Coaches should target Warrior discipline

I am a staunch University of Hawaii Warrior football fan, but for our team to move to the next level, some basics have to be ironed out. False starts, personal fouls, missed tackles and missed assignments are all discipline and/or technique issues. Those issues are the direct responsibility of the coaching staff.

Discounting last year, I can count on both hands the number of times in the past few years that momentum has been stopped or shifted because of discipline-oriented penalties, causing us to lose a game or turn a “;laugher”; into a “;squeaker.”; You'd never see a team coached by Bill Walsh, Vince Lombardi or Don Shula beat themselves by not being prepared or disciplined. I sure would love to see our Warriors be that kind of team. I'm with 'em good times or bad, but I prefer the good times.

Imua, Warriors and coaches. Win the next one!

Say has lost meaning of 'public service'

I am impressed with Rep. Calvin Say's call for a legislative pay raise (Letters, Dec. 3). He seems a bit confused, however, about the distinction between part-time and full-time employment. He admits that legislative work is not 40-hour/week employment, yet it is full time since it takes so much time to represent your constituents.

Perhaps if we paid Say more money, he would become more competent to explain this distinction. His confusion on this issue is apparently directly related to an enforced intellectual suppression resulting from public miserliness; i.e., inadequate salary leads to brain malnourishment. He essentially invokes the old caveat, “;Pay peanuts, get monkeys.”; According to the gospel of St. Calvin, the zoo has been relocated to Beretania Street. Further, those who populate that zoo are of a lesser breed of monkey, since they were acquired on the cheap.

What ever became of the concept of public service? What impels neighborhood boards to meet without compensation? Why do AYSO and Little League coaches give up their afternoons and weekends? Why is Say so puffed up with his own importance to suppose that we would be eager to fork over bigger bucks? Better he stay home and save us money!

All jest aside, there is a pointed message in Say's letter: He is prepping us for pay-raise legislation this session.

Who is on UH regent advisory council?

Regarding “;UH vulnerable in power struggle between lawmakers, Lingle”; (”;Our opinion,”; Star-Bulletin, Dec. 6): What really interests me is, who are the people in this so-called “;advisory council”; that was set up to recommend nominees for the University of Hawaii Board of Regents? What are the names of council members, and what names go with the 22 people nominated? I can probably defend the withholding of the 22 named prospective regents, but not the “;advisory council.”; Not now. Not ever.

Would we be surprised, amazed or depressed by knowing who they are? Would it be worse than knowing you found a family of bufos in your pool on a Monday morning?

Helping addicted moms a worthy endeavor

I want to commend Dr. Tricia Wright and the PATH Clinic staff for the incredibly important and life-saving work that they do (”;Clinic aids addicted pregnant women,”; Star-Bulletin, Nov. 19). When we assist addicted mothers, we make great strides in stopping the cycle of drug use and poverty. Studies overwhelmingly indicate that drug use in utero affects the child's immediate health, and links drug abuse to many adverse social conditions that are deleterious for both child and mother.

Prenatal exposure to both licit and illicit drug use mostly occurs in the presence of environmental and other risk factors such as violence, poverty and psychosocial impairment. Treating addiction provides an avenue for the woman to improve multiple areas of her life and improve both maternal and child outcomes. Assisting women from the Oahu Community Correctional Center lets these women know that just because they have committed crimes, they are still valuable and deserve help. When women become empowered through assistance such as the PATH Clinic, and are able to take control of their health and mental well-being, they become better mothers and members of the community.

Shinseki brings dignity, honesty to VA

The state of Hawaii now has three reasons to be proud. The first is Barack Obama, born and for 14 of his first 18 years on Earth raised among us. Hawaii's natural sense of diversity helped make him the world citizen he is today. The second is Hawaii's own Eric Shinseki, chosen to be President Obama's secretary of Veterans Affairs. Twice-wounded partial amputee and four-star Gen. Shinseki publicly told the truth to power before the disastrously ill-planned Iraq invasion and found himself out of a job.

The third reason we have to be proud is that Obama is the kind of man who, totally unlike Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their ilk, actually wants to hear the truth, and he picked Shinseki because he knows Shinseki will tell him, and the American public, the truth. After eight years of constant lies, the truth will be a welcome change.