Letters for Saturday, February 28, 2009

• Bring back the Pro Bowl

• Wild chickens help Kaua‘i

• Newspapers in trouble

• KIUC needs a change

Bring back the Pro Bowl

Thank you, Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, for taking away:

— Our only opportunity to watch professional football in Hawai‘i, and for our kids to meet professional football players;

— Our children’s opportunity to watch and learn from professional athletes that promote education and drug-free lifestyles;

— The numerous youth camps put on by the Pro Bowl athletes for our children throughout the state;

— 24,230 visitors to Hawai‘i and $28.6 million in spending.

Thanks for taking more money out of our local economy. Our tourism industry is suffering right now. The Pro Bowl has proven to be successful, year after year.

Why would we end a successful event when we need all the help we can get? Governor, lieutenant governor, mayors and councils, please don’t let this happen.

For the keiki, let’s keep the Pro Bowl here in Hawai‘i!

— Mel Rapozo, Lihu‘e

Wild chickens help Kaua‘i

A lot of crowing is going on from people such as Mr. Cushman that have no idea why roosters crow, and why chickens are an asset to our island. (“Cock-a-doodle-doo,” Letters, Feb. 26)

Many of us who come from the Mainland to live here in “paradise” want to change everything that our arrogance and lack of understanding feel necessary, including animals, the landscape, the people and culture.

Understanding animal behavior is essential to quelling the problem. Roosters crow because they see light. It is natural to crow at dawn announcing the beginning of another wonderful day on Kaua‘i.

The reason they crow in the middle of the night is people turn on lights when they go to use the toilet for various reasons such as prostate problems, kidney disease, diabetes, heart disease, or from drinking too many diuretic drinks like beer and alcohol.

How do chickens benefit the island environment and community? The wild chickens and roosters help keep down the population of insects, especially centipedes, flies, spiders, and cockroaches. They also control insects in our gardens.

Using pesticides to control these bugs will only spoil the island environment by polluting the soil and water, and increase your chances of getting cancer. Chickens also clean up cow, dog, cat, and horse feces around the island which would otherwise attract and breed flies and cockroaches that spread disease.

If we get rid of our chickens, we increase the bugs on the island. Live with chickens or with more bugs, flies and pesticides.

— Ihor Basko, Kapa‘a

 Newspapers in trouble

I graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Journalism in 1949. Since then, the changes in news gathering and dissemination have been phenomenal. In a short time, production methods went from rotary press to photo offset to computer generation. In the interest of economic survival, rival newspapers shared production facilities.

Most radio and television stations cannot afford independent news gathering facilities. They are dependent on various sources for the news that they broadcast. Here again, competent reporters are the basic element, regardless of who employs them.

In news gathering, good reporting is still the basic element. Without the financial support of the dailies, where will tomorrow’s reporters come from? Can the Associated Press and others like it support a network of reporters that can equal today’s army of dedicated news gatherers?

Who will supply the Internet with accuracy and precision? Will we have to depend on blogs and twitters to protect us from corruption of government and business? What will replace the watchdogs of the press without whom the Constitution of the United States is just words on paper?

Small market dailies such as The Garden Island will probably be the last to go, but go they will. Then what? I haven’t the foggiest!

— Harry Boranian, Lihu‘e

KIUC needs a change

I was at the Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative board meeting Tuesday and was absolutely dumbfounded when Carol Bain brought up the fact that KIUC employees get a 33 percent discount on their total bill, including a fuel surcharge.

If an employee’s bill is $300, there would be a $100 discount. Allan Smith said the discount was part of “legacy” costs.

In this day and age of tough economic times, it is time to ask whether this is a valid employee perk.

— JoAnne Georgi, ‘Ele‘ele