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Abercrombie has faced big challenges
In the midst of this hailstorm of complaints about his personal style, executive abilities and resignations from his top staff, it is easy to say the odds are against Neil Abercrombie having success as our governor. But we must agree that Abercrombie has at least kept things running in this state.
Homeless are all around us, but they are now constantly on the run, forced to move from one sidewalk and park to another.
Teachers and other state employees are on the job but their unions and benefits are under fire and running to the courts in negotiating labor agreements.
The economy continues to sputter along, so now the governor would have us run into gambling houses to find tax revenue.
With the public’s overweening demand for immediacy, time is running short and the odds are long on this governor’s regaining public confidence.
Shelly R. Brown
Honolulu
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Strategic plans can’t beat bureaucracy
Thank you Mr. Kawamoto, ("Horner at BOE has disappointed," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Oct. 7).
It is no great mystery that Don Horner has disappointed. If you understand the political power of the state Board of Education and state Department of Education, then you understand that no matter who is put in charge, the only strategic plan to ever work in a new administration is the one by the members who sabotage all changes for the better.
Those who reap the benefits of our labor (union leaders, board members and others) never intended to make real changes, They simply say that so you will look the other way and forget that nothing will ever change.
Every new administrator (the list is endless) has a strategic plan when they enter office, but it never comes to fruition.
Frederick Saunders
Waianae
First Friday not same as street party
Ten years ago, First Friday was started by five galleries to overcome the existing seedy reputation of drugs, prostitution and crime. The galleries invited the local community to appreciate and experience arts and culture between 5 and 9 p.m.
First Fridays is a fun night targeting friends and families of all ages meeting up in galleries/retail stores, restaurants and bars.
These small businesses operate during very difficult economic times. They work smarter to slowly create a vibrant neighborhood that’s attracting new businesses.
First Friday is a nationally recognized economic development strategy focusing on the arts and culture to regenerate run-down, depressed neighborhoods.
A street festival with liquor is different, as the street is the destination. When the Louis Pohl Gallery was on Nuuanu Avenue, I opened for street festivals. People came into the gallery only to use the clean bathroom.
First Friday is an arts and culture experience representing the best of Honolulu.
Sandra Pohl
Louis Pohl Gallery Chinatown
Civil Defense team deserves our praise
Let me begin by congratulating the State Civil Defense team for the outstanding work it produced for the people of the state of Hawaii under the leadership of former vice-director Ed Teixeira.
For the past 12 years, Ed Teixeira was the face of civil defense that the public respected and trusted to provide clear and timely information that ensured public safety and security. He will be greatly missed. Mahalo and aloha, Ed.
His departure should perhaps prompt the powers-that-be to re-think the current civil defense structure. Why are we not in line with most of the other U.S. states and have our civil defense department report to the governor as a state department and not to the Department of Defense?
Mary Ng
Kaneohe
Photo ID requirement would be burden on many voters
As Ernest Suemoto states, several states are considering or have adopted a requirement for voters to show a government photo ID at the polls (“Photo ID to vote is a good policy,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Oct. 5).
In Hawaii, voters can use any document with their name and address — a utility bill, bank statement, etc. Many people, especially the disabled, elderly and poor, don’t have a driver’s license.
To get a state ID card requires either a birth certificate (elderly and naturalized citizens may not have birth certificates) or a passport (fewer people have passports) plus “all changes in status or name due to marriage, divorce, annulment, adoption or citizenship must be supported by legal, certified documents.
Copied, altered, or illegible documents are not acceptable.” (stateid.ehawaii.gov).
This requirement again will prevent many people from getting the state ID.
Unless you live on Oahu, have a credit card and access to a computer (think of rural elderly, the poor, the disabled…), it takes two trips to a state office — one to learn the requirements and make an appointment, and a second to bring in documents and get an ID card.
That’s quite a burden if you don’t have a car, live off the bus lines and are frail or disabled.
Photo ID laws assume that voter identification fraud (pretending to be someone else at the polls) is a problem, but a recent study by the Brennan Foundation found no evidence of this.
Hawaii has one of the country’s lowest voter turnout rates. Photo ID to vote would make the problem worse at the expense of vulnerable citizens.
Beppie Shapiro
President, League of Women Voters of Hawaii