweetness and light, the challenger was a gloom-and-doomer who repeated over and over that the future was bleak.

One of them was lying. Now that the 2003 budget controversy is concluded, it is clear which one was lying.

Will he suffer any real consequences? There are none that I can see. Then add that our news media at the time made no effort to find the truth and reveal it. What kind of message is that for future candidates?

Richard O. Rowland
President
Grassroot Institute of Hawaii

Waiving dumping fines is not warranted

The city requested the $542,459 fine for illegal dumping at the Waipahu Incinerator be waived in lieu of environmentally beneficial projects, particularly since it helped clean up the water weed problems at Lake Wilson.

However, a similar waiver of fees for projects at Lake Wilson did not work.

In 1994, the state sued the city for pouring treated sewage water into Lake Wilson without a permit. The penalty of $10,000 a day was waived, and the city was given three years to establish a system to reclaim all wastewater from the Wahiawa Wastewater Treatment Plant. It also agreed to pay $150,000 for environmental projects to monitor the lake.

Since then there have been numerous raw sewage spills, and the treatment plant is not up to par. It cost the state $1.7 million to clean up the Salvinia molesta. Although funds were transferred from the Environmental Response Revolving Fund, the city demanded $274,000 for its part of the cleanup. What a deal!

The city paid $150,000 for environmental projects and the state paid 10 times that for another cleanup.

Based on past experience, waiving the fines would be unwarranted.

Carroll Cox
EnviroWatch, Inc.

Drug testing may do more harm than good

The Star-Bulletin's June 5 editorial opposing drug testing in schools is also my opinion. Ice is clearly a devastating drug. However, before we panic and use it as an excuse to simply express outrage and flex our law-and-order muscles, we might do well to temper our emotions with a few doses of wisdom. Failure to be thoughtful may otherwise result in acts that give the impression of doing something without changing anything at all. Testing may also be harmful by giving the impression that all students are to be regarded with suspicion.

Before getting into drug testing there are some things to consider.

First, drug use is often symptomatic of other problems, including feelings of despair and hopelessness. Second, teachers, counselors and vice principals (to whom often falls the thankless task of disciplinarian) already know who are the troubled students, thus, making drug testing a redundancy. Third, the real purpose for drug testing should be clarified. Is it to punish or help? Since Felix funding has sucked up so much treatment money, almost nothing is left to help high-risk youth. Consequently, testing may only lead to punishment for those who test dirty.

Law enforcement and punishment alone are clearly not the answers to the drug problem. If a dent is to be made in the lucrative drug trade it will be necessary to change the behaviors of customers and potential customers.

The experience of Adult Friends for Youth, which has applied its redirectional method for 15 years on the turf of its destructive clients, suggests that drug users can be reached and behavior can be changed. If money is available for testing and incarceration it may do a lot more good to apply it to a program that knows how to help students resolve their problems and become productive people.

Sidney M. Rosen
Adult Friends for Youth

There are bigger fish than Martha Stewart

How satisfying that the law is going after Martha Stewart. It is always a good thing for the woman-haters of the world when a pretty, smart, too-big-for-her-britches woman gets publically lynched.

Ken Lay and all the Enron and Worldcom execs who stole the retirement of an entire generation can't be far behind, right? Guess again.

Martha, I bet you have five different recipes for "scapegoat."

Liz Randol

Let's reduce water used on golf courses

As an apartment-dweller, I have no lawn to stop watering, so let's look at our golf courses -- 39 of them, including seven municipal courses (thank you tax-payers!)

Each golf course takes up an average 100 acres and uses about 500,000 gallons of water a day. How many gallons of pesticides and chemical fertilizer, I don't want to know.

Barbara Ikeda

If you back high taxes, better pay every penny

Jerome G. Manis (Letters, June 5) sure is a consistent defender of high taxes and big government. I hope he puts his money where his mouth is by not searching for every possible tax deduction, shelter and loophole and gladly writes a nice, fat check every April 15 to the federal government.

And surely he returned the last tax rebate check to the Department of the Treasury. After all, he must believe that he is just a temporary owner of his money, that he really works on behalf of the federal government, and that more spending (national health insurance, for example) is money wisely spent. I'm just glad he's not the president.

James Ko