Brainstorm! Challenge

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Great job, Teamsters, stay out longer

Thanks to the Teamsters union for doing something that we citizens of Leeward and Central Oahu have been trying to do unsuccessfully for years; that is, to slow down the out-of-control construction in our parts of the island. It is taking a cement workers strike to give us a reprieve.

Bob McCulloch
Kapolei

Cement workers need to face reality

I cannot understand, based on the salaries cement workers are making, why they cannot make ends meet. The unions have strangled Hawaii for so many years. This is one of the main reasons that I won't retire back home even if I can afford it.

Benefits are always a sticking point in any job, but the strikers also need to remember benefits are part of their salaries. If the company is paying more of their benefits, it means less in their paychecks. This vicious circle of employees' pay, business profits, high cost of housing, lack of the politicians' concern for the small business, and unions are among the many reasons for leaving the islands for a less stressing environment. The sun and fun can only last but so long because we gotta get up and go to work.

Randy DeCastro
Chester, Va.
Former Wahiawa resident

Samaritans helped fallen bicyclist

At about 4:15 p.m. Feb. 3, I was riding my bicycle westbound on Hawaii Kai Drive at the Hahaione Street intersection. As I rode across the intersection an eastbound vehicle suddenly turned left into Hahaione Street. The collision threw me onto the hood of the car and catapulted me head-first into the roadway.

Fortunately, caring passersby quickly called 911. A doctor appeared and advised me to stay still. Someone placed a roll under my head. Police, fire and EMS units seemed to appear instantaneously.

Mahalo to the good Samaritans who gave me their comfort and aloha. Mahalo also to the police, fire and EMS personnel and the Queen's Medical Center emergency staff.

I urge bicyclists of all ages to wear helmets. My helmet absorbed the full force of the violent impacts to my head. Everyone was fascinated with the catastrophic damage sustained by my helmet and the likely fatal injuries that it prevented. I was able to survive this incident with an excellent chance for full recovery because I wore a helmet.

Charles E. Chong
Honolulu

Want better schools? Get parents involved

Cynthia Oi's Feb. 4 "Under the Sun" column hit the nail right on the head. It is not the organization of the Board and Department of Education that causes deficiencies in the education of our children, but the degree of interest parents take in the education of their children.

As a retired employee of the DOE and the parent of children who attended both public and a private school, I think I can speak with some authority.

Much in our local culture puts education at a lower priority. I've seen parents keep their children home from school to help with housework or shopping, or just because it was raining. When parents put education as a high priority, reading to their children and helping them with school work; when they become involved in their children's schools; when they make attending college and preparing for careers strong goals in their children's minds -- theirs are the children who succeed.

If we want to improve the record of our schools, don't multiply the bureaucracy with additional school boards. Instead, involve parents more in the education of their children.

Robert W. Donigan
Kamuela/Waimea, Hawaii

Economic policies turn workers to leave

"I love inflation." -- Tiger Woods, after learning he had gone over the $40 million mark in career earnings.

My recommendation to Tiger would be to invest in Hawaii real estate. With our governing regimes in downtown Honolulu, Washington and Wall Street, individuals in Tiger's position can't go wrong by purchasing residential property ("Oahu home prices set record," Star-Bulletin, Feb. 4).

Our lawmakers and policy-setters seem more concerned with the welfare of the investing class than with working-class families for whom the American Dream is moving further away.

Is it any surprise then that government would pursue policies of maximized growth and inflation over economic stability and maximized livability? These policies are at the root of today's crisis in housing costs for average workers.

If legislators want to know why increasing numbers are leaving the islands for more affordable and livable locations they need look no further than the nearest mirror. As Hawaii government moves to lure outside investment and jobs, it pushes workers to leave for higher livability locales, which restrict growth and create more sustainable communities -- the economic Catch-22.

Richard Weigel
Pearl City

Debt debacle demands president's ouster

Having saddled the country with a $374 billion debt in 2003 (and $521 billion this year), only a "faith-based" Enron-coddling CEO like George Bush would have the audacity to warn Congress to be "mindful of taxpayers' money." In barely 37 months, the Bush administration has run up almost $1 trillion in deficits!

The White House excuse that the red ink was incurred while conducting a necessary "war on terror" has now been exposed as a fraudulent hoax because its primary war rationale -- that Iraq had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction -- has been repudiated even by his own chief inspector, David Kay.

Meanwhile, the lack of any credible link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida has just blown away the final neo-con alibi that the Iraq invasion was part of the "war on terror."

The voodoo economics of George II constitutes the greatest financial terrorism of our time. It's time to demand that Congress begin impeachment proceedings.

Danny H.C. Li
Honolulu

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[ BRAINSTORM! ] Can you design a quarter that represents Hawaii?? Some states have issued collectible quarters that commemorate their entry into the union. The front of the coin looks the same but the eagle on the back has been replaced by something that represents that state. For example, Georgia's quarter has a peach on it. If you could design Hawaii's quarter, what would it look like? Send your ideas and solutions by Feb. 17 to: brainstorm@starbulletin.com Or mail them to: Brainstorm! c/o Nancy Christenson Star-Bulletin 500 Ala Moana 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210 Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 Fax: Brainstorm! c/o Nancy Christenson 529-4750