Park owners, workers set good example

Last Sunday, I was lucky enough to be the second-place winner in Sea Life Park's naming contest for their new baby Wholphin. The name I chose for her was Kina'ole, or Striving for Perfection, a value that is very important to me.

I also had the chance to meet the new owners of Sea Life Park, who are from Mexico, the contest judges and people who work at the park. I heard how they read more than 400 names sent in by local children, and I saw how they talked to each of us with interest and respect.

I am happy that they are part of the Hawaii community. They are giving back to us, the keiki o ka aina, the experience of Kina'ole in how we treat each other, how to care for the land, sea and animals of our islands.

Humans should atone for torturing animals

So the Blue Tropix monkeys are dead; their immune systems destroyed by misery (Star-Bulletin, May 14). Good! Better dead than imprisoned in a zoo. The zoo was only slightly better than their glass prison in a nightclub.

Some animals we imprison so that we can gawk at them. Some we grow like crops to kill and eat. Some we catch with hooks and batter them to death, others in nets to die of suffocation. Some we shoot from helicopters for fun. Some have their skin ripped off while still alive (see PETA fur horror video) so that we can wear it. Some are taken from their mothers at birth so that we can drink their milk. Some are fitted with steel claws and forced to fight to the death (cockfighting) for our amusement. Some are imprisoned and tortured in the name of science. Some are placed in tiny cages and tanks and kept in homes and apartments. Some are forced to wear bits and run on racetracks. Some are cruelly trained to perform in circuses. Some are killed to make ornaments (ivory).

We call ourselves civilized. If only there were a vengeful god, a day of reckoning! The human race has got it coming.

UH tuition increase will help whom?

On May 20, the Star-Bulletin printed an article titled "UHM tuition to soar 140 percent in 6 years." Let's visit this issue over the past decades.

When the Democrats took over the Legislature in 1954, one of their initial tasks was to lower University of Hawaii tuition. During the next two decades the Legislature held down UH salaries while students enjoyed the benefits of an affordable higher education. This effort was coupled with key placements in the UH personnel office whose mission was to hold costs down. In the early '70s the faculty reacted, understandably, by establishing a faculty union which then made their wages negotiable.

Next, the great leap forward; autonomy was approved for UH, and with it a go-finance-yourself shove from the Legislature; but also to remake the university from a land grant teaching school into a big science research institution and move those undergrads who are in the way at Manoa off to the remote campuses. Consider the increase in CIP funding to UH-Hilo and UH-West Oahu.

As I gaze across the administration at UH I see transients who are appropriating the UH for their big science research interests. As I listen, I hear the administrators say, "We want to bring the tuition in line with other schools." To which I must ask, "Who do you mean 'We'"?

Drivers, stop griping and slow down!

I am 75 years old, born and raised on Oahu, and I am sick and tired of the idiots who complain about the traffic. Most of the complainers are the cause of our traffic. They don't follow the rules of the highway. They pass whenever the car in front isn't going at least 15 to 20 miles over the speed limit.

I don't understand the need for speed. Try leaving a bit earlier. Give yourself at least 45 to 50 minutes' lead time when leaving home; then you don't have to drive like a crazy person to make up time.

I don't know why we have traffic rules, no one follows them. Looks like the cops don't much care about the speeders, as they are driving just as fast as or faster than everyone else on the highway. I have always thought that the police should lead by example, not show us how to drive like there isn't a speed limit.

Just to be on the safe side, I will leave early, and drive no more than 5 mph over the limit.

Let's see progress before raising fees

Regarding plans to increase the excise tax, sewer fees and college tuition: I'm tired of vision talks and "studies" by both the city and state. I'm at the point where I'd like to see substantial results before either entity asks me for more increases in anything!

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