Choosing sides over UH mascot
Figuring public school finances

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Drug dealers should be off with their heads

I am sick and tired of the 150-year-old war on drugs. Instead of spending $22 million to combat "ice," I think we should execute the drug dealers (tobacco included) if they fail three consecutive urine tests. No expensive lawyers or trials, no tears of sympathy or mercy -- just behead them on the guillotine!

Phil Robertson
Honolulu

Carriage drivers aren't angry, just concerned

In response to Sandra Chun's Dec. 19 letter, "Shh! Don't spook the horses giving (Christmas) tours": I was the "angry" horse carriage driver she referred to. I would like to set the record straight. Our horses rely on voice commands that they must be able to hear over the horns, whistles and screams of passengers in passing vehicles.

Our horses are trained to handle such noises; however, occasionally unthoughtful bystanders think it is funny to toss items at the horses or make loud noises. That is when the horses look to the drivers for reassurance and direction.

As a driver, I must make the distracted animal focus on me. For him to hear me, I must project my voice over the surrounding noises. It is not in anger that I raise my voice, but out of love for my furry partner and the passengers in my carriage.

Thank you, Sandra, for asking everyone to tone it down a notch. I hope my explanation helps you and others to understand the horses and their drivers a little better.

Briarlyn Maharaj
Ewa Beach

Raising vehicle tax wasn't necessary

The ill-thought-out vehicle weight tax is now fact. As a small business owner who relies on trucks to make a living, I am wondering when the vehicle weight taxes will be enforced.

I am talking about all the utility and industrial trucks with no commercial vehicle plates, plus cars that are unregistered and untaxed. I even saw a tow truck with passenger car plates advertising "cheap tows" in the back window.

Taxing all these untaxed and undertaxed vehicles could have allowed us law-abiding drivers to avoid paying higher vehicle taxes, regardless of the noble justifications put forth.

Douglas Schott
Waianae

Cheese is recalled, but tobacco still sells

There has been a Brie cheese recall because of possible contamination of a dangerous bio-gent that might cause as many as a dozen deaths, should it get out.

The American Lung Association says, "For each 1,000 tons of tobacco produced, about 1,000 people eventually will die. Lifelong smokers on average have a 50 percent chance of dying from tobacco-related illnesses, with half of these dying before the age of 70," equaling more than 400,000 U.S. tobacco deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Congress, which created the rules that allow tobacco use, also created the laws that caused the cheese recall to save a dozen of us. Thanks, Congress, I can see your due diligence.

William E. Woods
Public health professional
Honolulu

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Fans chose sides in war over UH mascot

STAR-BULLETIN Entertainer Vili Fehoko, as the University of Hawaii mascot, is pictured "in the jungles" in front of Bachman Hall at UH.

Mascot's 'savage' antics are a disgrace

Thank you, thank you, thank you for writing about the so-called mascot of the University of Hawaii ("Mascot Vili under scrutiny at UH," Star-Bulletin, Jan. 11). I am glad you brought this situation to the public.

We have been thoroughly disgusted with this "savage" who has represented our university and state. He is no representative of a warrior, and he is a disgrace to all of us in Hawaii. I hope the athletic department finally gets rid of him.

Marge Young
Salt Lake

Vili revs the crowd and inspires victory

To vilify Vili, the Rainbow Warriors' mascot, is cruel and uncalled for. Vili and his group are the jewels of our football and men's volleyball games. I believe most of Hawaii sports fans agree with me.

Vili is an excellent TV actor who portrays a true fighting spirit. With his eyes wide open and a spear in one hand, he hollers "Ahhh!" That's the spirit of a confident fighter.

Warrior fans and players are highly motivated by Vili; he generates joy, excitement, pride and entertainment. Vili is a catalyst to winning games. Unruly players who caused trouble and fight opposing teams should be addressed, not Vili.

Bernardo Benigno
Mililani

Both Warrior mascot and coach should go

I want to commend you for your story about the inflammatory antics of the University of Hawaii mascot. As undisciplined and unruly as the players have been under their thuggish coach, the mascot is actually worse. I have found his behavior to be savage, barbaric and simply detestable.

Regretfully, he is the perfect symbol for our out-of-control program, which is devoid of any sense of dignity, accountability or humility. Listening to our coach blame the referees for his team's post-game behavior embarrassed me. Using my DVR, I watched while his players seemed to rally one another into the fight, not away from it. I have never seen a team behave with such a mob mentality.

This is not impassioned football; it is a crude display of what happens when a cavalier coach, a savage mascot and a program without discipline appear on national TV.

R. Scott Belford
Ewa Beach

Warriors don't prance, so why should Vili?

Why not just have Vili walk around with flowers and have the football team play flag football? Get real. The guy is great for the school and the state.

Eric Lewis
Lancaster, Calif.
Frequent Hawaii visitor

Mascot's behavior is a tourism turnoff

The University of Hawaii mascot was extremely rude when the visiting TV announcer tried to interview him during the Christmas Day bowl game. He put his face in the camera lens and shouted, "Go home! We don't want you here!" That must have caught the attention of the tourism agencies!

Why not have a contest to pick a new team mascot?

Ken Foley
Honolulu

How is a warrior supposed to act?

Please don't "FREE VILI!" If you want a politically correct UH mascot who is more subdued, more effeminate than a warrior, let's try UH Lilikoi, UH Ahi, or perhaps UH Manini.

Get serious, folks. UH is represented by a warrior, and warriors battle. Vili got national and international news coverage. Keep Vili, he gets my motors going before every game.

David Kapaku
Kihei, Maui

Tone him down; don't take him out

Let's keep this guy. He does a lot of good for the UH sports program. After all, a school that has adopted "Warrior" as its teams' name should have a real live warrior as a mascot. It's better than some clown in a pink tiger suit or green chicken suit. And it's a giant leap forward from the guy we used to have dressed up in a muscle suit.

If there is part of his routine that some consider offensive, I am sure he would be willing to modify his act. But this guy is good. Do you know of any other college mascot who has made international news?

James V. Pollock
Kaneohe

Everybody's talking about our Warrior

The UH Warrior mascot should remain. The attention he's mustered may seem negative, but he's put UH on the tongues of many who wouldn't otherwise mention us at all.

Pedro Valdez
Honolulu

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There's no uniformity
in figuring school finances

Susan Essoyan is to be praised for her Jan. 7 article about school performance and finance. Her article was, as usual, well researched and clearly written.

Essoyan cites a new Education Week report that describes Hawaii spending at $6,614 per pupil for 2001, which ranks the state at 40th in per-pupil spending.

She then goes on to note that this differs "dramatically" from the conclusions reached by Bruce Cooper and me, which relied upon U.S. Census data. We found that Hawaii had 2001 spending of $8,361 per pupil, and that it ranked 14th among the states. (In our report, the table was erroneously labeled as 2002, but the data are correct.)

Can both reports be correct? In this case, "yes."

Here is the explanation: The $6,614 reported by Education Week represents the sum of several categories of spending by each state, such as salaries and wages, pupil support and general administration. School buildings that are leased are included as lease expense, but school buildings that are built by the district are not included because that would be a capital expense, and the report excludes capital expenses.

The $8,361 in the Cooper-Ouchi report is an attempt to capture another view of per-student spending, this time by adding up not the expense items, but rather the revenue sources. Our number, to be found in the U.S. Census downloadeable databases by adding two variables, TSTREV (total state revenues) plus TLOCREV (total local revenues) and then dividing by total enrollment, is in one sense more accurate than the Education Week version because it treats all facilities' costs the same, while the Education Week version, as noted in the leasing vs. building example, does not.

However, our $8,361 figure does not include federal revenues to the DOE, only state and local revenues. In that sense, the $6,614 figure could be regarded as more accurate, because it includes all spending of federal money during the year (but it excludes revenues to the DOE from federal sources that are held for spending in future years. It includes only expenses, not revenues).

One more important caveat: Neither the $8,361 number nor the $6,614 figure includes money spent by other state agencies on DOE building repair, personnel services and other educational activities for the K-12 schools.

This all may seem confusing, and it is. It is confusing because there are no standards for financial reporting that all states must follow (as, for example, the Securities and Exchange Commission sets financial reporting standards for all public companies). Thus no single set of national tables can capture the financial picture of the DOE with complete accuracy.

Indeed, the entire reason for the Cooper-Ouchi report was to provide in one place, a single analysis that will allow those who read our report to see broken out the various categories of spending, the various sources of revenues, and so to get the whole picture. We felt that the most important fact with which to begin is that total education spending, including everything, is $10,422 per pupil per year. The remainder of our report breaks that number down and shows what the components are.

It's work to understand it all, but it's worth some effort on the part of every citizen. We salute Susan Essoyan for once again drawing attention to this important issue.

William G. Ouchi
Education consultant to Governor Lingle
and professor of corporate renewal at
the University of California at Los Angeles