ELECTION

HAWAII WOULD BENEFIT WITH COFFEE IN SENATE

Hawai'i can only benefit with Jerry Coffee as our U.S. senator. Captain Coffee's impressive strength of character and proven leadership skills under the most dire of circumstances absolutely make him the right man for the job at this most difficult period in our nation's history.

I applaud his selflessness in electing to challenge the status quo. Jerry Coffee's entrance into the Senate race provides an exciting choice other than "Tweedle Dum" or "Tweedle Dee."

VOTING RIGHTS ACT

RESIDENTS SHOULD LEARN LANGUAGE OF COUNTRY

The July 12 editorial on the Voting Rights Act and multi-language ballots is typical of liberal thinking and is wrong.

If you have a problem understanding English, how can you understand what the person you are voting for represents or vote on ballot issues that impact you?

In every election in the past 40 years that I have lived here, people in Hawai'i have voted along ethnic and name-recognition lines rather than issues.

Cultural assimilation and not diversity is the key. Learn the language of your host country so you can be an active and informed participant in your community and in America.

We survived as a nation because of assimilation. Diversity has had negative consequences, polarized our people, our society and our nation. It divides us rather than makes us one people and one nation.

It is ironic that English is a required language in most European schools and businesses but not in our own country. Am I missing something?

HAWAI'I KAI

A LANDSCAPED PROJECT WOULD PREVENT FIRES

With all the fires on the East O'ahu hillsides at the Hawai'i Kai Golf Course, I am wondering how many people live in Kalama Valley and in Queen's Gate who attended the Kaiser High School meeting last Wednesday and vehemently opposed the proposed recreational development.

We, the people who live here, have been dangerously affected, year after year, by fires set either maliciously or accidentally. The fires do not only occur on the hillsides, but occasionally on the makai side of the highway on Queen's Beach because of extensive dumping. Fires quickly spread due to the dry summer and the yellowed, dry vegetation. If not controlled immediately, it could spread over the valley, as it almost did yearly in the 1990s.

At each occasion, because of the prevailing north-east winds, smoke badly affects the makai end of the valley and Queen's Gate, as it did as recently as two weeks ago.

While I am not necessarily for the proposed development, I am for some kind of a proposal for a project that will be properly landscaped, kept and controlled, thus it would prevent the ever-threatening summer fires.

CONTEMPT CITATION

JUDGE SHOULD REALIZE GOD IS ABOVE HIM

If I were acquitted by a court I surely would thank God and not the judge. Judge Patrick Border should realize God is above him and not the other way around.

IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION

REAL NEWS BURIED IN STORY ON HALLIBURTON

Your paper ran a 15-paragraph Washington Post article by Griff Witte entitled "Army ends lucrative Halliburton contract" (July 12). Whoa! The spin nearly knocked me down.

For a "news" story it had so many regurgitated old facts that I nearly missed the real news. The first hint of the real story came in the fifth paragraph which reported that the decision to end Halliburton's contract was made at the same time that U.S. contributions to reconstruction were beginning to wane, which reduced the opportunities for U.S. companies to participate in the reconstruction after nearly four years of massive payouts. Can you see the hint of the real news in this story?

The real news was in the 11th paragraph: "This is the year of transition for Iraqi reconstruction. The U.S.-funded projects are being completed and transferred to Iraqi management and control."

So the headline should have read: "U.S. transitions Iraqi reconstruction projects to Iraqi government." That is "news."

TRANSIT

RAIL WOULD BE AN ASSET FOR WAIKIKI, RESIDENTS

Regarding the Wakiki Neighborhood Board's rejection of rail transit into our area, I doubt that they represent anything like majority sentiment on this issue. Nor, I think, can they have looked into the matter very deeply.

Electric light rail systems, properly installed, are pollution free and virtually noiseless — a vast improvement over diesel buses. Plus, as San Francisco's Market Street cars have shown, the use of vintage or other "theme" cars gets locals and tourists alike out of their cars and onto mass transit.

Rail is expensive, but as part of an island-wide system, it would be an irresistible asset to Waikiki.

150 YEARS

EDDIE KAMAE TRULY A HAWAI'I TREASURE

I enjoyed your 150 years of Hawai'i supplement, but was disappointed that there was little mention of Eddie Kamae.

He was designated a living treasure of Hawai'i and last year Gov. Linda Lingle made a proclamation signifying Eddie Kamae Day.

For 50 years, Eddie has been a musician, composer and, as of late, a film maker. He has filmed seven documentaries, most from his own research and experience. He has taken some of these to the schools so that the young children of Hawai'i can learn of their heritage. His book, "Hawaiian Son," is a wonderful journey with him through his life and all the wonderful and talented people he has known.

Everyone in Hawai'i should read this book. His wife, Myrna, is talented and very much a partner in his ongoing projects.

I think you failed in not giving more attention to this wonderful and caring man.

My husband and I are blessed to have him and his wife as personal friends and we shall always treasure their friendship.

Mahalo, Eddie and Myrna.

KAMEHAMEHA CASE

SEVERAL PRIVATE SCHOOL OPTIONS FOR ISLE STUDENTS

Attorney David Rosen (July 11) sees "discrimination" at the Kamehameha Schools. Recent polls show that 80 percent of his neighbors think otherwise.

Rosen is an exemplar of the fringe that seeks to participate in a gift that was not intended for them.

He and like-thinkers have suffered no harm. Our island landscape is dotted with other fine schools.

Rosen continues with the statement "the Kamehameha Schools is not purely private. Both its purpose and receipt of tax-exempt status make it public." We fail to grasp how its "purpose" makes it public. Certainly Kamehameha enjoys tax-exempt status, as do several religion-oriented high-schools, who openly trumpet sexual discrimination in the populating of their respective student bodies. Kamehameha Schools educates more than 5,400 students per year. Given the $10,000 expended by the DOE per student each year, Kamehameha saves the state $54 million a year.

Kamehameha Schools spends approximately $240 million a year on educational efforts, including on-campus education, charter school and conversion-school programs, early-education and pre-school programs, together with undergraduate and post-graduate scholarships. These funds do not stick to the wall; they end up as salaries, purchases of goods and services, and trickle down through the economy as tax benefits to the federal and state governments.

Unfortunately, Kamehameha also wastes funds on legal fees to defend its programs against those who shout discrimination.

Finally, contrary to the implication in the Rosen text, we note that the 9th Circuit Court has not ruled. What they have done is vacate a previous questionable ruling for John Doe reached by two judges of a three-judge panel. We applaud thunderously.

E ola o Kalani e Pauahi lani nui. I mua Kamehameha!

HOMELESS

LIFE ON BEACH NOT A PICNIC

How fortunate for "Doc" Gordon of Kapa'a, Kaua'i, to be able to have equity in a half-million dollar home.

He says he would like to sell his home and buy a tent so he can live on beachfront property free of charge.

He should consider himself very lucky to have that unique option to consider.

Most families and individuals who are "squatters" in paradise do not have such a luxurious option.

Families have been priced out of affordable rentals and onto the beach.

Many individuals are mentally incapacitated and have no means to seek mental services because of the loopholes in the Hawai'i mental health care system.

Very few are squatters by choice.

If "Doc" really wants to live on the beach he may want to consider donating his home to a houseless family in exchange for their "beach front tent."

Then he can experience the reality of living houseless in paradise.

"Doc" and others who have similar beliefs about homeless people, should be thanking their lucky stars to own a little piece of paradise for themselves.

They are envious and glamorizing living free on the beach.

There is no such thing as free living in Hawai'i.

The houseless pay a lot more to survive daily in an open environment such as a tent.

In reality it is no picnic for anyone who is surviving day by day in a tent "beachfront."

TIME FOR COST CONTROL FOR WORKING FAMILIES

Regarding Gordon "Doc" Smith's letter to the editor on July 14, I challenge him to live on the beach for a week!

Let him be a "squatter on the beach," as he put it.

I bet he would not last a week when he has to deal with the heat, humidity, sunburn, mosquitoes, flies, rude awakenings in the middle of the night by police, drug addicts, looters, rain, wind, lack of electricity, lack of phone, lack of shower, being stigmatized.

Like many others he would quickly get "stuck" there with no help and no way out.

I challenge Mr. Smith to take his neat little expensive camping equipment the poor cannot afford and stay on the beach for a few days with no transportation.

Until he walks in the shoes he has no clue.

The government is not enabling — life on the beach is not a choice.

It's a sick and sad reality when many families work two jobs and still cannot afford a decent roof over their heads.

It's time for cost controls in Hawai'i.

A single-family home is way beyond the reach of our working kama'aina people.