Regional park a source of pride

For us “;oldsters,”; our venturing into the community at large is limited. Recently, however, I ventured out to Central Oahu Regional Park and was overwhelmed by what I saw. High school youngsters, boys and girls, from all over the mainland and Hawaii in tournament play on eight beautifully kept baseball and softball diamonds; attendants sprinkled water after each playoff. The comfort stations, well placed, were clean. Food stations, well placed, charged kamaaina rates for hot dogs and chili, not gouging the families who are guests from the mainland.

As I pridefully walked the graceful shaded pathways, soccer tournaments for adults and the little ones were in progress; even touch football teams and little-leaguers were in tournament play.

As I drove out of the park, I noted tournament play at the tennis courts and the grand Olympic swimming pool, and a girls cheering squad in the pyramid building.

I commend the city and county recreation directors and scores of volunteers managing the tournaments. How grand I felt that former pineapple and sugar cane fields are now used to provide venues for family outings.

From one old-time plantation man, I felt great pride in our elected officials' efforts to keep Hawaii's aloha alive for all.

Governor must talk with labor unions

The governor and her subordinates continue playing their little political shell game with the unions and state employees as evidenced by the news that Marie Laderta, the negotiator for the state, walked out of a meeting with the four unions after only 20 minutes on Monday.

Lingle has been playing this game in the media for months now, pointing fingers at the unions while refusing to meet with any of the representatives to actually formally discuss the issues at hand. Her so-called “;proposals”; have merely been to tell the unions to furlough or face layoffs. Now, I'm no expert at negotiating, but that doesn't sound like much of a “;good faith”; offer to me.

One question that nobody has asked, but should be posed to her, is why did she wait until this point to address the budget? Did she not notice that there were problems last year? It's not like $732 million just disappeared overnight.

Perhaps she was too busy shilling for Sarah Palin and traveling around the mainland to notice the problems happening in her own home state.

The unions have been ready and willing to sit down and work out the contracts and discuss ideas to solve this problem. However, despite her claims to the public, the governor has consistently shown that she is not willing to talk.

Reassess work of attorney general

If Linda Lingle plans on firing any of her employees, the first person to consider should definitely be her attorney general, Mark Bennett.

Somehow, the highest legal adviser in the state has misguided the governor on what her legal powers actually are.

His legal opinion on the Superferry EIS was dead wrong, and now his advice on her public employee furlough plan was found unconstitutional. And firing Bennett could save the state thousands of dollars in legal fees by not having to mount more court battles.

Teens out at night concern reader

Recently, I was awakened at an early hour by loud laughing and talking. Looking out my window, I noticed two teenage girls and assumed that they were walking home. It was after 2 a.m. and everything was closed, so where could they have been? Weren't their parents concerned about their safety and welfare? What if something had happened to them? There would be no one around to help them and they would have become another crime statistic.

Parents, do you know where your children are? Kids, do you know where your parents are?