UH needs better opponents

I understand expansion is needed for the Western Athletic Conference to stay alive. But how long will it take University of Hawaii football to get the respect it got during the Sugar Bowl year? Even if UH were to go undefeated five years in a row will it get any BCS recognition? Probably not! Also, can we honestly say UH will fill the stadium with the games against the new WAC? UH football is not doing it now.

Hawaii fans will back only a good football team that plays quality teams at least several times a year. We had rivalries in the past, and we would look forward to playing a Nebraska, USC or the like at least once every year. Can UH schedule games that will generate enough interest locally and nationally to financially survive?

Middle class suffers fee hikes

I don’t mind paying price hikes at incremental rates that are reasonable. However, the fees have been raised more than 100 percent for school lunches and will be raised by about 50 percent for A+ care. These price hikes could potentially break a family’s bank. I have two children attending public school and A+ after-school care.

Those who are receiving free or reduced lunch will never feel the effects of the hikes. I’m all for helping those who are less fortunate. But I want the Department of Education, the Board of Education and the media to be truthful about who will pay the hikes for lunch and A+, who will bear that burden. We, the working and middle class, are the only ones affected by the raise in prices.

Christie in jail unlawfully

By denying the Rev. Roger Christie of the Hawaii Cannabis Ministry a fourth request for release, U. S. District Judge David Ezra is violating Mr. Christie’s right to due process, which ensures that government will respect all of a person’s legal rights.

Rev. Christie has unfairly been denied bail since his imprisonment in early July at the Federal Detention Center. Held in close confinement, this nonviolent man of God is also being denied his constitutional right to a speedy trial and a First Amendment right to exercise his sincere religious beliefs. His confinement greatly hampers his ability to mount a defense.

If we as a people no longer stand up for our rights, we slowly turn them over to others. An injury to one is an injury to all.

Editorial on rentals spurious

First the paper runs a story about residents on the North Shore upset about too many vacation rentals. Not to be swayed by logic or their concerns, you then run an editorial promoting more vacation rentals ("Fix vacation rentals regulation," Star-Advertiser, Nov. 5). The editorial uses the spurious reasoning that more regulation for the additional rentals would take care of everything. However, more regulation means that more enforcement will be needed. The more enforcement activity needed, the less effective it becomes.

Don’t restrict governor’s BOE appointments

The headline, "Abercrombie can be choosy when it comes to picking BOE," (Star-Advertiser, Nov. 10) is misleading because, as the article explains, the Legislature may pass a bill that severely restricts the governor’s discretion in appointing the members of the Board of Education. Such a bill would sabotage the accountability that the appointed BOE is designed to create.

House Education Chairman Roy Takumi says he plans to introduce a bill that would force the governor to appoint someone from a list of two to four names submitted by a committee for each vacant seat on the BOE. It is true that the process is similar to the one used to select judges. However, the distance between the judiciary and the executive branch is intentional because of the principle of separation of powers.

The governor must be held fully accountable for public education. We don’t want the governor to be able to say later that the quality of public education has not improved because he wasn’t given the names of qualified candidates to the BOE.