Take the Gates Foundation up on its offer
The quality of education in Hawaii is dismal. Hawaii is near the top of states in spending per student, yet one of the lowest (42nd overall in the Morgan Quintos Rankings) in regards to quality of education.
Now, the 17 furlough days are creating the shortest school year in the nation. As in other countries with good education systems, we need more learning time, not less.
The good news? Hawaii presently has an unprecedented opportunity to fix this problem - to upgrade our educational system (let's at least rank 25th in the nation), better educate our kids and prepare them for their future as well as ours, and put our teachers back to work.
How? Funding from the federal stimulus program, as it does in other states, could be used to extend the school year and enhance instruction. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (The Maui News, Oct. 26) is offering $250,000 apiece to help states apply for the stimulus funds as long as the states go along with the foundation's researched approach to improving schools.
What are we waiting for? Why aren't the governor, the House, Senate, and the state Department of Education scrambling to take advantage of this golden opportunity to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Education and the Gates Foundation?
Let's take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to upgrade Hawaii's schools and to prepare our kids and our country for the 21st century.
Susan Bradford
Kihei
*****
Deadly flu season cannot be predicted
Swine flu is nothing to be alarmed about. How can anyone predict a deadly flu season unless they had some part in guaranteeing same?
Words are not things. Words remain symbols of symbols, twice removed from reality. Labeling a catalog of physical symptoms a disease doesn't change that those symptoms are simply the body's normal attempt to re-establish homeostasis after homeostasis has been disturbed by inappropriate lifestyle choices.
What deadly flu season means is that so many people have made inappropriate lifestyle choices that these people will begin the process of re-establishing homeostasis and begin presenting symptoms which the medical and pharmaceutical professions define as diseases.
Steven Joshua Blue
Waikapu
*****
Protest protester explains his actions
At the Furlough Friday demonstration outside the state building on Oct. 23, I got into a heated argument with a TEA Party member which ended in him putting me under citizen's arrest.
I did not have a chance to talk to reporters, so I would like to explain my side of what happened.
I did not appreciate the far right trying to hijack the demonstration and use it as an opportunity to yell about taxes and supposed government waste, and to assert that charter schools or other privatization schemes would be the answer. It is very important that this nation have strong, well-funded public schools. I emphasize public because public agencies are held accountable to the people, where private companies serve only to make profit.
The money to pay teachers is already there in the state emergency fund, and it is deplorable that Gov. Linda Lingle is trying to force a pay cut on teachers at the expense of our children's education.
In America, citizens still have the right to free political discourse without the fear of incarceration.
The TEA Party member claimed that I threw signs at him and hit him in the shin. This was not true. The citizen's arrest was politically motivated and vindictive. We later parted under decent terms.
Ben Wilson
Haiku
*****
Downhill tours a minor traffic disruption
If you've ever been held up in daily traffic on L.A.'s I-5, the I-95 in Maryland, downtown Dallas' mixmaster or the H-1 on Oahu or any of the other hundreds of traffic choke points throughout the nation, a bit of a slowdown on the Haleakala Highway due to downhill cyclists is a small matter over which to complain.
When one considers the inestimable value to the reputation and economy of Maui that this isolated island depends upon, it a small price to pay. The Maui downhill bike tours are part and parcel of what keeps Maui at the top of the Conde Nast list of the finest destinations in the world.
David L. Florence
Haiku
*****
A plan to get health care reform passed
Getting Congress to vote for $900 billion or $1.4 trillion for a reformed health care system and still have the political cover they need is simple. All that needs to be done is increase defense spending, which would certainly bring all the conservatives on board.
Here's how: We have an annual $600 billion defense budget. The cost of health care is, let's say, $1 trillion over 10 years, or $100 billion a year. So, simply increase Defense spending by $100 billion a year (Oh, yes. Bipartisan support for certain.) and have the Defense department rebate back to the Treasury $100 billion each year for say "internal defense" or some such well-intentioned gobbleygook. Easy peasy and cover for all.
On a related note: Please begin to report the cost of health care as a 10-year cost. It seems that many folks think the cost is $900 billion per year.
Dale Benzer
Kihei
*****
Pay cuts by everyone could help the state
I was kind of bothered to hear that Gov. Lingle Lingle was going to China to promote tourism (The Maui News, Oct. 29). I felt she should have stayed home and saved the money to help with this furlough fiasco.
But, it was brought to my attention that money issues come from vendors with high prices, unions wanting higher pay for their people, medical companies wanting to raise premiums, people wanting better benefits when they retire, etc. All this is necessary, of course. Regular people just have to struggle with all the upgrades and higher costs and the cycle goes around and around.
Grant you, some people might enjoy a four-day workweek. Maybe we all - union and nonunion members, white-collar, blue-collar, green-collar, pink-collar workers - should just take a percentage cutback on wages. Not a big percentage, just something to take the edge off things. If everyone agrees, maybe our Legislature can put together a decent percentage and we the people can vote on it.
Of course this is just all a thought. We the people of Hawaii would be able to say, "We all help to save our state," and we will show the rest of the world that the aloha spirit is alive in Hawaii and they will come.
Liza Sniffen
Wailuku
*****
Homesteaders not responsible for junk
In response the Oct. 26 letter "Pile of junk along Kula Highway ruins scenery":
Illegal dumping along Kula Highway at Pueo Drive and Lau'ie Drive has been an ongoing problem for years and it's not the people from our homestead who are doing this, it's people from outside. It's people who are lazy and inconsiderate and have the attitude "don't worry; somebody will clean it up. Just don't leave it in front of my house." All it takes is one person to dump an old refrigerator or stove to trigger a chain reaction and then the entire area becomes packed with junk that spills out onto the road, creating an eyesore and a hazard.
The people who truly work hard at keeping those areas clean are state highways crews, the county Upcountry Solid Waste Division and members of the Waiohuli Hawaiian Homestead community. They're the ones who remove the junk and debris and haul it to the dump to help keep our community clean and safe for everyone to enjoy.
Pono isn't just a word, it's a process that helps to make everything righteous and good. The letter writer used the word pono, then blamed an entire Hawaiian community without justification. That's not pono, that's offensive and bigoted. The letter writer owes an apology to the Hawaiian people and the residents of this community for the insulting comments.
Sara "Hi'ilei" Cluney
President
Waiohuli Hawaiian Homesteaders Association
Kula
*****
Loss of words a reason for poor English
The reason I'm writing is because, y'know, so many speakers say "the reason why" something, while the dictates of good public speaking, y'know, maintains that "the reason why" is, y'know, not really correct.
In our public speaking class, we were penalized 10 points for every "y'know." We had a saying, "Y'know costs 10, don't go there again." And another ditty: "'The reason is' or 'it is why,' but never, ever, 'the reason why.'" And the reason why many speakers sprinkle liberal "y'knows" in their speeches. Oops, I meant to say, y'know, the reason many speakers sprinkle so many "y'knows" is that they seem to be, y'know, at a loss for words. Maybe that's the reason why. Y'know what I mean?
Norman Kay
Lahaina
