Brainstorm! Challenge

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Hawaiians should help themselves

I am half Hawaiian and deplore keeping Hawaiians bound to programs that foster dependency on government handouts.

I was one of five children growing up on Kauai during the 1930s through the early '50s. We worked hard and helped raise two younger siblings while our parents worked in Honolulu. Money was limited so we raised most of our food. We did not receive government aid or subsidies. We attended public school and earned high school and college money working summers in the cannery. We paid for music lessons and living expenses with afterschool jobs and as paid household help. Grants and scholarships from clubs and societies helped defray the cost of tuition.

No OHA, state or federal offices provided aid. We did not expect anything we did not earn.

Why do Hawaiians today expect the government to do for us what we need to do for ourselves? This is a personal commitment and should not depend on whether the government pays.

Today everything is gimme, gimme, gimme. Anything we achieve with little or no effort is rarely appreciate. However, that which we struggle to achieve, we value highly.

Esther Kuinilani Kinney Rice
Medford, Ore.

State puts education first -- on list of cuts

Amazing! The state has found a way to put education first -- the first to take money from to put into other pots ("State wants $50 million out of education budget," Star-Bulletin, Nov. 7).

Has Governor Lingle not told her budget office of her campaign promise to make education a top priority? Is the budget office unaware of Lingle's (and the vast majority of Hawaii residents') concern about the standings of public school students' national test scores? Is the budget office unaware that failure to meet federal No Child Left Behind mandates can cause reductions in federal education money?

Neglect and inadequate funding over the years is why our public school system is in the state it is and the recommendations of the budget office are contrary to what is necessary. The budget office must put education first and look for other programs to cut.

Bernard Judson
Kapolei

Choose schools over more bureaucracy

Each year, the Department of Education requests between $40 million and $50 million in its supplemental budget. Usually, the request is based on the need to fund a federal program, such as the Felix Consent Decree or No Child Left Behind.

Has the public been listening to the current discussion on how Hawaii's schools are funded? Individual schools receive staff -- not money -- based on a centralized staffing formula. Now that Felix is almost over, the DOE must find new funds to justify all of the highly paid state and district personnel when they change their hats from "Felix specialists" to "NCLB specialists."

Rep. Scott Saiki has stated that Democrats support direct funding to schools, but now berates the governor for not automatically agreeing to throw millions more into a system that does not allow money to get into our needy schools for books and better teacher pay.

Politicians must make up their minds: Are they supporting bureaucracy or principals, teachers and students by approving the weighted student formula proposed by the governor's CARE panel?

Laura Brown
S.O.S. -- Support Our Schools
Citizens for Accountability in Education

Scalia angered by judicial activists

It is regrettable that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has recused himself from review of the 9th Circuit's absurd decision ruling the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional.

His rancor does not "come from years of being left in the minority," as a recent Star-Bulletin editorial asserts (Oct. 27), but rather from wholesale trampling of the Constitution.

I share Scalia's anger at the pretzel-like contortions into which judicial activists have convulsed our Constitution. Black robed, politically correct imbeciles have unleashed one feel-good decision after another to refute the will of the people as expressed through their elected representatives. They have used their powers to convert the Constitution into "whatever we say it is." The fig leaf trotted out by judicial tyrants is that the Constitution is a "living document," as malleable as saltwater taffy and as transient as a sea breeze.

Because of their judicial imprudence, we are all compelled to reap the whirlwind of an increasingly irresponsible, coarsened, even brutal, society.

Thomas E. Stuart
Kapaau, Hawaii

Does Lingle believe in democracy?

Governor Lingle's advice to Hawaii's developers seems to be instructions on how to undermine the democratic process and the will of the people. Here is a Lingle quote from the Oct. 16 Garden Island coverage of her address to Honolulu developers: "It'll take time and money to support and campaign for candidates who agree with business on key issues, but once they're in, you don't have to go back down there anymore to the Legislature because you have elected someone who agrees with you."

In other words, if we spend enough money in the right way, we can have whatever we want. And the people can just lump it.

We have examples of this style of governance right now in the actions of President Bush. Even though he wasn't exactly elected, he certainly knows how to serve the interests of his most wealthy constituents without regard for the wishes of the general public.

There will probably always be unprincipled politicians who want power for the wrong reasons. But it is appalling that Lingle would call for campaign spending sufficient to guarantee the election of candidates committed to rubber-stamping the rapid development of agricultural lands.

David Roach
Kapaa, Kauai

Ocean's dangerous beauty a powerful lure

I was sorry to learn of the shark attack on Bethany Hamilton. I was attacked almost 40 years ago while bodysurfing off Ocean City, N.J.

It was the summer of 1966. There had been a few shark attacks that year. It was midafternoon and I was at the edge of the chop, where the waves build. I saw two sharks. The first one looked at me, then came toward me. I thought I was in for some trouble. He came up from beneath, his eyes like black pools, his mouth open. I timed the attack and hit him right on the nose. He didn't turn away, so we had a fight.

He was determined to get a hold of me, but I was 16 and unwilling to die. Each time I got him to turn away, he'd come back again.

After several minutes I began to tire, and made my getaway. I let him come in one last time, and as he started circling me, I caught a wave and rode it in. I didn't think I was going to make it -- he could have taken my legs at any time. I was lucky.

There must be some way to make the sea safer for people who enjoy being part of its mysterious beauty. Perhaps coat the board with something to make it unpalatable to sharks. Or a detector to warn the surfer of approaching danger.

The next day I was back in the water. I saw the same shark and never went into the ocean again.

I wish Bethany a speedy recovery, and I hope that someday surfing will be a safer sport.

Craig Wolff
Saugerties, N.Y.

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[ BRAINSTORM! ] Historical markers? Other cities have permanent markers signifying historic sites or locations. Shouldn't Hawaii be equally accommodating to students and visitors? What should such markers look like in Honolulu? Design one! Remember, markers on walls require the owner's permission, but markers in the sidewalk belong to the city. Send your ideas, drawings and solutions by Thursday, November 13 to: brainstorm@starbulletin.com Or mail them to: Brainstorm! c/o Burl Burlingame Star-Bulletin 500 Ala Moana 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210 Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 Fax: Brainstorm! c/o Burl Burlingame 529-4750