Brainstorm! Challenge

---

UH suffers from low self-esteem

About 10 years ago the University of Hawaii posted want ads for professors in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the usual method of advertising university positions. What made these ads so interesting was the statement "a good place to begin your career." Essentially they were saying, "You probably won't want to stay here for too long."

For the past 10 years, UH has bounced between the lowest-tier, fourth-rate schools and the bottom half of the third tier, not even approaching the halfway mark for major U.S. universities. Although many of its programs are excellent, admission standards are low, there is a high number of students for each class taught by a Ph.D. faculty member, and too many teaching assistants and lecturers are teaching classes.

The next president needs to get UH into the top half of major universities in the United States. The first thing is to become tougher in admission standards. It's called "selectivity." Good schools on the mainland all rank high in selectivity, most accepting only "A" and "B" students with high SAT or ACT scores. Does that cut down in applications? Most of the tougher schools have waiting lists of applicants. Why can't we?

We owe it to our best and brightest scholars a reason to stay here if they want to be with the best, instead of going to the mainland.

Rick Mahony
Kaneohe

Bush lauds free Iraq, curbs freedom in U.S.

Every move the Bush administration makes is politically related ("Let Freedom Reign! Three little words in Bush's note have deep roots in history," Insight, July 4).

It is no accident that President Bush used Churchill's words, printed with a broad black pen, and it was circulated to every news and TV outlet.

Yet Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft and this administration have threatened and harmed our freedoms and constitutional rights here since their takeover of our government.

Nancy Bey Little
Honolulu

We let ourselves be fooled into fighting

What's wrong with us? We got hoodwinked into going to war in Iraq, and we just seem to accept it. I'm of that Vietnam age group. I was in college when people began to question our involvement in that horrible war. Tens of thousands of American boys were killed in that fiasco, not to mention the millions of Vietnamese. And the economic cost? Billions!

And we are at it again. The Bush administration convinced us we needed to invade Iraq and we jumped on the bandwagon and sent our young once again off to war. What are we, fools? We were, if not actually lied to, misled terribly by this administration. We have lost many hundreds of lives and have spent what, $100 billion?

I want my government to stop this foolishness and think about what needs to be done here in America. We need new roads, new schools, new prisons, new hospitals -- right here.

I keep thinking about that movie where the news anchorman goes nuts and starts yelling, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." Well, are we?

Stephan F. Miller
Honaunau, Hawaii

Hysteria, not Reagan, allowed AIDS to spread

My father survived the Spanish influenza epidemic that killed 40 million during the winter of 1918-'19. The entire four preceding years of World War I had killed a mere 10 million. So as a physician, he later supported early dialogues to isolate those stricken with AIDS. This meant identification, education, treatment and isolating the virus. It did not mean solitary confinement.

E. Hernandez pointed out (Letters, June 14) that 3 million AIDS deaths have occurred worldwide during the past 23 years, then he laid the blame at President Reagan's feet. The response to every killer virus for centuries has been to quarantine the victims. When AIDS was identified in 1981, the prudent strategy would have been one that scrutinized the spread in order to suppress it. At that time, the small number of reported cases in the United States were almost exclusively in the gay community.

Education is a vital tool in neutralizing the spread of contagion. But when officials raised the early Reagan monitoring proposals they were muzzled by the emotional hyperbole of the gay leadership. So died the one intelligent, time-tested measure that could have blunted the miseries that followed. As a result, tens of thousands of Americans perished. Politics and ignorance crushed reason and hope.

Yet folks like Hernandez would never direct a single word of blame toward those who silenced Reagan's humanitarian measures to stanch the killer. I voted against Reagan twice, but not for the absurd, misplaced canard that Hernandez submits as record.

Thomas Hall
Kailua

No-dumping campaign produced results

I appreciate the Star-Bulletin's attention to illegal dumping, but must take exception to the June 17 article "Anti-dumping campaign's reviews mixed."

The campaign referred to is a public education campaign, aimed at promoting zero tolerance for illegal dumping on Oahu.

This is what the mayor referred to as successful, because our research showed that more than 60 percent of those surveyed were aware of the month-long campaign and, we hope, will not look the other way when faced with illegal dumping.

We were not so naive as to think that we'd clean up all the illegal dump sites and prevent new ones with a few public service announcements, but we did recognize this is as an important first step -- make the public aware and make it easier for people to get involved.

The success of the campaign was in the numbers -- 150 callers reported illegal dump sites. We need continuing help from all quarters in keeping the message out there -- "Don't Dump on Hawaii."

Suzanne Jones
Recycling coordinator
Dept. of Environmental Services
City & County of Honolulu

---

BACK TO TOP
|

[ BRAINSTORM! ] The city owns a large, underground facility at Fort Barrette in Kapolei that is sitting empty. What could it be used for? Some sort of archive? A place to stash gigantic holiday decorations? A temporary storage site for Evan Dobelle’s ego? Send your ideas -- include your name, address and phone number -- by July 16 to: brainstorm@starbulletin.com Or by mail: Brainstorm! c/o Nancy Christenson Star-Bulletin 500 Ala Moana 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210 Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 Or by fax: Brainstorm! c/o Nancy Christenson 529-4750