Residents don't want to pay for rail transit

I would like to publicly thank City Council members Barbara Marshall and Charles Djou for once again not buckling under to the pressures of others and remaining the calm voice of reason in the recent mass transit discussions.

Contrary to Michael Golojuch's letter of Dec. 26, they have not "voted against the future of every resident of Oahu." While I do not live out on the west side of the island, I have yet to talk to one person from any part of the island who is in favor of a rail system. The main concern is where the money will come from for this project. I hope it is not me. I can't afford to pay more property taxes, and I certainly cannot afford to pay anymore tax on my purchases!

So, a big mahalo to Marshall and Djou for standing up for those of us who are realistic enough to know that this project will cost so much that the quality of life for everyone in this state will be affected in such an enormously negative way.

Drug dealer's job as teacher not relevant

Your front-page headline on Dec. 21 regarding the teacher who dealt "ice" was not a good choice. The article did not mention any significance of the person being a special ed teacher, yet that was the emphasis of the headline. The headline could create an undeserved negative impression about special ed teachers.

It would better for the newspaper to create a series of articles highlighting the difficult and valuable role that special ed teachers, administrators and therapists perform.

Lower property taxes wouldn't hurt schools

Congratulations to Whitlow W.L. Au (Letters, Dec. 19) for his recommendation to have Honolulu County institute a "Proposition 13," as in California, or similar change to the property tax assessment. But he need not worry about such a change hurting the schools or most public services in Hawaii since not one cent of the property tax goes toward schools. The state, not the counties, funds the schools in Hawaii. Our property tax money is strictly for county services, such as the billions needed for the proposed rail. Wishful thinking that our property tax dollars were used to fund something as important as public education.

Put surplus to work improving schools

There must be many reasons why Hawaii's public schools have so firmly claimed the bottom of standardized test scores for decades, and as a result force so many parents to accept the crushing cost of private education.

Today, I'd put "School lunch prices will rise 25 cents" (Star-Bulletin, Dec. 15) at the top of that list of reasons, and I'd describe it this way: A governor and Legislature that claims they created a $700-million surplus on the one hand, and on the other turn a blind eye to school funding shortfalls that force schools to ding parents yet another 25 cents to provide children lunch?

It would be nice if this was the straw that finally united 1) parents crushed by the need to use private schools they can barely afford, 2) parents who can't afford to escape, and 3) everyone else who sufferers the drugs, crime and homelessness spawned by poor education to force our elected officials to solve the problem.

I suggest we start by looking harder at Hawaii's almost total reliance on tourism. After all, that puts Hawaii in competition with places where poor education is relied on to keep labor cheap, so I cannot see how that reliance doesn't have a bigger role than we have yet examined.

Regardless, surely the secret of good education is known. After all, that is how the top of the list got there. And if we can't aggressively pursue a solution when we have hundreds of millions of surplus when will we ever be able to?

Watada supporters insult U.S. military

Considering how important the military is to Hawaii, how can anyone in your state support a military officer who refused to serve? It looks like Ehren Watada only wanted the benefits that the military provides and not the service he must provide while wearing that uniform.

Any veteran or member of the military knows that when you are given your marching orders, you march. Those who show their support for such an individual insult every serviceman and veteran in your state. It's important to understand that serving the military is not like working at McDonald's.

But perhaps in some way, it good that such a man is not in Iraq after all. Watada is unfit to lead our troops and probably would be a danger to all. Cowards come in many shapes and forms. Behind all his noble words, his action speak the loudest to all men and women who wear or wore the uniform.

Military deaths in Iraq setting a sad record

Remember Haiti, Lebanon, Grenada, Kosovo, Cambodia, Afghanistan, a previous action known as the "Persian Gulf War" back in the nineties, Panama, Somalia and a few other minor incidents such as the off-and-on bombing of Iraq from 1991 until the present military action in that country? This has all happened since our incursion into Vietnam some four decades ago.

Taken all together, those "military actions" as we've policed the world haven't produced the number of mortal casualties to American service personnel that President Bush has managed to achieve in Iraq.

That figure is approacing 3,000 -- and growing rapidly.