Candidates should stop pandering to us

The political season is upon us, and it sure would be nice if our local candidates would observe these rules:

» Don’t show baby pictures.

» Don’t tell us how rough it was growing up.

» Don’t gather around friends and family members for that perfect photo opportunity.

»Don’t point out endorsements and/or stand next to other politicians singing your praises. Just tell us what’s been achieved,what needs to be accomplishedand why these two things deserve our vote.

Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing else.

Syndi Lou
Downtown Honolulu

Native Hawaiians must proceed quickly

The only opinion that matters on the reinstatement of the nation of Hawaii will come from the certified Hawaiians on the Hawaiian Roll ("Hawaiian governing body gets renewed attention," Star-Advertiser, June 19). Period.

Now that the roll exists, the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs must proceed expeditiously to facilitate the election of delegates to a constitutional convention funded by ceded land revenues. Ratification of a constitution will finally give the Hawaiian population standing. Once that occurs, the United Nations, including the United States, will have the opportunity to recognize the nation of Hawaii and its indigenous people.

The involvement of the U.S. Department of Interior is just another attempt to "skin a cat," as U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye described further attempts to federalize Hawaiians after the Akaka Bill went nowhere. This strategy is a waste of time and resources.

Enfranchising all Hawaii voters to resolve questions on reinstatement is not an option.

Jimmy Wong
Heeia

Way to lasting peace is via spiritual unity

The way to a lasting peace among Israel,the Palestinians and Shiite and Sunni Muslims is not a political one. It is not a religious one. It is a spiritual one found in Surah XLII 13 of the Holy Koran.

"He hath ordained for you that religion which he commanded unto Noah, and that which we inspire in thee (Muhammad) and that which we commended unto Abraham and Moses and Jesus, saying; Establish the religion and be not divided therein …"

The "religion" God spoke of is a world religion based on unity and based on the oneness of the God of all religions. There is no righteousness in war and killing; only in peace and brotherhood.Establish the unity. This is the way to achieve a permanent and lasting peace in the Middle East and the world.

Bruce Robert Travis
Maui

Abolish bonuses for government workers

When did it become the norm to get bonuses for doing your job properly?

You apply for a job, get a job description, accept the job and go to work. If you do your job properly, you get paid. If you don’t, you get fired.

It’s impossible to stop big corporations from paying their executives obscene bonuses in the name of profitability, but those who work for the military, state or federal government should not be paid extra for doing their jobs. It leads to just what we are seeing with the Veterans Affairs system, cooking the books to make the numbers look good. These people should be fired. It’s immoral what they have done. They are harming our veterans, taking taxpayer money under false pretenses and stealing from us all.

Ann M. Low
Kaimuki

Better rules needed for hiking trails

Your editorial concerning hiking trail woes was spot on ("Hiking trail woes a signal to DLNR," Star-Advertiser, Our View, June 17).

Tourists and local residents continuouslyblock the access roads to these very desirablescenic places. The garbage they leave behind and the harassment of homeowners is a monumental problem.

The accesses to many of these trails were not designed for tourists. However, they are well-documented on Google search and recent tourist publications.

It is irresponsible to increase the number of visitors to Hawaii without attending to the problems that arise from unregulated overuse of our beautiful resources. These homeowners are the people who make these islands functional and desirable. We need to better regulate these public trails and make island life better for all.

Carl Oettinger
Kailua

Complex-area chiefs help with action plans

Complex-area superintendents have a responsibility to assist the superintendent in the development of action plans that can be shared with the state Department of Education and the public in general.

Moreover, complex-area superintendents have a good sense of the DOE mission, pertinent to the development of effective and contributing citizensthrough a balanced curricula.

In our efforts to satisfy federal and state demands, including Race to the Top, we must avoid a trivialized and narrow educational program. At the school level, too much testing is taking away from teaching — the tail is wagging the dog. Too much top-down management is hurting morale among teachers and educational officers.

Complex-area superintendents must mediate on behalf of school-level professionals and filter out system distractions that inhibit the teaching and learning process.

Finally, the DOE should continue to provide adequate time and resources for professional development in the process of installing new programs and implementing change.

Charles Goo
Former Roosevelt High School principal
Kahala

Gabbard didn’t know about VA problems?

Our congressional delegates are grandstanding. It is common knowledge there is a drastic shortage of physicians and support staff at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Equally well-known is the influx of Iraq and Afghanistan war vets who require care.

Our delegates ignored this — that is, until the news broke. They had to have known about this problem, especially U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who makes it a point of championing our vets and who has a wounded war vet on her staff reportedly waiting a year for an appointment. Instead of waiting for the facts to unfold — as U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa and U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono urge — Gabbard rails that the Hawaii VA director should resign because of his incompetence and deception.

Fair? Politically driven?

Gabbard is correct that incompetence should not be tolerated and punished.She should fire herself.

Jim Anderson
Aina Haina

Disaster would be prelude to paradise

Your recent editorial on hurricanes said: "Hawaii should know by now that when disaster strikes, island communities will have to be self-reliant, possibly for a long while."

When disasters — earthquakes, vog, drought, traffic gridlock — drive away the tourists, the economy will implode. Our food, water and shelter will need to be provided by growing our own food, damming our creeks, using treated sewage to irrigate and occupying empty high rises. In time, we will once again live in paradise.

Robert Tellander
Waikiki

FROM THE FORUM

Readers of the Star-Advertiser’s online edition can respond to stories posted there. The following are some of those. Instead of names, pseudonyms are generally used online. They have been removed.

“Isles file pitch for Obama library,” Star-Advertiser, June 16:

>> Lucky for us, this has zero chance of happening. The man has chosen Chicago as his home; why would he want his library built here? Besides, if you read the article, we needed to submit plans to not only build but to maintain the facility. What has this state ever built that it also maintained?

>> The Obama Point Panic National Library.

>> Kahoolawe would be a better place.

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“Mayor’s sidewalk strategy targets Waikiki homeless,” Star-Advertiser, June 16:

>> Many homeless choose not to stay in shelters because they don’t like to follow rules. If you make and enforce rules against living on public streets, then the homeless may decide that homeless shelters aren’t so bad after all. Progress. And it doesn’t cost millions in wasted taxpayer dollars.

>> We need to get to the root of the problem — not just Band-Aid approaches that do little but demonize the homeless and move the problem to someone else’s backyard. Some have suggested using Sand Island to house Honolulu’s homeless. Container housing, miniature housing or trailer/RV parks could be other viable options we can look into.

>> We need to get them off living on the streets, beaches, parks, etc. Period.

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“Hawaii VA chief promises change,” Star-Advertiser, June 17:

>> He has run Veterans Affairs centers for 11 years, according to the article. Now, after he is being asked to resign, he is going to try to fix some problems. He figures in three months the news cycle will have moved on and by then his career problem will have faded away as well (plus that gives him three months to fix the “data”). Ain’t gonna cut it. Too little, too late.

>> He’s been on the job in Hawaii for nine months now. But he’s going to get the wait time down to 30 days over the next three months? OK, so why was the process not started nine months ago?

>> U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz’s call for an independent investigation is still helpful and needed. I hope he follows through on that.

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“Aiona’s homeless plan entails guardsmen, specialized court,” Star-Advertiser, June 17:

>> This is just a PR scheme. Homeless vets are not the problem. The homeless ones committing crimes to support their drug habits are the real problem.

>> This is not the role of the Hawaii National Guard. Let’s get professionals (social workers, counselors, etc.) to confront the homeless and direct them into shelters.

>> The National Guard shouldn’t be used to solve social problems. Does the state have enough funds to place the Guard members on active duty? What are the police doing? If the homeless are breaking laws, enforcement personnel should be used. By the way, not all Guard members are veterans who have experienced what the homeless veterans have.

———

“Substitute teachers getting raises,” Star-Advertiser, June 18:

>> The state Department of Education uses a lot of substitute teachers, so it’s great that it is showing these teachers the same respect as the regular ones. “You get what you pay for” applies here, too, so you get people who actually want to be there teaching the students.

>> It’s too bad they’re not getting a $50,000-a-year raise like their big boss.

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“Oceans apart,” Star-Advertiser, June 18:

>> Aside from establishing a more practical breeding zone that will provide much-needed restocking sources for a majority of the tropical and sub-tropical Pacific Ocean, this is a very shrewd move to increase justification for the U.S. to retain dominance and management of the islands throughout and surrounding this zone. This matters little today, but as part of a 50-100 year plan to buttress against a rapidly growing China presence and its grab for ocean territory, it has tremendous geopolitical benefit to our country.

>> If we are going to create this zone for dubious purposes, then at least have the U.S. Navy enforce it for all fishing vessels from all countries that send boats into those waters.

>> Commercial fishermen are already running themselves out of business through overfishing.

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“Fugitive is caught in disguise 2 days after escaping from correctional facility,” Star-Advertiser, June 19:

>> These convicts aren’t too smart. They should plan their escapes during the Super Bowl or some other sporting event when most officers are on “sick” leave.

>> Note to self: If trying to elude the police, do not make yourself up to look like a character out of a Batman movie. That will only work in Gotham City, not Honolulu.