Grandmother did well in raising Obama

It is an emotional time for the state and the nation, and also for the Obama/Dunham family. I want to express my appreciation to Madelyn Dunham for all the hard work and sacrifice she put in raising and parenting her grandson Barack. We will not know for some time what sort of leader he will make, but we do know that he has inherited her work ethic and that he is taking it to new heights in the realm of public service.

Thank you, Madelyn.

Voters must choose rhetoric or substance

An honest plea: Please make your choice of president and vice president based on executive experience, career accomplishments in their home states, length of service and contributions in the Senate, and their core values. Please avoid deciding on popularity, charisma, location of hometown, eloquent speech, gender and the like. These qualities do not show how well they will improve the economy, exit the war, protect innocent life and promote moral, responsible, rights and freedoms.

Discard the notion that John McCain will be just like President Bush, and ask if the candidate will handle each national issue with rational wisdom. Botching the war exit means another Vietnam. The same can be said with any of these issues. Putting a quarterback in a big game who has excellent speech, hopes, appearance and promises on the sideline is very risky if he has brief field experience and little practice.

Either way you vote, hold your representatives (at all levels) accountable for any spending and legislation that contradicts your values.

If you want 'change,' support Con Con

It seems peculiar that many Hawaii Democrats who support Barack Obama's call for “;change”; at the national level oppose a state Constitutional Convention to help along needed changes here at home. Or do Con Con opponents (using mostly mainland money) seek to keep their constituents from breaking free of a plantation past via a better public school system? Are these Democrats somehow deeply vested in the coddling of criminals by our revolving-door courts? Are they pleased to see us pay almost four times the national average price for electricity while burning oil to generate 80 percent of our electricity?

Maybe so. But if you have had enough of the status quo here in Hawaii, vote “;yes”; for Con Con.

Broken school system needs a Con Con

Hawaii's Constitution is broken, and our public school system needs fixing. A Constitutional Convention can provide a fix. It can give the Board of Education real power to carry out its duties.

In 1999, Senate President Norman Mizuguchi introduced a bill to grant the board taxing authority.

Today the BOE merely formulates statewide educational policy. It has no control over the education budget. The governor is responsible for preparing the budget, and the Legislature makes all budget appropriations.

When things go wrong, the board points to the Legislature for not appropriating enough money or to the governor for not releasing appropriated funds.

To end the finger-pointing, we need a board that is accountable. We need a board, like the Public Utilities Commission, that is made up of full-time, salaried members.

Upgrading the board will encourage highly qualified people to run. Because the board members would have real power — taxing authority — they'll lose their anonymity. They'll be accountable for the successes and failures of our schools.

Vote “;yes”; on Con Con!

Film explores Mink's many accomplishments

I attended a screening of the film “;Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority,”; by local filmmaker Kimberlee Bassford.

She had the near-impossible task of telling Mink's life story and her accomplishments in less than 60 minutes. The film portrays the discrimination that she faced and the impact that she had on girls and women everywhere as the co-author of Title IX.

Many of her accomplishments did not make it into the film. In 1971, she filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the EPA with 32 other members of Congress to open government documents about an underground nuclear test at Amchitka Islands in the Aleutian chain. The Supreme Court cited the EPA v. Mink case as precedent for requiring the release of the Watergate tapes.

Bassford worked hard for four years on this film. She has compiled incredible archival footage of some of Mink's most memorable speeches. The community has the opportunity to view Bassford's tribute to Mink at 8 p.m. on Oct. 30 when it is aired on KHET, Hawaii Public Television.