to the Editor
Preschool should be education priority
Governor Lingle, legislators, parents and grandparents should read "Recommendations to Hawaii Business Round Table" by Paul Berman, (State Library, Hawaii Pacific Department H371B.V.I. 1988 pg. 11-15). This easy-to-read study states "first and foremost Hawaii must start a quality early education system for all of Hawaii's preschool age children."Quality early education would provide elementary teachers with children who are better prepared for learning. Funding for this project would come from Hawaii's tourism budget.
Most people in the tourism industry need two to three jobs to get by. Companies that pay high salaries look for cities that have excellent public school systems. Starting a quality early education system would be putting our public school system on the path of excellence, and then we will attract companies that pay high salaries.
Ted West
Honolulu
Elections may depend on education reform
Legislators who do not pursue education reform that empowers principals to run their schools must expect their disappointed constituents to express their consternation at the polls. Hawaii can no longer tolerate the status quo in the schools or in the government.
Win Bennett
Kailua
Thielen's criticism upset BOE members
Sen. Fred Hemmings' letter (Star-Bulletin, March 22) in defense of school board member Laura Thielen launches into the same kind of intemperate denigration of others of which he accuses Thielen's critics. Calling all those who speak for the Board of Education -- presumably except Thielen -- the Department of Education or the Hawaii State Teachers' Association "purveyors of falsehood" does not contribute to the public's understanding of her views or those of her critics.The BOE members who chastised Thielen did not do so because she was "speaking the truth." They objected to Thielen's denigrating remarks about the superintendent of education and the professional staff of the DOE during a radio interview on which she presented herself as a member of the board without making clear that she was voicing her private views, not those of the board.
What Thielen said was not a matter of fact; it was her opinion, to which she is entitled. She is not entitled, however, to speak her piece without others having equal right to criticize her in return.
Thomas G. Gans
Honolulu
Editor's note: Laura Thielen later apologized for her remarks about Schools Superintendent Pat Hamamoto and said her words were misunderstood.
Return of speed cams will backfire again
Our lawmakers are pondering the use of fixed camera auto-mailing of speeding tickets, despite the hue and cry over the recent use of van cams.If yellow lights are timed correctly and true red-light violators were ticketed using fixed cams at problem intersections, I would not object. But unless posted speed limits are changed to reflect the reality of the safe median flow of traffic, which is normally 5 to 15 mph over the posted limit islandwide, and if the state starts fining commuters by using us as another source of revenue, lawmakers are once again going to have angry constituents.
Legislators should remember that commuters who are traveling with the flow of traffic and then receive tickets in the mail have the power to vote them right out of the legislative seats they heat.
So legislators, I respectfully request that you consider carefully the consequences of a new law. Consider the harm you inflict on the average driver who is just trying to get to and from work safely and efficiently, and the reaction such legislation will once again incur.
Robert Grayson
Aiea
List of Bush's mistakes keeps getting longer
Summarizing the president's military errors is desirable. One, he falsely claimed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, including biological, chemical and nuclear ones. Two, he stopped the United Nations teams from finishing their search for such weapons.Three, President Bush attacked Iraq despite the overwhelming opposition of many nations to his war. Four, he rejected the larger armed forces for invasion recommended by army chief of staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, as Bush claimed our military would be welcomed by the Iraqi people.
Five, the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan left a vacuum in which warlords have regained power. Six, the Afghan chaos has allowed al-Qaida to train and arm recruits for Iraq.
Seven, against the advice of experts, Bush fired 200,000 Iraqi soldiers, making them armed enemies. Eight, he made no preparations for supplying trained personnel for postwar needs resulting in chaotic administration, rebuilding, policing, medical care and public safety.
Nine, after strongly opposing "nation-building" for three years, he is now doing so. Ten, Bush awarded multibillion-dollar, non-bid contracts to rebuild Iraq for Bechtel and Halliburton to which his closest colleagues had many years of financial connections.
Jerome G. Manis
Honolulu
Chairman veto rule is undemocratic
As a concerned citizen and voter, I implore our elected legislators to vote on April 6 to repeal the conference chairman veto rule. The presence of this rule overrides votes in the elected bodies, even when Democrats and Republicans are in full agreement. This rule is nothing more than a cheap political scheme, adopted secretly in 2001 to disenfranchise the majority.
Steve McLennan
Honolulu
State taxes cause the high price of gas
Why are the oil refineries being blamed for the high cost of gasoline sold in Hawaii? Everyone knows that the primary reason the cost is so high here is due to the high amount of fuel tax that our own state government incorporates into each gallon. The state of Hawaii should be pointing the blame at itself.
Michael Nomura
Kailua
Conserving gas is the best alternative
If you are spending too much money on gasoline, then use less of it! Having the same government that can't control its own budget place price controls on industry is a recipe for shortages and long lines at the pump.When artificial controls are placed on any commodity, then there is no incentive for the producers to make more of it available and no competitors will choose to enter the market. That leads to a decrease in supply. Artificially low prices also encourage waste -- "Why conserve if gas is cheap? Let's buy a big new truck." That attitude, in turn, increases demand.
Try as it might, government cannot legislate the law of supply and demand. The free market is the only economic model that works. That other one -- Marxism -- didn't do so well.
Dan Weyant
Kaaawa
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[ BRAINSTORM! ]
Hawaii is popularly known as "The Aloha State." What might be a better slogan?To get started, think about what you might see around the islands -- rainbows, waves, sand, traffic jams, homeless orangutans ...
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