House Bill 109 should have been left intact

The state Legislature gutted House Bill 109, which would've clarified what are appropriate uses of agriculture land. Instead, they're going to do more studies and report back to the Legislature in two years on appropriate action to rectify this. From my view, the legislators stuck their heads in the sand.

We have a real problem here, with possible litigation arising from the Hokulia mess potentially costing Hawaii's taxpayers billions of dollars. The legislators should have banned all future nonagriculture subdivisions on agriculture-zoned land and exempted all current nonconforming subdivisions.

Ed students consigned to rundown buildings

As a long-term faculty member in the College of Education at the University of Hawaii, I viewed the Star-Bulletin's April 4 photo of happy medical students in the brand-new Kakaako medical school building with envy and dismay.

I, and many of my fellow teacher educators (in science education, language and literacy, social studies, art and early childhood education), teach in a facility that is termite ridden and full of vermin. We can run the antiquated air conditioner and not be heard or let our students swelter in the heat. There are holes in the walls, louvers are falling out, paint is peeling and the carpets are stained and filthy.

Those of us who teach in this building could be assigned other classrooms on campus, but if we did so it would be impossible to have the materials we need to help our students learn the hands-on teaching approaches that we believe are best for educating future teachers.

What does it say about our priorities as a state when future doctors are taught in luxurious surroundings and those who teach teachers work in sub-standard conditions?

Lawmakers should get going on Superferry

When I first heard about the Hawaii Superferry three years ago, the target date was 2004 or 2005, then it became 2006. Now it's being pushed back to 2007.

Talk, talk, talk is all the Legislature seems capable of doing. We wonder why our state economy seems to always be stagnating. The answer seems to be the ivory-tower geniuses we somehow think have our best interests in mind, and whom we vote into office. No one seems to have the "fire in the gut" to actually work to get some advancements pushed through the legislative "molasses in January" mental attitudes.

The Superferry is a high-priority issue for people like me, who probably won't ride it often but will benefit from the lower costs and faster access to goods from other islands. If someone actually had the vision to see how important this is to the state as a whole, and quit appending misplaced concern about "impact to other users of the harbors," then maybe Hawaii could start stepping forward economically.

Felling of sausage tree diminishes coastal life

Auwe! to the people who killed the sausage tree at Maili Point. That tree was a singular, one-of-a-kind tree that did not deserve to be thoughtlessly killed. Imagine it being there for more than 75 years, braving two hurricanes and seeing life pass by on Farrington Highway, and in a few short hours reduced to nothing. Our quality of life on the Waianae Coast is diminished by whoever was responsible for the killing of this exceptional tree!

We don't need to study cell-phone dangers

When I drive in San Francisco, I remember two things: You better not be in an intersection when the light turns red, and you better not be using your cell phone while driving. The city has declared war on both and the drivers know it.

So why is the Legislature going to waste time and money studying the danger of cell-phone use while driving? Sen. Colleen Hanabusa says she hasn't seen enough compelling evidence that using a cell phone is any more dangerous than eating or putting on make-up. I suppose as long as you can keep up with the flow of traffic and you have a certificate in multitasking, you can do whatever you want while at the wheel of two tons of steel. Eat your lunch, apply mascara, read the morning paper, pet your dog, burp your kid. Seems to me that any distraction is bad for driving safety.

You can't have your kid or your dog in your lap -- that's the law. Any other distraction would come under the umbrella of reckless endangerment. Maybe now all we need is enforcement of the law.

Title IX hurts males in favor of females

Regarding the editorial "Hawaii erred in joining foes of Title IX integrity" (March 31): This made it seem that some people are against equal opportunities for women, and this is far from the truth. People are upset with Title IX because it hurts boys and young men.

Title IX has decimated men's wrestling and gymnastics from college campuses. Now feminists are using Title IX to attack football. Title IX is responsible for the elimination of more than 20,000 men's athletic positions during the past decade. A college should offer the same opportunity for all athletes, but making things "fair" for one shouldn't hurt the other. (Example: If a college allocates positions for 40 male and 40 female swimmers, and only 10 female swimmers show interest, it is unfair to eliminate 30 male athletes).

I don't believe that punishing high school boys and young men was the initial reason behind Title IX, but that's what it has become. For decades, society has rallied behind equal rights for women; now we should focus on equal rights for both men and women.

Selfish drivers cause pedestrian deaths

Sadly, the Monday morning death of young Nathan Curry of Makakilo (Star-Bulletin, April 5) will focus our attention on traffic safety only for the length of time it is newsworthy.

We have had another beautiful life taken from all of us. City Council members like Nestor Garcia and neighborhood board members, who hold themselves up as leaders and in truth seem only interested in their 15 minutes of public exposure, are directly responsible; they have Nathan's blood on their hands.

As one of the founders of the Wanaao Road traffic-calming initiative in Kailua, my deepest sympathy goes out to Nathan's family.

I, too, have dealt with the unbending position of people elected to lead, but who decline to step out in front and lead for fear of not being re-elected.

I, too, have been shocked and appalled at the open hostility demonstrated by those who refuse to slow down, regardless of the cost. I mark the days until one of our youngsters or elders or young mothers pushing a baby carriage is struck and killed by a driver who is "not the problem."

There is no constitutional right to speed; there is no constitutional right to selfishness. We have a duty as members of a civil, caring community to protect one another and to take care of one another. Sometimes that means giving up something you want for someone else's well being. That is the very best to which we can aspire, and that is the very least we should do.

Public schools should focus more on basics

The news has been inundated with negative findings about Hawaii's schools. I'm a private tutor who left public school teaching to work in the private sector. When negative news about our schools hits the front page, I get numerous phone calls requesting tutoring services.

The students who come to me from the public school system lack the basics. I test each child in math, language usage, reading comprehension and vocabulary; the results are severely deficient. Language usage is by far the most appalling. When asked to identify subjects and verbs in a sentence, they rarely know what they are, and adverbs, adjectives and prepositions seem to be words that are not part of their vocabulary.

Math is an area the state is experimenting with. Some of the public high schools have introduced a new math where the student solves intricate problems rather than the typical algebra, geometry and trigonometry. Private schools have remained faithful to the traditional math disciplines, and I believe their students perform better on the college entrance exams.

On a positive note, the schools that have introduced tough standards are producing results. Since I tutor students from many different schools, I see a wide spectrum of students, and some of our schools are meeting the challenge, but far too many are not. I believe the answer lies in curriculum and instruction. I see my students for only one to two hours weekly and in that short period of time they learn and master language usage, improve their reading comprehension, make great advancements in vocabulary building, and with all that, gain confidence.

Long-term subs should be paid adequately

For those who still insist that substitute teaching is glorified babysitting, they should not overlook long-term substitute positions, many of which last from several weeks to months.

Many substitute teachers accept these challenging positions, often replacing the regular teacher for much of the term. Substitutes in long-term positions are required to create and implement lesson plans, attend parent-teacher meetings and staff meetings, and grade hundreds -- even thousands -- of papers, as well as calculate and input report card grades. Any teacher will tell you what a job that is!

The amount of extra hours and effort that substitutes work while engaged in long-term positions is considerable, yet they receive substantially less pay than the regular teacher, and with no benefits. The Department of Education must pay substitute teachers the equivalent of the lowest entry-level salary of starting teachers and pay us our back pay as the state promised us in 1996.

The DOE, teachers, administrators, parents and students need to treat substitute teachers with the respect and dignity they deserve. We have university degrees, we are certified by the state of Hawaii and we are professionals. We continue to be a vital resource in the public school system. It's a matter of fairness.

Governor's radio spots are clearly political

Governor Lingle's use of weekly radio addresses to promote her political agenda may be technically proper, but as your April 6 editorial suggests, radio stations may want to decline to air them. The ads are clearly political, and they violate the spirit of using the public airwaves for a public purpose.

The governor directs listeners to contact legislators to support the administration's positions on legislative issues. Whether these positions are in the public's interest and become state law should be debated within the legislative process. The radio stations are unfairly providing the administration a political advantage.

The governor's office pointed to five other states where governors give weekly radio addresses. We do not object to the fact that the governor provides a weekly radio address to the public as long as the message is nonpartisan. I would like to point to the fact that Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney recently ran a similar campaign advocating his administration's position on embryonic stem-cell research, an issue recently passed by the Massachusetts legislature. In these ads, he requested the public to contact legislators supporting his administration's position. The difference, however, is that Romney correctly considered these spots to be political advertisements and paid for them out of his political committee fund.

To be fair to all, broadcasters should either stop running these political messages or give equal opportunity to other political organizations on the same basis. Prudence dictates that Governor Lingle consult with the Campaign Spending and State Ethics commissions before we see a replay of the "CARE" committee debacle.

Lingle's radio spots have vital information

Democrats who have voiced opposition to Governor Lingle's new weekly radio address should welcome the governor's openness and her efforts to encourage public discussion about issues that are important to the people of Hawaii, such as affordable housing, tax relief and pedestrian safety.

The weekly radio address (it is not a public service announcement as reported in the media) is part of Lingle's and Lt. Governor Aiona's continuing effort to communicate directly with the public whenever possible. For neighbor island residents in particular, a weekly radio address provides an opportunity for the governor to share information on a regular basis.

These one-minute messages are recorded at no cost to the taxpayers while she is already in the studio for her weekly radio talk show. The recordings are e-mailed to radio stations throughout the state for their consideration. It is up to each station to decide whether to air the messages once, multiple times or never.

Elected officials around the country regularly record radio messages to communicate with their constituents. The President's Office has a long-standing tradition of communicating to the public every Saturday via a weekly radio address. By our count, six governors and at least one lieutenant governor from both parties have radio messages in which they share their positions on key issues in their states.

People get their information in different ways. Whether through public speaking engagements, a weekly radio show, the Internet, e-mail newsletters, bylined articles in the newspapers, e-mail correspondence, and now a weekly radio address, Lingle and Aiona are committed to ensuring the people know where they stand on issues and how their taxpayer dollars are being spent.

They continue to reach out to the people to inform the public about the activities of state government. The people who elected them to office and pay their salaries deserve to be kept informed, and that's what the governor's weekly radio addresses are all about.

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