•Right path to reform •What message are we sending? •An old friend we just met • What’s that smell? Right path to reform I should like to congratulate Mazie Hirono on her support for the Affordable Health Care for America
•Right path to reform
•What message are we sending?
•An old friend we just met
• What’s that smell?
Right path to reform
I should like to congratulate Mazie Hirono on her support for the Affordable Health Care for America Act.
I am aware of the tremendous pressure on representatives by those who have vested interests in blocking these reforms, and I am proud to be served by Rep. Hirono for taking a courageous stand.
I lived in England for over 20 years and I have every confidence that we are now on the right path in supporting comprehensive health insurance reform.
Anne Thurston, Princeville
What message are we sending?
If someone asked you whether or not you value education, you’d probably say what most of us say out of habit: “Education’s important. Thank goodness for good teachers.”
But after reading Delpha Menor’s letter about teachers having to pay $480 a year in relicensing (“Think first,” Letters, Nov. 11), I thought of all the other burdens heaped onto the backs of teachers over the past few years — pay cuts, larger classroom sizes, increasing bureaucratic responsibilities, drug testing, furloughs — and it occurred to me that maybe we don’t really mean all that nice stuff we say about education and the folks who provide it.
Research shows that when people pay more for wine, they tend to rate it higher in terms of taste. So it’s little wonder that years of enjoying an inexpensive, tax-subsidized education system has lessened our appreciation for it.
That’s why — by failing to rise, vocally, in defense of teachers — we’ve decided to send our teachers a clear message: We don’t need you any more, thanks. Someone moved your cheese. Find another line of work. Pack up your things and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
To send this message more loudly, I came up with a few novel ideas: (1) Force teachers to wear vests filled with rocks at work and replace their desks with dunk tanks. (2) Build an elaborate maze filled with Indiana Jones-style mechanized traps between teachers’ offices and the classroom. (3) On payday, instead of checks, hide sacks of pennies around campus and then yell, “Good luck, teachers! Finders keepers!” (4) Extend drug testing to include random car and home searches, hair samples, and liver biopsies performed in front of the instructors’ students. (5) Have teachers “vote a teacher off the campus” once a month. The loser must fight the remaining staff for the right to keep her job — in the “Teacherdome”!
Like it or not, allowing teachers to be treated like second-class citizens sends the message that teachers, education, and learning don’t really matter. If teachers get the message, they’ll move on, maybe to a private school, maybe somewhere else. What should concern us most is the fact that this message is also being heard by the younger members of the education community — our children. And many are taking it to heart.
Luke Shanahan, Lawa‘i
An old friend we just met
My wife and I have recently returned from a 16-day visit to your incredible state, four of which we were privileged to enjoy on your island of Kaua‘i.
There we had the great privilege of meeting Larry Rivera on a “Movie Tours” excursion at what remains of the Coco Palms Resort. He was marvelously gracious and welcoming, sharing reminiscences of the past and hopeful hints for the property’s future.
We had a marvelous time. He sang and strummed for us, took us through a little “Hukilau” lesson and made us feel like old friends, though we had barely met. Small wonder that we gladly took him up on the offer to bring one of his CDs back home with us, a decision that has since given us hours of listening delight.
In fact, we’ve even created our own little personal music video based on his song, ”Kaua‘i the Last Paradise,” and the many pictures we took while we toured the very island that inspired it.
We’d be more than happy to share it with you freely, if you like. The file is too big to e-mail, but we could send it to you on a DVD if you’d like to promote his work as an ambassador for your island.
It would be small recompense for the great memories for which we have him and Kaua‘i to thank. Just say the word.
Aloha from Canada!
Bruce and Bernadette Dickson, Toronto, Ontario
What’s that smell?
Oh my goodness, this is so embarrassing. I don’t know which was worse, the Dettoris’ story (“Visitors bemoan police response to 2 theft cases,” The Garden Island, Oct. 21) or Elaine Dunbar’s sanctimonious reply (“Stop Racial Profiling,” Letters, Oct. 30).
It reminded me of a story told by Tim Shriver, CEO of the Special Olympics. To paraphrase, he brought a group of local inner-city teenagers to Yale for a dialog about volunteerism.
After a tense exchange between town and gown, a Yale student said it sounded as if the locals didn’t want anything from those on campus. One local teen answered: “No, it’s not that we don’t want you. It’s that we don’t want you on your big white horse.”
I don’t know what Dettoris or Dunbar rode into town on, but it has left a disagreeable smell.
Anne Dimock, Kalaheo
