STRANGERS CAME TO AID OF SCHOFIELD COUPLE

With the recent news of more anti-haole sentiment, I felt the need to thank to the young man who helped my husband and me get our car started recently.

After a relaxing evening picnicking at Hale'iwa Beach Park, we discovered that our car would not start.

We attempted to jump it with a friend's van, but that did not work. We called our insurance company, which called a towing company to have our car towed back to Schofield Barracks.

We had been waiting about 20 minutes when the young man and his female friend emerged from the trail to the beach. He asked us what was wrong and told us he was certain he could fix our car.

He gave the starter a couple of taps and, like magic, the car started on the first try.

This young man and his friend reaffirmed that there are plenty of good people willing to lend a hand to others.

NEWCOMERS

IMMIGRANTS WELCOME, BUT MUST ENTER LEGALLY

Immigration to the United States is supposed to be like a club membership.

Those who formally apply and are accepted can enjoy the benefits that such a membership offers.

If you can't show proof of membership, you can't enter. Those who sneak in and try to utilize the club's facilities will be reminded that the club is for members only, will be asked to leave and will be escorted out.

Nobody says, "Please use our facilities even though you didn't apply and pay like everyone else." I'm sure you'd be hard-pressed to find one paying member who would want the non-member to stay without applying for membership and being accepted.

Recently, after nearly two years of paperwork, fees and waiting, we welcomed my mother-in-law into our home. I applaud legal immigration. Come one, come all, but come here legally.

The millions of people who wish to enjoy the benefits of living in the United States should stand in line, process an application and wait their turn. Join the club, but join legally.

KATHRYN MCKENZIE

YOUNG ACCIDENT VICTIM SOON TO BE COLLEGE GRAD

I am writing to let you know of my daughter's progress. Kathryn (Katie) McKenzie was hit by a car on Aug. 8, 1997, in Downtown Honolulu, and her accident and recovery were extensively covered by The Advertiser.

While Katie will always have some issues related to her recovery from the accident, I thought your readers might like to know what is happening to her these days.

Kathryn, as she prefers to be called, is graduating cum laude from Austin College in Sherman, Texas. It is a small, Presbyterian college about an hour northeast of Dallas and about five hours from where Roger and I now live in northwest Oklahoma.

She majored in classical civilizations with a minor in biology, and has studied in Rome, done a six-week archaeological dig in Pompeii and traveled on a medical mission to South Africa.

She also rows, golfs and swims.

She has been accepted to graduate school at the University of Toronto — one of 18 students accepted in museum studies. She plans a second major in archives, and hopes to work as a curator in a museum or as an archivist.

We think of Hawai'i fondly, and we are forever grateful to the many friends and neighbors who supported us in so many ways after her accident.

We are grateful to God for Kathryn's recovery, and she has been an incredible inspiration in our lives.

We also know that she wouldn't have survived without the excellent care she received at The Queen's Medical Center, Kap'iolani Medical Center for Women and Children and Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Thank you all for everything you have done.

HOMELESS

GIVE BEACHES BACK TO THE PUBLIC IN WAI'ANAE

If people decided to homestead on the beaches at Waikiki or Honolulu, how long do you think the mayor would let them stay? The answer is, less than a day.

Why is it OK on the Wai'anae Coast? I see gambling and drinking at the public restroom at Wai'anae Valley Road, and people living all over the beach, acting like it's their private property.

I am afraid to take my children to our beaches on the Wai'anae Coast.

If it is necessary to give people a free place to live, why on the beach? Why not make them an encampment on the offshore side of the street?

Why not bulldoze a flat spot on the offshore side, make an encampment with counseling and services to help them reconnect, and give the public back our beaches?

STATE BOARDS

DISCLOSURE BILL SHOULD HAVE BEEN VETOED

Credit is due Gov. Linda Lingle for vetoing HB 910, which required that the annual financial disclosure forms of members of certain state boards and commissions, currently filed with the state Ethics Commission, be available to the public.

The system in place is an appropriate balance between protecting public interests and respecting personal information.

A citizen's right to privacy and due process, as protected by the Constitution, should not be unwillingly denied to those currently volunteering to serve the public.

HSTA CONTRACT

SHORTSIGHTED TO AGREE TO RANDOM DRUG TESTS

Chuck Little (Letters, May 1) can't be serious. No teacher is claiming the use of illegal drugs as a civil right. That's just ludicrous.

What teachers are claiming is the Fourth Amendment protects them from "unreasonable searches and seizures."

I'm a naturalized American citizen. I come from a country in which these rights are nonexistent, and people can be searched and arrested without cause at any time. Is this the type of political system Mr. Little would prefer we have?

We in America often take these rights for granted and don't realize how precious they are and how easily they can be lost if we are not vigilant. To surrender them for a measly pay raise is a shortsighted and cynical trade-off from which there's no turning back.

Just because a few bad-apple teachers were busted for drug use, it doesn't logically follow that all teachers should fall under suspicion.

WRONG THAT TEACHERS TARGETED FOR DRUG TESTS

While I am not opposed to drug testing, I am opposed to the new teacher contract, which requires it.

It is disgusting how teachers are being targeted during this witch hunt.

All state and county workers should be drug-tested, including politicians. Gov. Linda Lingle should take a drug test as a show of support for the teachers.

Both of my parents were teachers, and I can't imagine their privacy being violated in such a way. No pay increase is worth your dignity.

GMO TRANSGENIC PAPAYAS SAVED HAWAI'I INDUSTRY

The commentary by Ms. Melanie Bondera, "Farmers and consumers say no to GMO" (Focus, April 29), has false statements and innuendoes throughout.

Contrary to Ms. Bondera's statement, the transgenic papaya not only saved the papaya industry, it also allowed for all papayas to be cultivated in Hawai'i. The fact is that, were it not for transgenic papaya, it would not be possible to grow non-transgenic (conventional and organic) papayas in Hawai'i. These transgenic papaya plants allowed conventional and organic growers to survive by reducing the papaya ringspot virus pressure around their fields.

The loss of market share in Japan was because of the ringspot virus. With less product to sell, it follows there would be reduced participation in the marketplace. Farmers from Philippines took advantage of this, entered the Japan market and have been increasing their market share since the mid-1990s.

The Hawai'i papayas are not contaminated, and the industry continues to ship the Kapoho Solo papayas into Japan despite Ms. Bondera's claims.

The Hawai'i Papaya Industry Association continues to petition the Japan government for approval of the transgenic "Rainbow" papaya. The first step was to seek approval by the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry, which was granted in 2000. The second step was to petition the Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare for approval, which the association did in 2003. This petition is still in progress, as the ministry sought more information.

A revised and complete dossier was submitted to the ministry's food safety subcommittee in 2006.

MANY QUESTIONS RAISED ABOUT GMOS

In response to Paul Koehler's article on GMOs (Focus, April 29), I would like to ask him these questions:

What exactly were the limited "low risk" errors that have occurred? Can they occur again? Should GMO foods be labeled so consumers know that they are eating GMO food? Is there a market for labeled GMO foods?

Would you feed your own family GMO food from the fields of Monsanto?

Would you take a big breath of airborne GMO corn pollen to see the effects on yourself?

I do not want my family to be human lab rats.