'IOLANI PALACE

SAFETY, SECURITY MUST BE A TOP PRIORITY HERE

What will it take for Gov. Linda Lingle and the Department of Land and Natural Resources to wake up? What if the self-proclaimed Hawaiian royalty decides to take hostages, whether it is visitors or 'Iolani Palace staff? What would they do then?

There is a potential for violence, loss of property and bad press. Can the state of Hawai'i ever recover when it is already reeling from a downturn in tourism and the weak economy?

Where was the security? Adequate state or private security should be posted at all times on the palace grounds. There is security at state libraries, Department of Human Services Welfare Units, State Capitol, etc. Where are the priorities? We have the only royal palace in the United States yet the governor and the state failed to understand their responsibility as protectors of 'Iolani Palace and are not respectful of the palace to let it be unprotected. They should be more vigilant stewards of 'Iolani Palace!

DRUG TESTING TEACHERS

REASONED DISCUSSION NEEDED ON BEST POLICY

Reading the letters in Sunday's Advertiser in favor of random drug testing for Hawai'i's teachers made me see that the public discourse on this is more of a brawl than a reasoned discussion to arrive at the best policy.

I think it very unfortunate that the HSTA negotiated random drug testing. There's reasonable grounds to drug test when a teacher is behaving like their performance is suffering due to drug abuse, but random testing implies that the interest isn't in confirming problems, but rather in ferreting out deviant behavior that is otherwise private.

Private behavior should never be of interest to the governor or the DOE; it is protected by the Constitution. Behavior that violates others' rights is not protected, nor is behavior that is covered by a freely negotiated contract.

That the HSTA actually negotiated to accept random testing was most unfortunate. If I were a teacher, I'd be lobbying amongst my fellow members to replace the leadership of the HSTA over this. They should have counter-proposed a suspicion-based drug testing program and held firm on it.

This circus is unfortunate, mostly because people who seem not to understand the Constitution are making hay from it. I only hope my fellow citizens can also detect the whiff of fascist sentiment in the desire to make all conform by forfeiting their rights.

JOHN MCCAIN

EXPERIENCE, JUDGMENT CLAIMS FALL FAR SHORT

Does John McCain have the experience, judgment and character to represent all of us, as Republicans claim?

Five years after the U.S. has been embroiled in a deadly conflict in Iraq, McCain revealed he still didn't know the difference between opposing political and warring factions, Sunni and Shi'a.

McCain has admitted his lack of depth in economic policy and has relied on banking lobbyist and former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm to guide him in these matters. Gramm has promoted deregulation legislation and reduction of oversight that helped lead to the Enron debacle, the current banking, home foreclosure and energy futures trading crises.

McCain's 1980s experience in the S&L industry revolves around improperly aiding Lincoln Savings and Loan Chairman Charles Keating Jr. in return for huge campaign contributions and favors. After McCain gave the money back, he was cleared. Keating spent five years in prison for his corrupt mismanagement of that S&L.

'Tis cause to pause before voting for McCain. Can you see your descendants 100 years from now serving their third military term in the Mideast?

T-HEAD GROINS

PUBLIC WILL NOT SUPPORT SHORELINE ARMORING

More sand exists on Waikiki Beach presently than there ever was and this can be supported by a history of photographs. Property owners failed to realize what would happen when they built their seawalls too close to the water's edge to maximize their property lines.

It makes me wonder if this was planned, knowing they could build a beach seaward of these seawalls as documented in their 1928-1929 Reclamation Agreement with the then-territorial government, now the state of Hawai'i.

Presently Kyo-ya Hotels has hired a engineering firm that is leading it to believe that T-head groins, currently used outside of Hawai'i, will solve the problem faced by Kyo-ya Hotels fronting the beach at the Sheraton hotel. We can assume that this company has read the books written on shoreline intervention and shoreline armoring failures throughout the United States.

Has this engineering company considered and/or offered alternatives to shoreline armoring? We refer to a beach setback concept using property owned by Kyo-ya Hotels, mauka of their seawall. Another alternative, which we believe will work and be the most inexpensive solution, is to keep what you have and add what you need. Don't attempt to experiment with shoreline armoring. The public will not support this gamble using this state asset.

Community input saved the Kuhio Beach project from failure by stopping the state from eliminating existing crib walls. Had these crib walls been replaced with T-head groins, we would not have secured a "Restored Beach Award" from the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association. These crib walls protected sand replenishment.

Any investment from the state should be limited to sand pumped from our ocean, not from state taxes collected from the people of Hawai'i.

GLOBAL WARMING

RISING WATERS ADD URGENCY TO THE ISSUE

I have to ride out to the North Shore every Thursday and I have been appalled by the water level all along the coast. At high tide, I notice that you can't see the sands on the beaches and the ocean water beats against the rocks. The roads are washed with sand and salt water.

Global warming is really upon us. In no time, the water level will be over the sides and people living on the beaches will be inundated by the ocean.

World leaders will have to meet and address this serious problem of the melting ice in the Arctic and bring the ocean levels to what they were in the past. I have not been to the islands and atolls of the Marshall Islands, but I understand there are no mountains or hills and those islands can be washed over.

I invite you to drive the Windward side when the tide is relatively high, and you will understand what I am saying.

The consequences can be serious indeed.

GAS PRICES

STATIONS, OIL COMPANIES HAVE ROLE IN HIGH PRICES

Our gas prices haven't gone down because our prices took longer to go up? You have got to be kidding me! Our prices took a little bit of time to rise but not that much and not as compared to how slow they are dropping.

Oil has dropped to about $113 a barrel. Prices on the Mainland have dropped for over 25 days straight while our prices have had a 2-cent drop? And we now have an average of 50-cents difference with the Mainland.

It's amazing how this number always keeps getting bigger every time we have price increases. The Advertiser listed several reasons why our prices are still high. I'll add another one: because the stations and oil companies can get away with it.