Letters for Friday, October 31, 2008

• Time for a Chang

• Don’t vote activist

• The ConCon and DOE

Time for a Chang

We urge Kauaians to strongly consider casting your vote for Dickie Chang for a seat on County Council.

His love for Kaua‘i and its people will lead to analytical judgment during decision processes. Mr. Chang is heavily invested in the Kaua’i community and we can trust his platform of leadership for legislative integrity. He is enthusiastic about his role and we thank him for his willingness to be of service to the island.

• Joel Whitley,  Lihu‘e

Don’t vote activist

For a couple of weeks now, several activists have written pleading for us to vote for their candidate, JoAnn Yukimura. 

One activist, who moved here this year, wrote of images of the last real tsunamis in 1946 and 1957. Now, activists usually know better than you or I and need to educate us, so I understand the need for all these letters. However, I’m not sure the activist record of achievement is what we want for our future. Having a crumbling, unsightly ruin, instead of a showplace as the gateway to Kapa‘a is the work of activists.

Losing an exciting and much-needed transportation option is the work of activists alone. Activists got us those tall black plastic fences to look at and their delaying tactics helped to create half finished work behind those fences that stand and wait. With activists, everything takes much longer and ends up costing exponentially more. That’s because, for them, a symbolic principle is worth more than common sense, getting things done, or a better life for you, me, and our children.

If that’s what you want, then by all means vote for her and the activist council candidates. I’d rather see the activists become the tail that doesn’t wag the dog.

ª Pete Antonson,  Wailua

The ConCon and DOE

Ah, now I get it. According to Roger Takabayashi, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, the reason a Constitutional Convention (ConCon) is being opposed by the local and national teachers’ unions is because a new amendment might do away with centralized control of Hawai‘i’s educational system.

Just about everybody in the state, who is not a schoolteacher and does not work for the Department of Education, thinks that centralized control of the school system is responsible for our state’s dismal performance across the educational spectrum. They also think that leaving the DOE in control of the school system will virtually ensure that nothing will be done — ever. The school board has shown that it is powerless and inapt, and the Legislature has proven over the decades that it does not have the political will to make the necessary changes.

That leaves a ConCon. We can’t wait another couple of decades to begin giving our children a decent education. Our children are not receiving the education and training they need to get good jobs and we are simply not getting our money’s worth. The children of teachers, who are in the public educational system, are also victims of a substandard system. Just like the rest of the children, they are being penalized by the objections to meaningful change by their parents and union officials like Roger Takabayashi.

Lets give the ConCon a try. It will not cost nearly as much as the naysayers indicate. If Big Island voters don’t like the proposed amendments to the Constitution, we can always vote “No.” But if we do like them, we may finally be able to do something about education in Hawai‘i by voting “Yes” on ConCon.

And here is another incredible benefit: An educated constituency is the foundation of good government. No wonder the politicians are running scared.

• Tom McAuliffe

Grassroot Institute of Hawai, Big Island