Keep light on ‘Arizona’ scandal

This is my response to William Cole’s article on the Valor in the Pacific National Monument, nee the USS Arizona Memorial ("New facilities fall to neglect," Star-Advertiser, Aug. 31).

As president of a local model-building club, I and other members of our club use the facility the last Saturday of every month.

In exchange for its use, club members used to volunteer and clean the museum facilities — an arduous task, considering the buildings were designed with the emphasis on being "green."

I raised concerns as to how artifacts and exhibits, let alone the facility, could be maintained and kept in good condition.And now park Superintendent Paul DePrey is in damage control after several investigations.

There is more to the story and should be kept in the forefront of the public eye.

Brad Sekigawa
Mililani

Teachers can’t force attendance

A growing achievement gap in Hawaii schools is being attributed to the volatile mix of the Common Core State Standards and chronic absenteeism, and it has been suggested that poor performance in the former is a direct consequence of the latter ("Chronic absences lower test scores," Star-Advertiser, Sept. 2).

As if teachers needed a report to tell us this!

Yet U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and his underlings continue to promote evaluation systems that link teacher hiring and salary issues to student performance on standardized tests.

The assumption seems to be that teachers somewhere along the line have been given magical cattle prods to force their students into school enough days of the school year to allow them to be taught to the test effectively.

Meanwhile the achievement gap grows larger, and the false sentiment behind Duncan’s crass and bigoted remark concerning "white suburban housewives" continues to hold sway among the status quo, essentially unopposed and uncontested.

Andy Jones
McCully

Prosecutors being sore losers

While I’ve had great respect for law enforcement and our justice system in the past, it’s getting harder all the time to accept a system that is obviously broken.

Only the rich can sue, the costs are enormous, lawyers have figured out how to draw lawsuits out for years beyond what is acceptable, and judges let it happen.

Now we hear the Christopher Deedy trial prosecutors are once again dragging this unfortunate situation through the courts in a pit-bull attempt to prove they weren’t wrongheaded to bring the case to trial in the first place.

Sore losers at the taxpayers’ expense!

Deedy and his family have been through years of trials and decisions in their favor, but these inept prosecutors just can’t live with it.

The prosecutors need to give it up, let the man get on with his life, and start working to fix the system they’re helping to destroy, or go get real jobs.

Gordon Oswald
Kapaa, Kauai

Third Deedy trial most welcome

A third trial for Christopher Deedy?

By all means.

A life was taken and so far we have only heard from Deedy and a tired prosecutor. But we haven’t heard from the deceased.

Perhaps a family member could assist a new prosecutor in selecting a jury.

Paula Faufata
Kapahulu

Overuse of word has big impact

Why are people using the word "impact" for every event that occurs?

The word implies a violent or forceful striking of one object against another, or the strong effect of one thing on another.

It is being used to the exclusion of synonyms such as "affect" or "influence," which have wider applications, from something forceful to something gentle or subtle.

Words have power, but if they are overused they become degraded. They lose their effect.

Quintin Chambers
Wahiawa