Put students’ needs before tourism marketing
All those parents working two to three jobs probably don’t have time to read this letter. However, to the powers that be, it’s extremely revolting that Kapaa Elementary students cannot use the library, which has been shared with Kapaa High School, for decades. Reason being: the Kapaa Elementary School librarian position hasn’t the funding from either and/or Kauai district or Honolulu funding.
“Let’s stick to facts, stop the misinformation,” published in TGI, Nov. 28, “ … The right has sought for decades to destroy public education, so we have a dumb, powerless, working-class, while rich oligarchs call the shots …”
Furthermore, the Kapaa Elementary students — due to the unfinished construction to their unfinished new library, due to budget shortfall — have to walk a quarter-mile from their classrooms to get to the cafeteria and back to their classrooms, every day. This will probably continue indefinitely due to construction cost deficit of $2 million to finish the new Kapaa Elementary library.
Our keiki deserve library privileges. They, our future, our children, are worthy of literacy.
Please, the Hawaii Tourism Authority budget of $83 million needs to be cut. Advertising “Hawaii” as a tourist destination has fulfilled its goal. Please put at least a fraction of those monies into our schools. Everyone on Earth knows where Hawaii is. Our children merit their parents’ tax dollars.
Bonnie P. Bator and ohana, Anahola
Move forward with racial equality
Robert E. Lee led a secessionist Confederacy. He lost the Civil War, but proud Southerners built statues of him celebratingtheir heritage while defiantly saying “The South shall rise again.” Today we deplore those sentiments, calling them race-nationalist.
A revolution overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy. But proud Hawaiians today keep building new statues of their kings andqueens, decorating old statues with lei; creating hulas, plays and films celebrating them. The cult of Lili‘uokalani veneratesher as though she is still queen, asserting that an independent nation shall rise again.
In February 2016, a month-long meeting paid for by our state-government agency OHA (Office of Hawaiian Affairs) adopted arace-nationalist proposed constitution which says only ethnic Hawaiians can be citizens, and they collectively own all thelands and waters of Hawaii. Asians and Caucasians would be ruled under Jim Crow laws, just like in the Southern states afterreconstruction.
Activists say they love the queen because she was the last head of state. Wrong! Sanford Dole presided over a continuinginternationally recognized independent nation of Hawaii for three times as long as she did. But he was Caucasian, thereforecannot be venerated.
Let’s respect the past, but move forward with racial equality, an undivided state government unified with the U.S.A., and alohafor all.
Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D., Kaneohe, Oahu
Those kids don’t buy squat, bring on the hoards of tourists. What else is there?
S’cuse Me, but kids should walk all they can during and after being cooped up in the classroom. For some it may be the only exercise they get in a day…as well we’ve seen the lunches…fattening and not healthy. They need a natural food nutritionist to order the food for our students.
YIKES, The “right” has sought for decades to destroy public education…? hey it’s a lot more than that…keep them ignorant of their body’s cells, tissues, organs, and systems/functions so they are dependent on the bankrupt health system controlled by the Big 4 (Insurance Companies, Pharmaceutical Companies, Hospitals, and Doctors) resulting in a shortened sick life…look around at the obesity, it’s epidemic, these children and adults do not know what to eat and make advertised choices until their hooked. Obesity is the 1st cousin of Heart and Vascular Disease, the too many cancers, Diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Liver and Kidney Diseases.
Who controls Kaua‘i Education Curricula? It needs new leadership.
Sorry but libraries have been replaced by laptops. Money spent on a library building may be better spent on laptops for all students and when classroom courses are interesting enough the students will use the laptops wisely instead of video games.
The comment by Bonnie P. Bator and ohana is factually wrong. The right is not out to destroy public education. The last I looked the Democrats have run this state for the last 50 years, except when Linda Lingle was governor. She had a Democrat house and senate.
The state has a 12 BILLION short fall in its pension plan. This state is so mismanaged and you can’t blame it on the Republicans.
Put your shirt back on. The HI ERS also has assets in excess of $12 Billion. on paper, these assets have not gained back all the losses from 2008. Who has? The ERS made big changes in contributions over the past 10 years and is well managed, with sound long term planning, and not in any trouble.
Not sure of OHA. But like the idea of the Haka. Not sure why I should honor them. Improved living conditions since 1800 is a plus.
While Mr. Conklin may be right about the facts, his tone of delivery is sure to alienate since there is no supporting evidence for why he despises the Hawaiian Monarchy so much.
The Hawaiian Kings, like all kings, were only concerned with money. (Money and Power are synonymous.) The monarchy gave away land to the Haules in the hope of gaining favor — they were then able to build the Iolani Palace and afford the “civilized” clothing that the rich Americans and Europeans wore. They could then travel the world.
The “battle” has now been framed as Hawaiians vs the haute. It is sad that there is no recognition the fact that a poor Hawaiian has more in common with a poor Haule than he does with the Monarchy.
Yes, Marx was right when he call “Workers of the World — Unite”. that his theory was corrupted by Lenin and Stalin so that when Americans think of communism they do not think of how they might best get along with their neighbor, but rather how evil Communism is.
Somehow, we need to come to the realization that “We are all in this together” and “United we stand. Divided we fall”. The middle class in America stood together after WWII and the Labor Unions won
concessions from the Capitalists. But in the ’50s, the Oligarch started to decry the evils of Communism which allowed Joe McCarthy to bring on his “red scare”. Then men like Buchannan conspired to lay out a plan to turn Americans against one another so that the rich could maintain their positions of power. This finally came to fruition with the election of Ronald Reagan and the firing of all the Air Traffic Controllers was the first loss of labor to the Oligarch under the new milieu.
Bill Clinton was a member of those Oligarchs. He and his wife have been handsomely rewarded being paid as much as $500,000 to speak drivel for 45 minutes. The Democratic Party is as complicit in this theft of America’s wealth as the Republicans are.
Americans fail to recognize that capitalist America is stealing your wealth and funneling it to the few, like Stanford Dole and, yes, even Queen Lili‘uokalani.
In the end, you can call it whatever political philosophy you want, but the rich man wins and the poor man pays.
John Z.,
When a Corporation spends millions on a stockholder’s gathering, some of it is on getting an important speaker to elevate the status of the whole affair. I understand your distaste for that; but, taking advantage is a “clean” path out of the legal debt Clinton had in 2000. It’s just as “clean” as writing books which is the other 50% of their wealth. If they had invested in a coal mine or a petrochemical plant, then we’d have something to denigrate!
As for the huge amount, I sold my Ben Lomand, CA ranch for the same amount in 1990. Do think I’m tied to the buyers? Do you think I call them for permission or instructions about important life matters? Don’t be ridiculous!