Why value golfers more than teachers?

There's something definitely wrong in society today when a 16-year-old can make in excess of $10 million for hitting a little white ball around a golf course for a few weekends a year. What does a school teacher, police officer, paramedic or firefighter in Hawaii make after 16 years on the job? Only $50,000-$60,000 a year, if they're lucky.

Apparently, hitting a golf ball straight down the fairway for 300 yards is worth more than educating future world leaders or saving lives.

Isle backyards carry menace of bird flu

With recent media focus on the H5N1 (bird flu) pandemic possibility, I can't help but wonder what agency or agencies will actually be assisting in my neighborhood. You see, I live in Kalihi. Almost every neighbor has five to 30 roosters (mostly fighting roosters) or hens housed in their backyards (or right on Kalihi Street in their front yards).

Presently, attempts to report the flagrant disregard for the current laws pertaining to fowl fall on deaf ears. If a report is made to the health department, the caller is referred to phone the Hawaiian Humane Society. If a report is made to the humane society, the caller is referred to phone the police department. Let me get this straight: I'm suppose to dial 911 to report my neighbors' nasty, numerous and noisy fowl? Will the police also be responsible for the quarantine and disposal of these fowl if the bird flu arrives in Hawaii?

Akaka Bill is wrong, but so was annexation

Bud Ebel (Letters, May 11) and I agree that the Akaka Bill should be nixed and that concentrating benefits on one racial group is wrong. However, this is where our thought processes separate.

The annexation of Hawaii was done by a joint resolution of Congress, not by treaties, as was required. A joint resolution has no legal standing in a foreign country, which is what Hawaii remained, even under the provisional government. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs should stop wasting time, energy and money by supporting the Akaka Bill and start pursuing rights of descendants of Hawaiian nationals instead of just "entitlements."

Although America might be beneficial to Hawaii, the fact remains that it is still the master in someone else's home.

Capitalism might help North Korea

I admit that some of the things people do for money in a capitalistic society are quite sick. In America, money is the motive for many crimes, such as the current fleecing of the taxpayers by the Republican administration. At the same time, most people need an incentive to make their lives worthwhile. How would North Korea like to have a strictly regulated market economy to give its citizens an incentive? Perhaps the standoff on the Korean peninsula could end and commerce between the former rivals could flow fairly freely.

Movie furthers anti-Catholic agenda

I am a fan of both Tom Hanks and Ron Howard, but I will not see "The DaVinci Code." It might be just a movie and Tom Brown can keep saying his book is one of fiction, but the movie and novel still feed the old anti-Catholicism in America and perpetuate age-old myths about the Vatican and papacy. Thousands of movie-goers around the world will believe whatever they see in this movie.

As a Roman Catholic, I tire to hear about the lie of the Vatican conspiracy to control the world, like the anti-Semitic lie of a Zionist world conspiracy. I tire to hear the lie of the evil institutions like the Jesuits and now Opus Dei used by the papacy to lie to and corrupt its own believers. The myth that there was no resurrection and that Christ was not the son of God continues to be told in this movie and is an affront to all Christians. Anyone who sees "The DaVinci Code" should be aware of the real story behind this motion picture.