CULTURAL SITES

NO NEED TO SACRIFICE MAKUA FOR TRAINING

Bill Prescott's letter regarding Makua (July 23) reflects fundamental misunderstandings of basic facts.

First, while Mr. Prescott may see "nothing significant" at Makua, the Army's own archaeologists have concluded that Makua's scores of cultural sites — including ancient heiau (temples), ahu (shrines), burials and petroglyphs — are so significant that they are eligible for protection under the National Historic Preservation Act. For its part, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs has said "the very survival of native Hawaiian culture depends upon access to (Makua's) cultural resources."

Second, Mr. Prescott inaccurately suggests the lawsuit Malama Makua filed July 15 seeks to shut down training. In fact, Malama Makua is simply asking the Army to honor its promises to clear unexploded ordnance to expand opportunities for cultural access.

Third, the facts don't back up Mr. Prescott's rhetoric that training at Makua is necessary. Due to the Army's decision to delay preparing the required environmental review, there has been no live-fire training at Makua during seven of the past 10 years, with not a single shot fired since June 2004. During all that time, Hawai'i-based brigades have received all the training they need elsewhere.

We don't need to sacrifice Makua's cultural riches to have a well-trained military.

ENERGY

UP TO US TO ADAPT AND ADVANCE TECHNOLOGIES

I agree with Bjorn Lomborg ("Low-carbon energy future is possible," June 27) except for the statement that "Many 'green' approaches do little more than make rich people feel they are helping the planet."

The "early adopters" play an important role in a product's lifecycle. These are the people who are willing and able to spend high prices for new products.

This money fuels research and development, economies of scale and competition that drives the price down on the new and improved versions of these products (solar panels, wind generators, etc.).

Yes, I agree that governments should support, encourage and fund alternative energy. Just don't underestimate the power of the individual; it is up to us to make the changes, from light bulbs to solar energy, and help advance the technologies.

Also, the statement that "solar panels are one-tenth as efficient as the cheapest fossil fuels" is certainly not true for Hawai'i.

Photovoltaic is now or will soon be cost effective in Hawai'i.

According to the official U.S. government energy statistics (Energy Information Administration), our electric rates are almost three times the national average and 4.5 times as high as the lowest state.

In just one year (January 2007 to January 2008), the average price of residential electricity in Hawai'i has increased from $0.2177 to $0.2853 per kilowatt-hour (an astounding 31 percent increase). The worst is on the islands of Hawai'i, Moloka'i and Lana'i, where the average rate is $0.3325 per kilowatt-hour, according to HECO.

With our reliance on oil, you can bet that these rates will be even higher next year.

DRUG TESTING

TESTING UNENFORCEABLE IF IT'S UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Your July 22 editorial, "Union must not renege on random drug testing," argues that the time for teachers to have raised constitutional objections to random drug testing was when the teacher contract was being "hammered out," and that it is time now to "move on to more important issues, like educating our children."

The only thing threatening the task of educating our children is a practice that would drag teachers out of the classroom for drug testing when there is no basis for suspecting they have done anything wrong.

Gov. Linda Lingle's last-minute take-it-or-leave-it demand for random drug testing left teachers no time to properly vet the constitutional issues involved when the contract was being "hammered out." No contractual term, not even one agreed to by the parties, is enforceable if it is unconstitutional.

The teachers' union is seeking a declaratory judgment from the Hawai'i Labor Relations Board on the constitutionality of the drug-testing provision. The labor board should be allowed to rule on this important issue before random testing is implemented.

There should be no expiration date on the protection of civil liberties for which so many brave Americans have long fought and died.

HSTA MUST NOT CARE ABOUT TEACHERS' STATUS

The Hawaii State Teachers Association doesn't believe that teaching is an important job, and it doesn't care much about the status of the profession of teaching. At least, these are my conclusions based on HSTA's recent objection to random drug testing, to which it agreed a year ago.

Many people will view HSTA's objection as an attempt to hide something — even though the great majority of teachers have nothing to hide. In this regard, HSTA is acting like a typical trade union by trying to protect its most incompetent members.

HSTA might say that teaching is important, but its actions show otherwise. If HSTA really believes that teaching is important, it would be doing everything in its power to ensure that teachers are unimpaired and fully functional while on the job.

Enlightened unions now favor drug testing for its members, especially in the public safety arena, because they realize that lives are at stake. In the education arena, the lives of children are at stake. Apparently, HSTA does not place such a high priority on children.

Teachers once occupied a very high status in society. But over the years, that status has steadily declined. HSTA is making sure that the decline continues. Teachers deserve better.

STATE MUST DEMAND THAT RAISES BE REPAID

It is now obvious that the Department of Education and the teachers' union never did expect to live up to the random drug testing part of the contract. Fine! Then, since this is tax money involved, and the contract has failed to be fulfilled by the teachers, every penny of the contract raise paid to the teachers should be returned to the taxpayers of the state and every penny spent on teachers' advanced and professional education as a result of the contract should be returned to the taxpayers of the state.

They all belong to a group that accepted a contract and have failed to fulfill that contract and therefore do not deserve the fruits of that contract.

How can people without ethics teach ethics classes? How can people with no honor be expected to teach and model the honor system? What a farce!

The teachers can't even show an advance in national student testing, only more excuses that the criteria have gotten tougher. That wasn't a surprise, it has always been known that the criteria get tougher every so many years to reach the 2014 goal.

As a taxpayer, I expect the state to demand repayment of the contract raises and professional education received since the contract has been intentionally and with malice aforethought refuted and broken.

RAIL DEBATE

WHY ELECT MAYOR WHO DOESN'T WANT RAIL VOTE?

I see Mufi Hannemann filed for re-election as mayor.

It's interesting that he wants us to vote for him, but he doesn't trust the people of Hawai'i enough to let us vote on rail transit in the upcoming elections, something that affects each and every citizen of Hawai'i, even children.

Do we want to vote for a mayor who doesn't want to allow the people a referendum over the critically important rail issue?

TIGHTEN ZIPPER RULES, THEN PUSH RAIL AGENDA

Hmmm, let's see, how can we make those pesky anti-rail folks go away?

I know! We'll tighten restrictions on the use of the Zipper Lane so that life on the main freeway will become even more miserable for everyone.

That ought to get more people "on board" with the rail proposal. Don't ya think, Mufi?