Palolo should get more respect in future

After a frustrating 10 months, the Palolo Pool finally opened. On Sept. 6 -- Labor Day -- the lifeguard counted 82 children. Using that as a gauge, no wonder the long-delayed repair of the pool was of great concern.

I hope the next mayor will reassess priorities and put Palolo at the top of the list rather than the bottom so we will no longer be the neighborhood equivalent of an "ugly step-child."

Would appointed board be tool of governor?

Regarding the Aug. 31 editorial, "School board positions should be appointive."

Taking power away from the people (voters) and putting it in the hands of just one person (the governor) does not seem right. In fact, it seems like something a dictatorship would do.

Would this board do strictly what the governor wants, without regard to what voters wish?

Your reasons for this change are that people get elected on name recognition, endorsement and name ethnicity. Following that logic, I will be waiting for the editorial that will endorse appointive legislators because they also get elected on name recognition, endorsement and name ethnicity!

Backup signals make life (beeping) unliveable

My neighbors and I in Waikiki have had it with those abominable backup beepers. They are everywhere. Every time a delivery truck, tour bus, backhoe, bulldozer, tractor or any other type of commercial vehicle shifts into reverse, those damned things sound off.

Even at CompUSA you can't escape them. Their shelf-stocking forklift has an extremely loud and annoying beeper.

At McDonald's, when the apple pies are done, off goes the beeper. At the underground parking lot at the King Kalakaua Plaza, the beeper sounds every time a car departs the garage. As I write, I hear three of them out on Kuhio Avenue.

Backup beepers on tour buses beep incessantly while waiting for tourists to board. On city buses, beepers go off when the driver is ahead or behind schedule.

I know they are a result of Occupational Safety and Health Administration and lawyers, but the beepers are overused to the point of "crying wolf." People ignore them. Mayor Harris, tear down those beepers!

Bush's economic record is dismal

Radio demagogue Rush Limbaugh recently claimed that President Bush had added 4 million jobs to the U.S. economy. This lie is refuted by the Republican-administered Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Through last month, U.S. job losses have totaled 1.2 million since Bush took office. Unless the economy produces a grossly improbable monthly average of 240,000 jobs through January, Bush will become the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over a net job loss.

Republican lies about Bush's economic performance hide a dismal record exceeded in almost every respect by Clinton, as well as other recent presidents. In contrast to Bush's lost jobs, Clinton added a record 23 million. GDP growth under Clinton averaged 3.6 percent.

Clinton cut federal employment by three times Bush's anemic 0.5 percent rate. Business investment grew more rapidly under Clinton. And Clinton left a huge budget surplus, while Bush has plunged the country into record deficits.

These deficits stem from Bush's reckless tax cuts, which gave the top 400 earners an average $2 million, the top 1 percent an average $79,000, and the median 20 percent ($57,000 annual income) a trivial $1,090.

In one of his countless flip-flops, Bush betrayed a 2000 pledge not to use Social Security surpluses to subsidize tax cuts, which have made America dependent on foreigners to finance 80 percent of the deficit.

The economic prospects of a second Bush term are harrowing. It will solidify our well established plutocracy and convert us into a full-fledged corporate welfare state.

Under Bush's steady hand, America is safer

Recent events in Russia are reminders of the importance of national security in our presidential election. Russia is not winning its war on terrorism. In the past few weeks, we have seen the results of Russia's failed policies -- bombings in Moscow, sabotage of two airliners and now the cold-blooded execution of adults and innocent school children.

In contrast, examine the leadership of President Bush. He is determined, focused, steady. He learns from mistakes and is flexible and open to new national security strategies. He has a personal bond of trust with the American people.

Supporters are inspired by his unashamed non-jingoistic patriotism. We are comforted by his unembarrassed expression of his Christian faith (quietly and ecumenically). He speaks respectfully of all world religions, including Islam. He is not the religious extremist as caricatured by political foes.

Like President Reagan, he sees America as that "shining city on the hill" for Americans as well as for those people in the world struggling for more democratic and free societies.

We are safer, but not safe yet. President Bush should be re-elected so that America continues to win its war on terrorism.

Time difference nullifies our votes

I propose that all Hawaii voters boycott the upcoming presidential election, since our votes do not count anyway.

In most elections (those which are not decided by the U.S. Supreme Court), the winner is already making his acceptance speech before Hawaii's votes are even counted.

If "American Idol" can block voters because of the time difference and only allow voting to be done during airtime hours, surely our government can figure out a way for Hawaii voters' voices to be heard in this and all upcoming elections.

We keep seeing ads about registering to vote, claiming that our votes count, but that's rather hard to believe when Hawaii's voters are still standing in line at the polls after the election is already over.

Hui Malama deserves thanks, not condemnation

This is a response to Isabella Abbott's letter about our organization (Star-Bulletin, Sept. 5). Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawaii Nei was established to care for iwi kupuna (ancestors) and moepu (funeral artifacts) through repatriation and reburial where others have not acted. We identified more than 5,700 iwi kupuna and moepu in institutions in the United States, Hawaii, England, Canada, Australia, Russia, Switzerland and Scotland. We assisted native peoples to return their iwi to Guam, Saipan, Tahiti, Marquesas, Tuamotu, Mangareva, Aoteaora, Australia and North America. Kuleana (responsibility, privilege) means we do not leave iwi kupuna to languish in repositories but return them home for reburial. Aloha means we help others do the same. We have worked faithfully for years on such efforts. Abbott has not.

Ma ka hana ka 'ike, ma ka 'ike ka maopopo (from work, knowledge; from knowledge, understanding). Our 15 years of experience in national and international repatriation and ceremonial reburials throughout the pae 'aina (archipelago) including Nihoa and Mokumanamana in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is the source of our knowledge and understanding in this area.

Regarding the looting of Kanupa Cave, after unscrupulous thieves victimized the kupuna, Abbott harshly criticized us. We reburied the iwi and moepu of more than 2,700 kupuna at approximately 100 reburial sites throughout the islands. This is the single instance of a reburial being disturbed. Abbott's criticism is analogous to rebuking a family after their home was burglarized. Like Van Diamond, Abbott did not reprimand the thieves or the state for neglecting to investigate the disturbance. Instead, both blamed Hui Malama. John Grimes from the Peabody Essex Museum, who spent years working with us on the Kanupa repatriation effort, sent his condolences instead.

Master Navigator Mau Piailug said, "To navigate you must be brave and to be brave you must remember. If I have courage, it is because I have remembered the teachings of my father (ancestor)." In our work, the memory of our ancestors fueled the courage to act for those who had been disturbed. We did so with intellect, aloha and the fierceness of a niuhi (shark). For all the sacrifices that we have undertaken for the kupuna, the living and the unborn to restore and strengthen the ancestral foundation, a simple mahalo would suffice.