McMackin did a good job

Mahalo, Coach Mac. While Coach Greg McMackin’s retirement gives the University of Hawaii a graceful way out of their coach controversy, what it doesn’t give them is any assurance of getting someone who can do better.In fact, if the university pays too much attention to the whining that went on about Mac’s salary, we’ll probably end up with a coach who’s a lot worse, since $1.1 million a year isn’t all that much money in the world of major college football.

So we’ve come full circle with our fickle fans.Back in the 1980s we could never beat BYU until Bob Wagner figured out how to do it big time and set fan expectations so high that he got canned for not meeting them every season.Now Mac is gone because he lost to BYU in a year where despite all the injuries, he still should have done the proverbial "more."

Maybe Fred Von Appen is looking for a job.

Lester Iwamasa
Seattle, Wash.

Small minds hurt UH football

First off, my apologies to Coach Mac for having to coach a college football team in such a small-minded state. Just last year, you and the team won the WAC. Now, after this season, you lost your job.

I remember several seasons ago, the team had a losing year with a quarterback named Colt and a coach named Jones. Everyone was murmuring about getting rid of the coach.

Then look at what happened two years later: undefeated season, Sugar Bowl, Heisman finalist! We as a state will never have a big-time football team because the team is surrounded by so many small-time minds!

Thanks to the team and coaches for giving their best week in and week out. Go Warriors!

Todd Hada
Honolulu

Drugs safer than enforcement

John Hansen shows a misunderstanding of people in his letter titled "Illegal drugs cause irreparable harm" (Star-Advertiser, Letters, Dec. 5).

Some people in society emerge from childhood with a desire to numb their minds of a pain most of us will never understand. These people are prone to develop damaging dependencies on street drugs.

Proponents of legalization care about these people enough to recognize that the only cure for them is by providing regulated, purified substances, the purchase of which won’t bring them into contact with criminals. They also care about the vast majority of users that can safely partake of these illegal substances without impact.

Those who oppose illicit drugs use the one tool that makes a minor bad situation into a major bad situation. That tool is the criminal justice system. Using force to try and stop an unstoppable force is lunacy. Those who advocate for the continuance of prohibition in the face of reason are truly heartless and worse than the criminals their policies enrich.

Keith Brilhart
Honolulu

TSA targets honest citizens

On Sept. 11, 2001, I was a World Trade Center search-and-rescue responder in New York City.

The Transportation Security Administration was created because of the 9/11 attacks by male Muslim terrorists against the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and possibly against the Capitol or White House, via hijacked airplanes.

The terrorists subsequently included a shoe bomber, underwear bomber and implant bomber. Women Muslim terrorists began to appear after suspected male Muslim terrorists became more closely tracked.

We have imposed more restrictions on honest American citizens. The TSA success rate at catching terrorists at the airport search areas has not been fruitful. The TSA has caught all kinds of other criminal acts, but not terrorists.

Searching American children and baby diapers, under the premise that they are bombers, has gone too far. Have the constitutional rights of all American citizens been slowly eroded?

Keoni Ronald May
Honolulu

Robotics teams display talents

The fourth annual VEX Pan Pacific Robotics Competition was held at the Hawaii Convention Center Dec. 1-3. It brought together 104 teams of students from grades 5 to 12, mostly from Hawaii, but also from California, Taiwan and China.

Teams build very sophisticated, remotely controlled robots to battle in a timed game of picking up balls and placing them in goals of various heights, while keeping their opponents from scoring. VEX competitions are a series of local, national and international tournaments, organized by VEX, sponsors and an army of volunteers. We congratulate the local event organizers and all the volunteers for another very exciting and successful event.

But we especially congratulate the participants; the kids and their teachers. The robots of all shapes and sizes and the contagious enthusiasm for the technology gets more amazing every year.

John Corbin, Liz Corbin
VEX volunteers, Kaneohe

Natatorium idea could work

Bruce Carlson, former director of the Waikiki Aquarium, recently made a thoughtful proposal to bring the badly deteriorating Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium back to useful life ("There might be a way to make all happy in Natatorium debate," Star-Advertiser, Nov. 27). His proposal: Fill in the pool area and build a freshwater swimming pool.

Though now a Mauian, I comment because I played a role in survival of this now-white elephant.

As an attorney for the Natatorium Preservation Committee, I obtained an injunction from the state Supreme Court in 1973, enjoining the teardown/beach expansion project. The court ruling emphasized the fact that the government land for the project had been set aside in the late ’20s for a "memorial and natatorium."

Does Carlson’s solution meet the Supreme Court’s legal test of qualification as a "natatorium"? Webster’s defines a natatorium as "a place for swimming; esp: an indoor swimming pool." The emphasis is the use for swimming, whether indoor or outdoor. I think it does and I’ll bet the Legislature would, too!

Fred Rohlfing
Honolulu

Micronesians depend on U.S.

Neil Mellen’s commentary starts with the incorrect premise that economic development is good for Micronesia ("Teach a man to fish," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Nov. 23). To judge a subsistence, non-currency-based society by its economic output in dollars is wrong. These same islanders have managed to feed themselves and maintain stable populations for more than a thousand years following ecologically sustainable practices. So here we are offering to "fix" them by making them dependent on our imported food, oil and television culture.

Having taught agriculture in Palau for four years, I later learned that the U.S. Department of Interior discouraged food independence to make Micronesians more susceptible to Defense Department wishes. What we are seeing is what they wanted to happen. Micronesians have intentionally been victimized by our government and they are ill-prepared to prosper in a currency-based society.

Dan Carpenter
Waianae