Corporations have a good side

I’m not for crony capitalism that some corporations benefit from, but I am for corporations, as I know all the good they do.

The Wall Street occupiers and protests happening around the country want to slam corporations, and many try to blame this country’s problems on them.

Who’s out there speaking out for the good corporations do? Not only do they hire a massive amount of people, but where is the credit for all the charity they hand out?

Look around town and any time there is an event, see whose name is on the poster that stepped forward to support the event — mostly it’s corporations.

Who is it that supports many organizations like the charitable associations and others? The poor and middle class would falter greatly without corporations’ money donated to help one cause after another.

It’s time to give corporations their due and thank them for all they do — and for all the jobs they provide.

Cheryl Yale
Ewa Beach

APEC has been a losing proposition

APEC is here and we God-fearing, taxpaying and law-abiding citizens of Oahu are not able to drive where we want, take our boats out to where we want, to swim where we want, to walk where we want, or to park where we want, while these yahoos are in town.

And this from a government that will not allow its law enforcement personnel to weed out the illegal immigrants in our state and country. This picture is very fuzzy to me.

Are these people afraid of being together in paradise? Maybe it is better that they stop getting together, all in one place, and start videoconferencing.

Reports indicate we stand to see $120 million spent by these folks, surely not any out of their personal accounts. But we have already spent $137 million on improvements, so that is $17 million overspent already.

Gregory A. Poole
Mililani

Oahu fortunate to host summit

We would like all our APEC guests, from whichever country they came, to go home remembering the graciousness, beauty and spirit of aloha. Traffic congestion is a fact of life for us, as it is for most of our visitors, and in most parts of Oahu it has not been much worse than usual.

We are paying a very small price to host an event that many U.S. cities were competing for. I would like to convey aloha to President Barack Obama, Hawaii’s congressional delegation and others for their strong support to have the APEC summit in Hawaii.

Toufiq Siddiqi
Honolulu

‘Tutu and Me’ going national

Your editorial on the importance of preschool education was enlightening ("Early education can improve test scores," Star-Advertiser, Our View, Nov. 3).

For us on the mainland, Hawaii has pioneered two very important aspects of birth-to-5 education.

First, more young children are being cared for by grandparents, even aunts and uncles. Since older caregivers have been out of school for many years, it is important that they be brought into the educational process, so that they can help the preschoolers with their work. Hawaii’s "Tutu and Me" program, part of the nonprofit Partners in Development Foundation, has become a national model for how to involve kids and older caregivers in the learning process.

Second, in California, many young children in rural areas cannot easily get to preschools; I think the same is true for Hawaii. Your Tutu and Me program has started "traveling preschools" that go out to where there are clusters of kids.

The national YMCA is planning to use the Tutu and Me program as a model for a national effort to reach "left out" kids and their caregivers. If this works as well as planned, Hawaii should get credit for its pioneering program.

Gary A. Glenn
Albany, Calif.